J.S. Bach Suites & Partitas

No. 321 of the ongoing  IITYWLTMT series of audio montages, which can be found in our archives at https://archive.org/details/pcast321

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For my third Blog and Podcast for August, and the last post before September and the pending recast of our Podcasting channel, I turn to a familiar composer: Johann Sebastian Bach.

In Bach-speak, the terms “suite” and “partita” kind of are synonymous, as they are typically sequences of courtly dance-themed movements. Today’s montage provides examples of this for several solo instruments and for orchestra.

Bach's third Orchestral Suite, composed in the first half of the 18th century, is set for three trumpets, timpani, two oboes, strings (two violin parts and a viola part), and basso continuo. In the second movement of the suite however only the strings and the continuo play. This is the only movement of the suite where all other instruments are silent. The music of the "Air" is written for solo violin, strings, and continuo. The interweaving melody lines of the high strings contrasts with the pronounced rhythmic drive in the bass.

In the late 19th century, violinist August Wilhelmj arranged the second movement of Bach's Suite for violin and an accompaniment of strings, piano or organ. On the score he had printed auf der G-Saite (on the G string) above the staff for the solo violin, which gave the arrangement its nickname.

Also featured in today’s montage are familiar suites/partitas for the cello and for keyboard. However, I added a pair of less-frequented suites and partitas for other solo instruments.

The BWV catalog identifies four suites (BWV 995, BWV 996, BWV 997 and BWV 1006a) as well as  a number of miscellaneous pieces for solo lute, often heard played on the guitar. Guitarist/lutist Clive Titmuss suggests, however, that “the evidence would be that Bach did not write any music specifically intended for solo lute.”

Bach wrote his lute pieces in a traditional score rather than in lute tablature, and some believe that Bach played his lute pieces on the keyboard. No manuscript by Bach himself of the Suite in E minor for Lute (played on today’s montage on the guitar by Julian Bream) is known to exist. However, in the collection of one of Bach's pupils, Johann Ludwig Krebs, there is one piece ("Praeludio – con la Suite da Gio: Bast. Bach") that has written aufs Lauten Werck ("for the lute-harpsichord") in unidentified handwriting.

Some argue that despite the annotation about the lute-harpsichord, the piece was meant to be played on the lute as demonstrated by the texture. Others argue that since the piece was written in E minor, it would be incompatible with the baroque lute which was tuned to D minor. Nevertheless, it may be played with other string instruments (such as the guitar, mandola or mandocello) and keyboard instruments, and the fifth movement bourrée is especially well-known among guitarists.

To complete the montage, the Partita in A minor for solo flute, BWV 1013, has an uncertain date of composition. The discoverer of the sole surviving manuscript of the partita, Karl Straube, believed it to be an autograph; however, more recently it has been shown that it was made by two copyists. Although their names are unknown, one appears to be identical with the principal scribe of another manuscript (containing the violin sonatas and partitas, BWV 1001–1006), which places this part of the copy of the Partita in the first half of the 1720s. In a Tuesday Blog, I shared a transcription of this partita with those for violin all played on the viola. Today’s performance, by James Galway, restores it in its intended form.

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