Bach compositions3/31/2023 Prelude, BWV 894, Andante (from Sonata for violin solo, BWV 1003), Fugue, BWV 894 The monumental fugue is based on a subject featuring two chromatic figures, building to a mighty finish. The final page, making use of descending chromatic harmony, is of the most striking originality. Brilliant passage work cedes to the most dramatic recitative, and then to complex arpeggiated episodes. The Fantasy is extraordinarily inventive harmonically, certainly, but even more so in Bach’s use of varying textures at the keyboard. There is nothing in this work that isn’t exceptional. Of a rustic nature, the contrast between the lower ( tutti, with the three registers of strings engaged) keyboard, and the upper (solo 8' stop) creates the effect suggested by the title.Īlready celebrated in Bach’s lifetime, the Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue was likely composed in Köthen, when Bach was in the service of Prince Leopold. The closing movement, unique in Bach's opus, is entitled Echo. This gigue takes its inspiration from the French masters before Bach, especially François Couperin. The great majority of Bach's gigues are fugues. The gigue is very much in the French style (like the 7th variation of the Goldberg Variations – the 4th book of the Clavier Ubung). Its partner, remaining in the home key of b minor, features fleeting 16th note groups. A rather unusual pair of bourrées follows : the first (as with the other similar movements, carrying the notation forte) is a very lively, two-part texture. An exquisite sarabande follows, composed in four-part chorale-style writing. The second passepied, in B Major, is of a nearly crystlaline delicacy. Again, the first of these is of a rich, orchestral texture. The trio, in D Major, is marked piano and is of a much more delicate character. As in the overture, Bach notes a forte for the first of the gavottes, of a robust character. Then follows a gavotte with trio, the first of three such movements in this work. After the overture, he dispenses with the allemande altogether, beginning with a rather grave courante. Here, as with the orchestral suites, Bach frees himself from this routine. Extra movements – gavotte, bourée, menuet (amongst others) usually appear between the sarabande and the gigue, which will generally end the suite. In all of Bach's suites (the six French suites, the six English suites, the six partitas), Bach follows a predetermined order of movements: the principal movements are the allemande, courante, sarabande, and gigue (although the partita in c minor does not have a gigue). After the fugue, the opening material returns. As in the Italian Concerto, Bach indicates the changes of keyboard with "forte" and "piano." As in a concerto grosso, these dynamics create the impression alternation between the tutti and solo groups. The opening section features the dotted rhythms associated with the Lullian style overture, one of Bach's rare uses of this style in his keyboard opus (the opening movement of the D Major partita being the other principal example). The work begins with the overture proper – a noble movement of rather tragic character. The Italian Concerto is in F major, and finally, the French Overture is in b minor ("H" in German). Transposed to b minor, the key signatures of the works comprising the 1st and 2nd volumes of the Clavier Ubung follow a logical order : the six partitas are in B flat major ("B" in German parlance), c minor, a minor, D Major, G Major, e minor. Bach produced an earlier version of this work, in c minor. It may very well have been intended for publication as the seventh keyboard partita. This Ouverture, really a partita, shares a kinship with the four orchestral overtures in many respects. Johann Sebastian Bach published the Ouverture nach französicher Art, BWV 831 in 1735, as part of the second volume of the Clavier Ubung, along with the Italian Concerto. The sombre mood is quickly dispelled by the exuberant final movement, wherein Bach obliges the performer to rapidly shift from one keyboard to the other. The exceptional second movement features a florid cantilena in the right hand, accompanied by steady eighth notes in the left. The rather stately main theme of the first movement is juxtaposed with livelier rhythmic passages. This work is surely the finest of tributes to Bach’s affinity for the Italian style of concerto writing - an affinity he showed in transcribing concerti by Vivaldi, Marcello, and others for solo keyboard.īach uses the two keyboards of the harpsichord (and he specifically indicates such an instrument for both of the works in the second volume of the Clavier-Übung) to create contrasts between tutti and solo passages. Among the best known of Bach’s solo harpsichord works, the Concerto each Italienischen Gusto was published in 1735, as the first half of the second volume of the Clavier-Übung (with the French Overture as the second half).
0 Comments
Leave a Reply.AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |