A smaller, highly expressive work attributed to Bach, focusing on chromaticism and voice-leading tensions. Its brevity masks a high degree of harmonic and emotional condensation.
Focus on the subtle weighting of voices to highlight the chromatic shifts.
Brich entzwei, mein armes Herze (BWV 444) is rated Henle level 3 of 9 — late beginner repertoire, roughly ABRSM grades 4–5. In the RCM system it corresponds to about level 6.
You should be comfortable at Henle level 3 — meaning you can already play level 2–3 pieces cleanly. Learning it one level early is possible as a stretch piece, but more than that usually leads to months of frustration.
A typical performance of Brich entzwei, mein armes Herze (BWV 444) lasts about 3 minutes.
Brich entzwei, mein armes Herze (BWV 444) is available as free public-domain sheet music on IMSLP — the score is linked directly from this page.