The piece consists of an introduction with scale passages, an Allegro, followed by an Adagio, then a fugue and a toccata-like coda, and finally a gigue-like fugue and coda. While it has four sections if one follows the double bar lines, a greater variety of compositional styles are juxtaposed within its structure.

In the Allegro section, the opening theme recurs like a rondo. During this, the right and left hands exchange their respective passages as if playing catch.

In the Adagio, the brightness of the Allegro gradually fades, and the recitation is interrupted by rapid descending scales, progressing through various keys towards a minor-key fugue. It should be noted that the tremolo in both hands seen here is a figuration Bach used only in his early period, and he would have removed it if he had the opportunity to revise it in later years. Therefore, it is presumed that both the composition and revision of this work took place at a relatively early stage.

The first fugue features a chromatic subject and two countersubjects. These three appear in various voices, and invertible counterpoint is strictly applied. Eventually, the scale passages that sharply intervened in the Adagio reappear, initiating a journey through keys that gradually increases in brightness, leading to a lively fugue in 6/16 time.

This section features a subject that moves back and forth in intervals of a third and a galloping countersubject, but it is shaped more by harmonic changes than by counterpoint. The harmony, which progresses through parallel minor relationships and relationships of a third rather than the tonic-dominant fifth relationship, sounds extremely novel. Although concealed by skillful modulations and continuous sixteenth notes, the key reaches as far as G-sharp minor.

In the coda, triads dissolve into arpeggios at double speed, and the music accelerates, rushing down the keyboard, but then ascends again with a rational cadence to conclude.

It should be noted that the tremolo in both hands seen in the Adagio section is a figuration Bach used only in his early period. Bach in his later years did not favor tremolos and would remove them if he had the opportunity to revise. Therefore, it is presumed that both the composition and revision of this work took place at a relatively early stage.