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William Hoffman wrote (November 27, 2019):
Bach's accompanied sonatas for violin involve a superior set of six with harpsichord, BWV 1014-19 (three-stave), and two with continuo, BWV 1021 and 1023 (two-stave), http://bach-cantatas.com/NVD/BWV1014-1023.htm. The set originated in later Cöthen (1720-23) and was updated in Leipzig with the first five in sonata da chiesa sequence (slow-fast-slow-fast), BWV 1014-18, embracing a wide variety of ritornello, binary dance, da-capo, and through-composed structures," as well as fugal elements, says Robin Stowell in his summary essay.1 The sixth sonata, BWV 1019, in three distinct versions completed in Leipzig, is an extended, five-movement hybrid sonata in palindrome (mirror) form with dance-style movements and a keyboard solo. Bach had perfected the Italian trio sonata form (two treble, one bass part; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trio_sonata) with the chamber music emphasis on "instruments of equal importance" as a duo sonata, observes violinist Abram Loft, in the classical sonata, trio and quartet textures.2 The violin sonatas also involve Bach transcriptions of the music of others, BWV 1025, and the possible use of materials of others in his own compositions, BWV 1021. Bach led the way with music for the violin family (violin and violoncello) as these string instruments replaced the softer viola da gamba family in the larger domain of the church and recital hall and became the foundation of the classical orchestra in the concert hall.
At the same time, Bach uses diverse ingredients in all manner of dialogue between violin and accompaniment, where "considerable variety of effect is achieved," says Loft. He characterizes the six violin duo works by their key schemes: 1. B minor, serious (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTtSLg3HzRo); 2. A major, tranquil, with bright overtones (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0D5aF0yxnk); 3. E major, noble, jazzy, brilliant (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZncccdqTfA); 4. C minor, lamenting, dark, impassioned (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhtcUKjNAGs); 5. F minor, studious, the most "academic" of the six pieces (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVemQvcLy64); and 6. G major, sturdy, determined, hearty (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C93Tg81zAx0). The movements reveal "much contrast in voicing" from "solo instrument with accompaniment to full four-part setting, suggestions of quintet, and even of small orchestra," comments Loft (Ibid.: 112). "The two authentic 'continuo sonatas' [BWV 1021, 1023, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WV0tCuZQP7A, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZut0eMD8mM] are probably of later origin," dating to about 1730+, he says.
Violin Music Analyzed
Bach's chamber music for violin was first analyzed in the modern edition of the Neue Bach Ausgabe in 1958 and again in the new, revised edition of 2014 (https://www.baerenreiter.com/en/shop/product/details/BA5937-01/),3 because "much new information has arisen regarding the analysis and evaluation of the sources, with direct repercussions for the musical text," says Peter Wollny. This new edition with the unaccompanied violin sonatas and partitas, BWV 1001-1006, omits "the other scattered pieces of chamber music" found in the 2006 NBA Various Chamber Music Works, VI/5, Klaus Hofmann, which includes the Sonata in F Major for Violin and Obbligato Cembalo, BWV 1022; the Sonata in G Major for Transverse Flute, Violin, and Continuo, BWV 1038; the Fugue in G Minor for Violin and Continuo, BWV 1026; and the Suite in A Major for Violin and Obbligato Cembalo after a lute sonata of Silvius Leopold Weiß, BWV 1025 (https://www.baerenreiter.com/en/shop/product/details/BA5295_41/: Content).
Bach's first extended work was as a violinist at the Weimar Court in 1703 and again as concertmaster in 1708-1717, and was steeped in the Italian and German styles of violin playing as the primary ensemble instrument. His earliest violin composition is the Sonata in E minor with continuo, BWV 1023 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZut0eMD8mM, https://www.bach-digital.de/receive/BachDigitalSource_source_00002728), says Stephen Daw.4 The form is derived from a combination of the sonata da chiesa and the keyboard dance suites of Johann Jakob Froberger (1616-67, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Jakob_Froberger), with elements of allemande and gigue. The earliest extant Bach chamber music is the "Fugue in G minor," BWV 1026 for violin and continuo (https://www.bach-digital.de/receive/BachDigitalSource_source_00001752, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWcbOdKBkso), and is part of a lost Weimar work, says Nicholas Kenyon,5 citing Christoph Wolff. The set of six virtuoso violin sonatas may have been composed for Dresden violinist Georg Johann Pisendel (1687-1755), says Colin Tinley.6 Another possibility was Bach's Cöthen student Emanuel Heinrich Gottlieb Freytag, says Daw (Ibid.: 7).
Six Violin Duo Sonatas
"Bach's music is permeated by a deep understanding of string idioms and techniques," says Malcolm Boyd.7 The six violin sonatas "must take pride of place." "The demands Bach makes on his soloist are considerably" while "the sonatas embody an entirely new approach to the relationship between soloist and accompaniment." The set of the six violin sonatas is found in a partial autograph (https://www.bach-digital.de/receive/BachDigitalSource_source_00002518) dating to c.1725. There are seven subsequent, additional sources (A-G) not always used in editing the original NBA version of the six sonatas, as described in http://bach-cantatas.com/NVD/BWV1014-1023-Gen1.htm: "Thomas Braatz wrote (October 9, 2004)," with the different composing stages and additions/variants. The descriptions of each of the sonatas shows the variety of music, says Daw (Ibid.: 8f): No. 1. Adagio (gathering energy), Allegro (alla breve style), Andante (intertwined melodic lines), Allegro (asymmetrical binary); 2. [Slow] (semi-pastoral), Allegro (energy), Andante un poco (melodic canon at unison), Presto (alla breve); 3. Adagio (ostinati), Allegro (folk style), Adagio ma non tanto (like Violin Concerto in E, BWV 1043, Adagio ma non tanto, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVvEEmLYPnw), Allegro (perpetuum mobile); 4. Largo (Siciliano), Allegro (sinfonia), Adagio (variations), Allegro (peasant dance); 5. [Slow] (fantasia), Allegro (fugal), Adagio (intermezzo), Vivace (scherzo burlesca); 6. Allegro (concertante), Largo (saraband-like), Allegro 3 versions (clavier solo [gavotte], Cantabile ma un poco adagio [da capo], Allegro), Adagio (2 versions), Allegro 2 versions (repeat 1st mvt., 6/8 gigue).
While there "are isolated examples of the sonata with obbligato harpsichord" in 17th csources, says Richard D. P. Jones,8 "Bach seems to have been the first to cultivate it in a systematic fashion." The opening Adagios of the first five violin sonatas, BWV 1014-18, in sonata da chiesa use dance forms or vocal aria style, the Allegros are shaped as concertante fugues, the internal slow movement is "laid out in cantabile periods," says Jones (Ibid.: 100), and the fast finales also have fugal structures. The very different and revised Sonata No. 6 in G Major, BWV 1019, is described in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_Sonatas_for_Violin_and_Harpsichord,_BWV_1014–1019 as well as in Hans Vogt's Bach chamber music monograph.9
Research Past 60 Years
The six duo sonatas for violin and harpsichord, "in spite of being one of Bach's finest chamber collections," have received less attention than others in this category, probably because they are a rational series and the question of prior origins in other media has not been so pressing," says David Ledbetter in a recent essay.10 Meanwhile, various scholars have developed extensive source and copy information in the past 60 years, showing Bach's compositional complexities in adaptations of other composers such as the Suite in A Major for Violin and Obbligato Cembalo after a lute sonata of Silvius Leopold Weiß, BWV 1025, and "transformed what seems to be borrowed material by additions of his own" in the Sonata in G Major for Violin and Continuo, BWV 1021, says Ledbetter (Ibid.: 339). The Sonata BWV 1021, "later spawned two others of doubtful authenticity, one for flute, violin and continuo, BWV 1038" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kI85aI8E6jU), "and one for violin and harpsichord, BWV 1022" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APvkRaJ4QBg), says Stowell (Ibid.: 496).
FOOTNOTES
1 Robin Stowell, "Violin Sonatas," in Oxford Composer Companions: J. S. Bach, ed. Malcolm Boyd (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999: 495).
2 Abram Loft, Chapter 7, "The Sonatas of J. S. Bach," in Violin and Keyboard: The Duo Repertory, Vol.1, From the Seventeenth Century to Mozart (New York: Grossman Publishers, 1973: 110).
3 Günther Haußwald and Rudolf Gerber, Kritischer Bericht; Series VI, Chamber Music; Volume 1, Works for Violin; J. S. Bach Neue Ausgabe sämtlicher Werke (Kassel: Bärenreiter, 1958); and the NBA Revised Edition, Peter Wollny, Kammermusik mit Violene (Kassel: Bärenreiter, 2014), https://www.baerenreiter.com/resource/public/products/BA5937_01/infoitems/vw/01.pdf.
4 Stephen Daw, "Bach : Sonatas for Violin and Harpsichord," liner notes, http://www.bach-cantatas.com/NVP/Mackintosh-C.htm: 6).
5 Nicholas Kenyon, "Violin Sonatas, BWV 1014-18 | Fugue BWV 1026,"Bach 333: The Music (Berlin, Deutsche Grammophon, 2018: 168f); citing Christoph Wolff, Chapter 5, "The First Six Years at the Ducal Court," in Johann Sebastian Bach: The Learned Musician, updated edition (New York: W. W. Norton, 2013: 133).
6 Colin Tinley, "J. S. Bach: The Six Sonatas for Violin and Harpsichord," liner notes, http://www.bach-cantatas.com/NonVocal/Instr-Violin-Comberti.htm: 3).
7 Malcolm Boyd, "A New Approach to the Sonata," liner notes, Amazon.com: 3).
8 Richard D. P. Jones, "Sonatas with obbligato harpsichord or continuo," in The Creative Development of Johann Sebastian Bach, Volume II: 1717-1750, Music to Delight the Spirit (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013: 98).
9 Hans Vogt, Johann Sebastian Bach's Chamber Music: Background, Analyses, Individual Works, Eng. trans. Kenn Johnson ( Portland OR: Amadeus Press, 1988: 32f); original diss., Johann Sebastian Bachs Kammermusik: Voraussetzungen, Analysen, Einzelwerke (Stuttgart: GmbH, 1981); overview, https://searchworks.stanford.edu/view/1711970.
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To Come: Chamber Music: Viol da gamba sonatas and other music |
