Sonatas and partitas for solo violin
The sonatas and partitas for solo violin ( BWV 1001–1006), in the original title Sei Solo a Violino senza Basso accompagnato , are six works by Johann Sebastian Bach that do not have any accompaniment. The compilation includes three sonatas and three partitas - Bach uses the generic names “Sonata” and “Partita” in his fair copy. The polyphonic notation, which represents a highly developed polyphony on a single instrument, is unusual .
Emergence
Bach wrote the fair copy in 1720, during his time as Kapellmeister in Köthen . Nevertheless, today it is assumed that at least some of the early versions were made in Weimar (1708 to 1717). Comparisons of styles show that all compositions were written in the six years from 1714 to 1720 and then summarized in calligraphic handwriting.
Music for the unaccompanied violin was not exactly common in the 17th and 18th centuries, but it was also not really uncommon. Bach may have used the Six Suites for Solo Violin by Johann Paul von Westhoff, printed in 1696, as a model, which he must have known personally as both were members of the Weimar court orchestra . Bach's friend Johann Georg Pisendel also wrote a solo sonata, but the direction of the influence is unknown.
It is unknown who the musician was who first performed the sonatas and partitas for solo violin . There were suspicions that it was the violin virtuosos Johann Georg Pisendel or Jean-Baptiste Volumier , and Joseph Spieß, the concertmaster of the orchestra in Köthen, was also accepted. Since there was a need for virtuoso violin music at both the Weimar court and the Köthener Hof, it makes sense to think of Bach himself as an interpreter - he was certainly not appointed concertmaster in 1714 without a reason. Analogous to the virtuoso concert arrangements for harpsichord and organ solo, it is easy to imagine that he wrote performance pieces here for his own use. The careful handwriting with its well thought-out leaf areas also suggests practical use.
construction
Bach did not opt for the obvious arrangement according to ascending keys (e.g. g - a - b - C - d - E), but varied this in favor of an alternating sequence of the two genres.
The sonatas follow the form of a Sonata da Chiesa , each consisting of four movements in the sequence “slow, fast, slower, faster”. The first movement is a free prelude with an improvisational character; it is followed by a more or less strict, always four-part fugue in straight beat. Bach evidently regarded these two movements as belonging together; this follows from the instruction to turn the page quickly (VS = volti subito ), in two cases from the time signature of the following movement at the end of the first and in two cases from the dominant ending of the prelude. This is followed by a calm, vocal middle movement, mostly in the parallel key, in which Bach similarly ensured a quick connection to the final movement in the score. This represents a virtuoso sweep in three time.
The first two partitas are based on the sequence of movements established in Germany by Johann Jakob Froberger ( Allemande - Courante - Sarabande - Gigue ); however, the first replaces the final movement with a bourrée and allows each movement a free variation; the second adds a chaconne as the fifth movement . The third partita is a later, clearly freer form of the suite.
Impact history
Bach later arranged individual movements for the lute, harpsichord or organ (see below).
The sonatas and partitas were first published in print in 1843 by Ferdinand David . Parts of it were recorded for the first time in 1903 by Joseph Joachim , the complete set was recorded for the first time in the mid-1930s by the young violin virtuoso Yehudi Menuhin . These works became known in concert primarily through Ferdinand David, who occasionally performed them with piano accompaniment improvised by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy . Inspired by this, Robert Schumann composed similar piano accompaniments.
Johannes Brahms created a piano arrangement of the D minor Chaconne for the left hand, Ferruccio Busoni's version for both hands ultimately became the most famous and most virtuoso piano version. Both were preceded by two arrangements for solo piano and for orchestra by Joachim Raff , who also transcribed other movements from the partitas for piano. Even Leopold Godowsky had edited the first three solo piano works.
Bach's pupil Johann Friedrich Agricola had already reported in 1775: "Your author often played it himself on the clavichord, and added as much of harmony as he found necessary."
After the publications of Arnold Schering and especially of Albert Schweitzer about Bach at the beginning of the 20th century, efforts were made to construct a round arch that would allow perfect chordal playing on string instruments. From the 1930s onwards, such round arches were built for the violin and were mainly used for the interpretation of Bach's sonatas and partitas.
Individual works
Sonata I in G minor, BWV 1001
- Adagio in
G minor - Fugue ( Allegro ) in
G minor - Siciliana 12/8 in B flat major
- Presto 3/8 in G minor
Details in the design of the fugue, such as the extensive appendix to the last development, suggest that it was composed in 1714, probably immediately after Bach's appointment as concertmaster at the beginning of March. The Presto could represent a first reflection of Antonio Vivaldi's music and in this case would have to be dated to around the beginning of 1715.
Bach later arranged the fugue for lute (BWV 1000, also in G minor) and for organ (BWV 539, in D minor).
Opening of the Prestos:
Partita I in B minor, BWV 1002
- Allemanda B minor
- Double B minor - Corrente 3/4 B minor
- Double 3/4 Presto B minor - Sarabande 3/4 in B minor
- Double 9/8 in B minor - Tempo di Borea in B minor
- Double inB minor
It has already been mentioned that this partita replaces the typical, final gigue with a bourrée - this connects it with the suite for flute solo in A minor, BWV 1013 .
In the absence of comparable sentences that can be reliably classified in time, dating is not easy; the partita tends to have arisen after Partita II (D minor), but certainly before Partita III (E major).
Sonata II in A minor, BWV 1003
- Grave in A minor
- Fugue 2/4 in A minor
- Andante 3/4 in C major
- Allegro in A minor
Here, too, the design of the fugue with its frequent quintessential sequences and the ritornello- processing interludes was used for a chronological classification of the work; accordingly it would have been made around 1716.
Bach later arranged the entire work for piano (BWV 964, in D minor).
Partita II in D minor, BWV 1004
- Allemanda in D minor
- Corrente 3/4 in D minor
- Sarabanda 3/4 in D minor
- Giga 12/8 in D minor
- Ciaccona 3/4 in D minor
The complete lack of case-fifths has led to the assumption that this could be the earliest work in the cycle. The concluding Chaconne, the scope of which is beyond the scope of the rest of the work, could well have been added later by Bach.
This final movement is probably the best-known example in music history of a chaconne, in which free variations run over a multi-bar, repeated bass figure. The set comprises 32 variations (if you count two that only use half the bass passage as one) and is further structured by the fact that there are ten major variations from the middle.
Sonata III in C major, BWV 1005
- Adagio 3/4 in C major
- Fugue ( Alla breve ) in C major
- Largo in F major
- Allegro assai 3/4 in C major
The da-capo arrangement of the fugue and its clear proportions make it likely that it was made towards the end of the Weimar period, near the time of the Violin Concerto in E major .
Bach later arranged the complete sonata for piano (in G major, BWV 968).
Partita III in E major, BWV 1006
- Preludio 3/4 in E major
- Loure 6/4 in E major
- Gavotte en Rondeaux in E major
Minuet I 3/4 in E major - Minuet II 3/4 in E major- Bourrée 2 in E major
- Gigue 6/8 in E major
The work follows a virtuoso prelude with a free sequence of dance movements; Such sequences of sentences could go back to the influence of the first two books of the Pièces de Clavecin by François Couperin . With the classic, basically four-movement German piano suite, this partita only has the gigue as the final movement. The mixture of clear four- and eight-bar groups with irregularly built passages suggests that it was composed at the beginning of 1719, thus already in Köthen - as the last of the six works.
In the course of the general reworking of his violin literature into piano works, Bach later used the Preludio in Leipzig as the opening movement for a wedding cantata Herr Gott, Ruler of all things (BWV 120a); it was transposed to D major and supplemented by an accompanying orchestra of strings with two colla parte oboes, three trumpets and timpani; the solo part is played here by the organ. Since this version is one measure shorter, it is assumed that it goes back to an earlier version of BWV 1006. A short time later, this movement got its permanent place as the opening infonia of the 1731 cantata 29 (BWV 29) We thank you, God, we thank you .
Independently of this, Bach also arranged the same movement for another instrument, probably lute ( BWV 1006a ).
Web links
- Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin (Bach) : Sheet music and audio files in the International Music Score Library Project
Individual evidence
- ↑ Correct Italian would be Sei soli (or Sei Soli if the noun is capitalized). It could also be a play on words, since Italian Be solo can be translated as “You are alone”.
- ↑ Christoph Wolff , Johann Sebastian Bach , 2nd edition 2007. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main, ISBN 978-3-596-16739-5
- ↑ This and all of the following information on the dating according to Dominik Sackmann : Triumph of the Spirit over Matter - Conjectures about Johann Sebastian Bach's "Sei Solo a Violino senza Basso accompagnato ..." , Stuttgart 2008, ISBN 978-3-89948-109-9 , p 31-33.
- ↑ Dominik Sackmann: Why did Bach compose the sonatas and partitas for solo violin BWV 1001-1006? In: Theaterforum.ch (Her.): Project 2005: Johann Sebastian Bach Sonatas and Partitas for Violin Solo, Premiere: May 27, 2005 , Theater Winterthur, p. 5 ff: http://www.theaterforum.ch/uploads/ media / Vortrag_Dominik_Sackmann.pdf ( Memento from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Pauline H. Nobes: A Catalog of Unaccompanied Solo Violin Repertory before ca.1750 - An Annotated Compilation , Ipswich 2000
- ↑ Christoph Wolff, Johann Sebastian Bach , 2nd edition 2007. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main, ISBN 978-3-596-16739-5 , p. 148
- ↑ Dominik Sackmann: Triumph des Geistes über die Materie ... , Stuttgart 2008, ISBN 978-3-89948-109-9 , pp. 38–50
- ^ Works by Leopold Godowsky : sheet music and audio files in the International Music Score Library Project ("Violin Partita", "Violin Sonata" in the Arrangements tab .)
- ^ Johann Friedrich Agricola, mixed music, by Joh [.] Friedr. Reichardt. Riga, bey Joh. Fr. Hartknoch, 1773. in kl. Fol. 20 sheets. In: Friedrich Nicolai (Ed.), General German Library. The third and twentieth volume, the second piece , Berlin and Stettin 1775, p. 527.
- ^ Wolfgang Schmieder, Bach works directory. Thematic-systematic directory of the musical works of Johann Sebastian Bach , Wiesbaden 1950