Few composers in history have exerted such
extraordinary and far-reaching influence on music as
Johann Sebastian Bach. But while many audiences know
and enjoy the “Brandenburg” Concertos, B-Minor
Mass, Well-Tempered Clavier, and other prevalent works,
not everyone is similarly acquainted with Bach’s vast
output for the organ. Some of his most important
compositions were written for that instrument, and
becoming more familiar with them can only intensify our
fervor for the great composer.(+)
Few composers in history have exerted such
extraordinary and far-reaching influence on music as
Johann Sebastian Bach. But while many audiences know
and enjoy the “Brandenburg” Concertos, B-Minor
Mass, Well-Tempered Clavier, and other prevalent works,
not everyone is similarly acquainted with Bach’s vast
output for the organ. Some of his most important
compositions were written for that instrument, and
becoming more familiar with them can only intensify our
fervor for the great composer.
The Trio Sonatas (BWVs 525-530) were written for the
organ or pedal clavichord (a practice instrument for
organists), these sonatas require the right and left
hands to play independently melodic lines on separate
keyboards, while the feet play the basso continuo.
According to Jacobs, “The organ sonatas are
disarmingly attractive and immediately appealing to the
listener, though they pose ferocious interpretive and
technical demands for the player.” A significant
challenge of performing these works is one of sheer
coordination: playing three lines of music on two
keyboards and pedal with all four limbs. “There
isn’t much for the performer to cling on to,”
Jacobs said. “It’s a little like walking on
eggshells.” By contrast, in other weightier organ and
keyboard works, Bach sometimes employs thicker four- or
five-part counterpoint, offering a more idiomatically
conceived keyboard texture.
Portions of this work pop up again in Bach's Triple
Concerto (for flute, violin, harpsichord, and strings)
as well as in arrangements by Mozart for string trio.
The opening Andante begins with a spidery eight-bar
theme in the upper register with, by the standards of
these trio sonatas, a rather rudimentary pedal
accompaniment. Soon a second melodic line arrives in
imitation of the first, thereby establishing the work's
credentials as a trio sonata (two melody lines plus
accompaniment). The central Adagio e dolce shifts to F
major for a measured, reserved yet uncloyingly sweet
movement that may have influenced Mozart's later music
for glass harmonica. The final Vivace, back in D minor,
again offers two upper voices in imitation, now with a
more elaborate pedal accompaniment in a deft triplet
rhythm.
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