Johann Sebastian Bach was better known as a virtuoso
organist than as a composer in his day. His sacred
music, organ and choral works, and other instrumental
music had an enthusiasm and seeming freedom that
concealed immense rigor. Bach's use of counterpoint was
brilliant and innovative, and the immense complexities
of his compositional style -- which often included
religious and numerological symbols that seem to fit
perfectly together in a profound puzzle of special
codes -- still amaze musici...(+)
Johann Sebastian Bach was better known as a virtuoso
organist than as a composer in his day. His sacred
music, organ and choral works, and other instrumental
music had an enthusiasm and seeming freedom that
concealed immense rigor. Bach's use of counterpoint was
brilliant and innovative, and the immense complexities
of his compositional style -- which often included
religious and numerological symbols that seem to fit
perfectly together in a profound puzzle of special
codes -- still amaze musicians today. Many consider him
the greatest composer of all time.
As unique and extraordinary as each of Bach's other
five cello suites are, the Suite No. 6 is perhaps the
most ambitious, strangest, richest of all. For this
suite, Bach chose the key of D major, the triumphant
key of his Magnificat and the "Dona nobis pacem" which
concludes the Mass in B minor. He also calls for a
five-stringed variant on the cello, though the work is
playable on a conventional (four-stringed) cello. With
these resources, Bach calls for resounding joy,
carefully implied harmonies, and a rich, dense
counterpoint that tests the cellist's skills to the
maximum.
The Prelude, in a steady triple meter, is the only
place in the set where Bach employed the dynamic
markings (forte and piano), to simulate the effect of a
Vivaldi-like echo sonata with phrases calling,
responding, and gradually growing and developing into a
fast-moving and playful cadenza and an untroubled
recapitulation. With each suite Bach continues his
progression away from simple dance-like structural
roots. Melodic leaps are introduced in the fourth
suite, chords in the fifth suite, and a subtle mix of
chords, leaps, and implied harmonies, which become as
important as the melodies, in the sixth suite. Indeed,
this suite comes close in its technical challenges to
the polyphonic simulations that Bach created in the
partitas and sonatas for solo violin.
Joy takes many forms in this suite, from the
echo-sonata textures of the Prelude to the stately
grace and implied bass harmonies of the Allemande and
Sarabande, and the homophonic march-like Courante. But
the most unusual movement here must be the double
Gavotte, where the subsections call for wide chords and
melody over a ground bass, almost resembling a
hurdy-gurdy playing at a peasant celebration. Its like
wouldn't be heard again until Zoltán Kodály took up
solo cello writing some 200 years later. The Gigue
culminates this suite, and this great cycle, with a
duet for solo cello, where the two interlocking voices
gradually climb the scale, ascending to a high climax
and sweeping back down to finish.
PARTITION