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.
The first work in J.S. Bach's Sei Solo a Violino senza
Basso accompagnato, Libro Primo (Six Solos for violin
without accompaniment, Book 1, all composed in 1720 --
pity that he never fashioned a "Book 2") is also the
most frequently played of the lot: the Sonata No. 1 in
G minor, BWV 1001. Of the three sonatas in the volume
(there are three sonatas and three partitas), the G
minor is technically the simplest and also the
shortest, making it a good entry-point for the
violinist looking to tackle this magnificent volume of
music. However, its greater accessibility vis-à-vis
the other two sonatas in no way implies that it is
somehow a less sophisticated piece of music -- indeed,
its riches run as deep as those of any of the other
pages in the volume, the great Chaconne of BWV 1004
included. Each of the three sonatas for solo violin is
set in the slow-fast-slow-fast four-movement pattern of
the sonata da chiesa, and in each the second movement
is a fugue. In BWV 1001 the movements are: Adagio,
Fuga, Siciliana, and Presto.
The Adagio is a wildly, but very elegantly, embellished
progression of harmonies. All the embellishments -- and
embellishments mean not only little turns,
appoggiaturas, and the like, but also whole melodic
gestures, scales, and small arpeggios -- are written
out quite carefully by Bach -- the result is a work
that might sound improvised but is most definitely not.
The G minor Fuga is the most compact of the three
fugues in the volume (and note that these are not in
fact fugues in the proper sense of the word, but rather
a kind of fugue/Baroque-concerto hybrid form). It was
transcribed for lute by Bach at some later time (BWV
1000). The Siciliana is a gentle thing in B flat major;
the main melody is played in the lowest register of the
instrument while a warm commentary unfolds in the upper
register. The Presto finale is a moto perpetuo in
sixteenth notes whose 3/8 meter has at times a hint of
cross-rhythm to it.
PARTITION