J.S.Bach’s Badinerie transcribed for Cello & Piano.

The badinerie (also spelled ’battinerie’; from French ’jesting’) is best known for its designation as the final movement of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Orchestral Suite No. 2 in B minor. The movement is light in mood, and is structured in a binary form; it is cast in a swift 2/4 metre beginning on the upbeat, much in the manner of a fast gavotte.

Badineries also appear in French ouvertures by Christoph Graupner and Georg Philipp Telemann, also in fast tempos and in 2/4 or alla breve metre. The presence of an upbeat is not a consistent feature; examples by Telemann include the upbeat (including one example which is essentially a gavotte), while Graupner’s do not.

While the designation ’badinerie’ is not common, its Italian counterpart ’scherzo’ appears more frequently.