Six sonatas for violin and harpsichord, BWV 1014–1019

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Manuscript of the first movement of BWV 1019, third version. Copy by Johann Christoph Altnikol .

The six sonatas for violin and harpsichord, BWV 1014-1019 are six trio sonatas for violin and obbligato harpsichord by Johann Sebastian Bach . They were written during Bach's stay in Koethen , between 1717 and 1723. These are the first violin sonatas in music history in which the keyboard instrument emerges from the role of mere accompaniment in the figured bass and becomes an equal partner of the violin.

The first five sonatas follow the scheme of the four-movement church sonata , with a slow introductory movement, a fast fugal second movement, a slow third movement, mostly in the parallel key, and a lively final movement. The final version of the last sonata contains five movements .

construction

Sonata I in B minor, BWV 1014

The “bizarre, uncomfortable and melancholy” character of the key of B minor , as described by Bach's contemporary Johann Mattheson , is already impressively clear in the opening movement of the BWV 1014 sonata : the harpsichord opens with a full-bodied prelude of figures of sighs in thirds and sixths a triad figure in the bass. The violin begins above it in soprano register with sustained notes and short attached gestures, before taking over the third and sixth parallels in double stops. The dialogue between harpsichord and violin unfolds over the constantly recurring bass motif with fantastic freedom.

The following fugue in the second movement corresponds formally to a da capo aria : the opening part is repeated at the end. The andante of the third movement in D major, a chant interspersed with “speaking” pauses in thirds and sixths, has a very cantabic effect. The two-part fourth movement draws its motor energy from the tone repetition of the theme, which the harpsichord plays around with the triad refractions of the counter-subject . In the second part of the finale, triads and tone repetitions wander into the left hand, which gives the movement an almost choleric “ drive ”.

Sonata II in A major, BWV 1015

In contrast to the “uncomfortable” character of the first sonata for violin and harpsichord, the A major sonata is cheerful and open from the start. A lovely opening movement in a pastoral style is followed by an allegro in the tone of an Italian concerto . Its theme, which is worked out freely, could come from a concert by Antonio Vivaldi . In the third movement, an Andante in F sharp minor, Bach uses a contrapuntal trick: over a continuously advancing sixteenth bass in staccato , the two upper voices follow each other in a canon all'unisono, i.e. H. in line . Finally, the two-part finale, a Presto fugue, which condenses towards the narrowing of the subject without ever appearing strenuous or serious , also has a concertante character .

Sonata III in E major, BWV 1016

The first movement of the E major sonata combines a full-bodied harpsichord accompaniment in parallel thirds and sixths with the richly decorated solo violin part, in the style of an Adagio by Arcangelo Corelli . In free "declamation" the violin performs an arioso , as it is also known from Bach cantatas - admittedly more ornate and with a greater melodic range than would be possible with a singing voice. The effect is of sublime magnitude, the worthy introduction to a sonata, which is the most splendid of the six series and which bears eloquent testimony to Bach's violin skills. The second movement is a three-part fugue with a theme that is unusually gallant for Bach , which could also have come from Georg Philipp Telemann and which even appears narrowly at the end .

The third movement, a lyrical passacaglia , consists of three components: a basso ostinato with a descending minor tetrachord , eighth chords in the right hand of the harpsichord and a melody in sixteenths that alternate between violin and harpsichord and, in ever new dialogic variants, an intimate duel let arise. The half-close at the end of this movement leads to the finale, which begins with a virtuoso sixteenth-note theme in violin and harpsichord. Bar 35 surprises with a new theme in triplets , which is then subtly overlaid with the first theme until it celebrates its brilliant recapitulation .

Sonata IV in C minor, BWV 1017

The C minor sonata begins with a two-part, Italian-inspired Siciliano in 6/8 time, in which the aria “Mercy You” from Bach's St. Matthew Passion is anticipated. The theme of the following three-part fugue in the second movement is characterized by an unusual length, a modulation in E flat major, tense intervals and a rich rhythm. The third movement, an Adagio in E flat major, has a relaxing effect. The violin over quiet triplets of the harpsichord swings in four bars, separated by pauses phrases over and over again from the deep to the middle position on. The final, two-part Allegro takes up the Italian character of the first movement. Its themes are based on Tomaso Albinoni's violin sonatas , which Bach particularly valued.

Sonata V in F minor, BWV 1018

The F minor sonata is a profound sound speech in the sense of Bach's contemporary Mattheson. The first movement, a baroque lament , has come down to us under this title from Bach's pupil Kirnberger . This lament is laid out in the form and ductus of an aria : after a long, three-part prelude in the harpsichord, the violin begins with sustained notes and a melody with legato arcs, like the soprano in a Bach cantata . Towards the end of this movement, a passage from the introductory aria “ I want to wear the cross with pleasure ” from Bach's cantata BWV 56 of the same name is quoted or anticipated.

The following Allegro is a three-part fugue in which the “black, helpless melancholy” (Mattheson) of the first movement is spun on. In the third movement, the violin plays a series of expressive minor chords in double stops , which are embellished by the harpsichord in free sequences of thirty-second notes . The concluding Vivace is again a fugato , but with such a piercing chromatic theme in syncopation that there is no harmonic or rhythmic point of rest. The sonata seems to close in the same desperation in which it began.

Sonata VI in G major, BWV 1019

Audio sample 3rd movement Allegro, harpsichord solo

BWV1019 3 start.jpeg

The G major sonata, which closes the cycle, has a special position. Bach rewrote it three times. The first version contained six movements, with the last movement repeating the opening movement. Two movements from this version, a harpsichord solo and a violin solo with basso continuo in E minor, were taken over by Bach in his piano practice as the courante and gavotte of the 6th partita . In the second five-movement version, these two movements were missing; instead, Bach inserted an aria from the cantata BWV 120 as Cantabile ma un poco Adagio . In the third, final version, this cantabile was replaced by a new harpsichord solo in E minor, and the adagio of the fourth movement was also newly composed. The theme of the final movement is known from the wedding cantata " Weichet nur, saddened shadows ", it sounds there to the aria "Phöbus rushes with fast horses through the newborn world". Apparently, after the hardship of so many serious fugues in minor, the composer allowed himself a joke, similar to the Quodlibet at the end of the Goldberg Variations .

Reception history

Several copies of the six sonatas for violin and harpsichord have come down to us from Bach's students, including Kirnberger, Altnikol and Agricola . Kirnberger later became the music teacher of Princess Anna Amalia , the sister of Frederick the Great . The Amalienbibliothek, today part of the Berlin State Library , contains numerous manuscripts of Bach's works, including a handwritten copy of the sonatas for violin and harpsichord. Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach wrote in 1774 about his father's violin sonatas: "There are some Adagii in them that cannot be sung more today."

The first Bach biographer, Johann Nikolaus Forkel , described the “Six Sonatas for the Clavier with Accompaniment of an Obbligato Violin” in 1802 as “extremely singable and full of character. The violin part requires a master. Bach knew the possibilities of this instrument and spared it just as little as he spared his piano. ”Around the same time, the first printed edition of the sonatas appeared in Zurich , edited by Hans Georg Nägeli . The Polish violinist Karol Lipiński , a Paganini student, created a new edition of the sonatas by CF Peters in 1841 in collaboration with the pianist Carl Czerny . A new edition of the first three sonatas was created in 1864 under the supervision of violinist Ferdinand David .

During the Bach renaissance in the 19th century , Bach's chamber music works also became famous outside the German-speaking countries . In England the organist Samuel Wesley performed Bach's violin sonatas with the German violinist Johann Peter Salomon . Claude Debussy published BWV 1014-1019 in the publishing house of A. Durand in Paris.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Johann Mattheson: The newly opened orchestra . Hamburg 1713, p. 251, koelnklavier.de , accessed April 3, 2020.
  2. ^ Sonata in B minor, BWV 1014 Chamber Music Leader
  3. ^ Karl Böhmer: Sonata in A major, BWV 1015 Chamber Music Leader
  4. ↑ a b Sonata in E major, BWV 1016 Chamber Music Leader
  5. ^ Sonata in C minor, BWV 1017 Chamber Music Leader
  6. ↑ a b Sonata in F minor, BWV 1018 Chamber Music Leader
  7. ^ JS Bach: 6 Sonatas for Violin and Harpsichord, Volume 2. Wiener Urtext Edition. Foreword p. IV.
  8. ^ Sonata in G major, BWV 1019 Chamber Music Leader
  9. ↑ About Johann Sebastian Bach's life, art and artwork

literature

  • Jürgen Asmus: On the thematic work and formation of form in Bach's slow sonata movements (sonatas for violin and harpsichord obbligato, BWV 1014-1019) , in Reinhard Szeskus (ed.): Johann Sebastian Bach's Traditionsraum (research collective 'Johann Sebastian Bach' at Karl-Marx -University of Leipzig). Bach studies vol. 9, Breitkopf & Härtel, 1986. pp. 151-164
  • Alfred Dürr : On Hans Eppstein's “Studies on JS Bach's Sonatas for a Melody Instrument and Obbligato Harpsichord”. In: Die Musikforschung , Volume 21, Issue 3, 1968. pp. 332–340.
  • Hans Eppstein: On the problem of JS Bach's sonata for violin and harpsichord in G major (BWV 1019) . Archive for Musicology , Vol. 27, pp. 217–242.
  • Frieder Rempp: Reflections on the chronology of the three versions of the Sonata in G major for violin and concert harpsichord (BWV 1019) , in M. Staehelin (Ed.): The time that makes days and years: On the chronology of the work of JS Bach. Göttingen 2001. pp. 169-183.

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