The beginner version drops the second violin entirely; this one puts it back — the right hand carries two lines at once, and the canon's chase becomes audible for the first time. 4:01, with the full piano score on screen, note by note.
Something follows behind, a step late, on the same road
When the right hand carries both lines, you start to hear something following — a step behind, on exactly the same road. It never catches up and never falls away.
Both lines stay in their original register with no transposition, so they really are stacked together rather than separated high and low. The best thing about this version is that permanent near-miss.
A hand presses pitches, not voices
It looks as though the right hand has to be two people at once. It does not — a hand presses pitches, not voices. The median distance between the two lines is six semitones, comfortably inside one hand most of the time.
The strain is at the widest points: for roughly a tenth of the piece the two lines are more than fourteen semitones apart, and the thumb and little finger have to stretch. Those spots are worth isolating; the rest simply plays.
We rate this 5 out of 5, the hardest of the four versions.
Other ways to hear it
The same piece exists here in four scorings: solo beginner (playable with two hands), this one (two lines in the right hand), two pianos, and piano four hands.
For more of one hand doing two jobs at once: Bach's Invention No. 1.
About this arrangement
Where it comes from
Mutopia Project, "Canon per 3 Violini e Basso" — originally scored for three violins and basso continuo, four voices in all. Engraved by Michael Fischer v. Mollard from the IMSLP edition in LilyPond, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0.
Why it was arranged this way
The second violin is put back on top of the entry-level version: the right hand carries both the first and second violin lines, the left hand walks the ground bass on its own. Voice crossing inside a single hand is not a physical obstacle — a hand presses pitches, not voices, and the two lines sit a fourth apart on average. All three voices therefore stay at original pitch with no transposition, and the canon’s chase becomes audible for the first time. The cost is two lines of sixteenth notes in one hand.
