Bach Chamber Music
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BCML Discussion: Chamber Music

William L. Hoffman wrote (October 11, 2019):
(The Bach Cantata Mailing List Discussion of his instrumental music continues with the chamber music.)

Although almost the smallest category of Bach's works, his chamber music has caused the most uncertainty and debate among Bach scholars and performers as to their authenticity as well as being the least listened to of all his musical categories. Beyond the austerity of chamber music as intimate musicians' music is the lack of the composer's autograph sources that also plague many of the organ works and his concertos among his 31 orchestral works, BWV 1041-1071 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_orchestral_works_by_Johann_Sebastian_Bach). The Bach works catalogue, Bach-Werke Verzeichnis, its third edition due in 2020 from the Bach Archiv Leipzig, originally listed 40 chamber (Kammer) works in 1950, BWV 1001-1040 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_chamber_music_works_by_Johann_Sebastian_Bach) but only 30 by one account are considered authentic, says Ichiro Sumikura.¹

This chamber music now is thought to have been composed beginning in Weimar and brought to fruition about 1721 in Cöthen when Bach had the luxury as Capellmeister of a professional chamber ensemble of eight musicians. He had begun with the traditional principle of a three-part composition of the popular Baroque trio-sonata and in Weimar brought to bear the concepts of the new, expansive Italian concerto form with its ritornello structures. For the next quarter century Bach also brought to perfection a myriad of trio-sonata forms (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trio_sonata) for the organ as well as intimate trio arias for voice, instrument and continuo, finally publishing six chorale settings c.1747 called the Schubler Chorales, BWV 645-650, arranged from chorale cantata trio arias (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schübler_Chorales https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBOUVYrNKyk). At the same time, Bach adapted nine of the chamber works for other instruments in as many as four versions in 24 settings, presumably for other opportunities to perform this music, sort of as blended old wine in new bottles. In the original chamber music category, BWV 1001-1040 are 13 pieces for unaccompanied instruments (six each for violin, BWV 1001-1006; cello, BWV 1007-1012, and flute, BWV 1013), 21 sonatas (some disputed) for solo and keyboard (nine for violin, BWV 1014-1023; three violin works by others, BWV 1024-26; three for viola da gamba, BWV 1027-1029; and six for flute, BWV 1030-35), as well as five mostly-disputed trio sonatas, BWV 1036-1040. Meanwhile in Weimar, Bach experimented with the concerto form (https://www.academia.edu/7956045/The_Background_to_Bachs_Fifth_Brandenburg_Concerto?auto=download) and his earliest concertos are now presumed to have been composed for violin and later arranged for oboe or flute as well as keyboard which are still being reconstructed (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_concertos_by_Johann_Sebastian_Bach).

The two Baroque genres which Bach emphasized in his chamber music are the sonata in four movements (fast-slow-fast-slow) called sonata da chiesa or church sonata (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonata_da_chiesa), with elements of a prelude and fugue followed by dance in the third and fourth movements and the sonata da camera (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonata_da_camera) or chamber sonata, with a prelude and various dance movements, which Bach called partitas or suites. While Bach limited his chamber music to the 13 partita settings, he also composed in Cöthen keyboard music involving 25 suites for harpsichord, called the English and French suites, miscellaneous suites, and Partitas, BWV 806-830 (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/NVD/Keyboard-Music-Early.htm), and begun to compose in Weimar the four Orchestral Suites, BWV 1066-69. "While the sonatas have a logical movement construction and aim to express something profound and spiritual or even religious, the partitas have a parallel construction of various dances and their expression is diversified," says Sumikura (Ibid.: 10). "Although they are highly refined and stylized, their keynote is enjoyment of life in the secular world which is innate in any kind of dance."

There is one book in English that explores Bach's chamber music, including the lute works. Han's Vogt's Johann Sebastian Bach's Chamber Music.² Vogt (1911-1992, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Vogt_(composer)) a German composer, conductor, and instrumentalist, conceived this monograph from the perspective of a performer not as "a piece of scholarly research," he observes in the Preface (Ibid.: 9), noting its "unabated vitality" while lacking in the popularity of say Cesar Franck's Sonata in A Major for Violin and Piano. Originally written in 1981 before the Bach watershed year of the Tercentenary in 1985, Vogt's monograph probes in three parts Bach's chamber music beginning with an introductory background. This includes a thoughtful study of the authenticity of some of the disputed works from the perspective of a musician rather than an academic scholar with an inate musicological historicism which takes a dismissive perspective on the basis of previously studied analyses with the banners of "faithful to the original" or "historically accurate." Part II, compositional characteristics and analysis, focuses on individual movements in terms of typology, compositional techniques, themes, sequences, harmony, structural development, and the interrelationship of themes and motifs. Part III, individual works, looks at the ingredients and character of each work.

Chamber Music Achievement

The last section of Part 2, :"Analytical Results," describes the Bach's overall achievement in his chamber music. From the perspective of organic unity, Vogt praises Bach's achievement, "where everything is mutually contingent, not on "what happens but when, in what context and to what extent." (Ibid.: 163). From the totality "each detail derives its meaning." Each movements has its own identity as part of the whole. Where vocal music had taken two centuries to develop and Bach had brought it to complete fulfillment, the chamber music was new, lacking well-developed models and procedures. This was "terra incognita and Bach achievement lay in his immediate grasp of the advantages and possibilities offered by "a small ensemble of partners," says Vogt (Ibid.: 164) and the challenges of brevity and succinctness. Here musicians playing together learned to listen to each other and find subtle ways of teamwork and cooperation, with the greatest demands placed on the composer. The Ablauf, or course of the music in its progress and development (discussed opening Part II), must be well proportioned since the dimensions in small ensemble music are smaller and "the paths to effectiveness more direct," he says.

Where large-scale music of orchestras and choruses have overt textures and gestures, wordless chamber music presents "a great breadth of expression." Despite "the restrictions of the medium, there s a tension, climax," "meditative contemplation as well as passionate ecstasy," "lyric fluidity," "solemnity of nature," "playfulness," "rhythm" and the joy of music making. "Everything is more immediate in its impact," he says (Ibid.:165), and "Bach was the first to impart real substance to this genre." Movement development becomes a "formative element" and proportions "reveal his unerring sense of the significance structures." Bach "intensified and enriched the genre of chamber music" beyond his contemporaries with a "steadfast awareness of this 'total situation' that all the analytical details should be understood." While only a few grasped the complexity of his music which "has multiple layers of meaning," he "composed with the sovereignty of someone who is sure of his craft and at peace with himself" while personally vulnerable with a sense of justice shown in his personal utterances.

Chamber Music Challenges

Vogt brings to his chamber music study a wealth of German sources, especially recent findings in the 1960s and 1970s, and a Germanic sense of scientific historical inquiry and process. The historical-biographical materials in Part 1 begin with the scope of Bach's chamber music as a new medium, still being discovered, that would be perfected in his solidification of the Common Practice Period leading to the classical conventions of the Haydn piano trio, string quartet, and sonata. Bach's colleague Johann Mattheson first defined chamber music in his 1739 music encyclopedia, Die volkommene (perfect) Capellmeister, with its diligence and perfection, clear and spare interior parts, interplay between tutti and solo, and contrasting movement tempi. At the same time, Vogt emphasizes the differences between Bach's chamber music and the other categories of Bach's small-scale instrumental music in miniatures such as the keyboard and organ music, often with pedagogical and compositional designs and purposes, the instrumental concerto form which would evolve as a virtuosi showcase with large orchestra, the in-between works such as the Brandenburg Concertos which could be played in salons or cafes, and the lute works which developed beyond keyboard music with several as transcriptions from other chamber music.

In Chapter 2, "Dates and Authenticity of the Works," Vogt tackles several challenging issues related to chamber music. The first involved the reception of the chamber music, "which seems to have disappeared" for more than a century, after Bach's death, he observes (Ibid.: 19), in contrast to the keyboard and organ music which students and devotees championed. Precise dating, with a few exceptions, did not emerge until the 1950s with the scientific methods of evaluating handwriting, ink types and paper watermarks where autographs existed in the vocal music, aided by the confirmation through collateral evidence of the actual sacred occasion in the church year as labeled in the title page of the cantatas. Bach's two autographed, magisterial unaccompanied collections of solo violin and cello works, the first dated "1720," did not surface until 1890. By this time, questionable Bach works were found in student copies and a dogmatic skepticism ensued, with only flawed or subjective stylistic compositional standards as guides while various myths or prejudices persisted, as well as faulty and subjective print editions.

Despite all manner of historically informed performance standards, the last or definitive word may not be written about certain works, such as the purpose of the Mass in B Minor or the actual number of composed sacred cantatas. Some chamber and organ works appear to be an amalgam of influences of other composers or students, with a Bachian sleight of pen possible as well. In recent years the conundrum of dating has become more complicated as earlier versions of violin, gamba, and flute sonatas with clavier have been found or deduced from source-critical studies. The Bach student and scholar Hans Eppstein (1911-2008) in his 1966 dissertation on Bach's sonatas for melody instruments and clavier,³ showed that nearly all originated as trio sonatas in one fashion or another. Eventually, Eppstein was able to publish his tNeue Bach Ausgabe (NBA) Critical Commentary on the Cello Suites (VI/2, 1990) and the Viola da Gamba Sonatas (VI/4, 1989). Vogt also observes that when a chamber music work was rescored (he counts nine works with 24 versions), it "always includes minor structural changes, revisions of the bass, cuts and additions" (Ibid.: 32).

Dating, Lost Works

"The dates of Bach's chamber works can be precisely determined only in a few cases," says Vogt," beginning Chapter 2. The exception are the six unaccompanied violin solo works inscribed "1720," possibly as a bench mark. By that time, Bach is presumed to have undertaken the composition of both the keyboard collections as well as the chamber music. Through the purchase of considerable manuscript paper in Cöthen, Bach is presumed to have composed numerous chamber works, particularly dance suites and ensemble pieces. Christoph Wolf estimates that between the beginning of 1718 and May of 1723, Bach composed some 350 works, "mainly chamber and orchestral music, but also serenades and other vocal works," thus "the assumed losses would exceed 200 pieces."⁴ It is assumed that many of these pieces remained in the court library and were destroyed in a fire several years later. What is extant are copies Bach had made, including during return visits in 1724, ?1725, 1726 and 1729. "He wrote these works for concerts at court," says Vogt (Ibid.: 18), of which there were a large number," especially before Prince Leopold married in 1721. "The number of Bach's chamber works in autograph manuscript is small" and "the majority exist only as copies" (Ibid.: 19, 30). The autographs of the two unaccompanied solo violin and cellos collections apparently went to family members or students after Bach's death but did not surface until about 1890. Various adaptations of chamber works as copies were made by students and like some of the organ works were modeled after Bach works and included student adaptations. "Bach always liked to try out new ideas and to experiment with his new insights, especially during the Köthen period," says Vogt (Ibid.: 27). In Leipzig, there "would have been no lack of opportunity to perform the pieces at home on in the collegium musicum," he says (Ibid.: 30). Lute and flute works also were revised or composed anew in Leipzig.

Also contributing to the lack of wide dissemination of the Bach's chamber music" is their limited purpose and audience, says Vogt in Chapter 3, "Historical and Social Background." "Public performances of instrumental music" "were seldom offered," he notes (Ibid.: 36f). "This cultivation of music was largely a matter of social status." Only "free cities took the first steps towards independent patronage of music," such as Mühlhausen, Leipzig, Hamburg, and Lübeck. Looking at the instruments and performance practices in Bach's time, Vogt finds that music societies began to develop, beginning in private homes, emphasizing the domestic style of chamber music Students fostered "collegia" groups. The instruments played in chamber music, particularly the strings and flutes, took years to develop and some such as the recorder, viola da gamba, lute, and spinet were replaced by mass-produced, larger-sounding, technically-improved instruments as the ensemble sizes increased to orchestras with several instruments per part. Looking at performance practices, the notated music became more exacting in terms of tempo, dynamics, and ornamentation so that modern performance practice during the 19th century made many baroque instruments obsolete. "The present-day listener wants everything to be perfect; at that time, a general indication sufficed," says Vogt (Ibid.: 87f). "The rest was filled in by the listener's imagination." A "present day performance of works by Bach can never be the same as one of his time." "The consensus changes with the times. What seemed right yesterday feels wrong today, and no epoch is in possession of the only valid truth."

Part II involves music theory analyses where Vogt explore various subjects in depth from the principles of Abaluf or progress in the development of the music, particularly its shape, proportion and direction; various compositional techniques, the trof motifs, themes, and sequences; tempi and harmony; distinct types of slow movements involving fantasia, arioso, and intermezzo; the structures of fast movements and the interrelations of themes and motifs.

FOOTNOTES

¹See Ichiro Sumikura, liner notes, "J. S. Bach: 3 Sonatas and 3 Partitas for Violin Solo, BWV 1001/6," Eng. trans. Terry Graham, Denon recording (Nippon Columbia Japan: 1985, https://searchworks.stanford.edu/view/309602).
² Hans Vogt, Johann Sebastian Bachs Kammermusik: Voraussetzungen, Analysen, Einzelwerke (Stuttgart: GmbH & Co., 1981), Johann Sebastian Bach's Chamber Music: Background, Analysis, Works, trans. Kenn Johnson (Portland OR: Amadeus Press, 1988). German monograph, Bachs Orchester- und Kammermusik: Das Handbuch, Vol. 5, ed. Siegbert Rampe (Laaber: Laaber-Verlag, 2013), review, https://www-jstor-org.libproxy.unm.edu/stable/43672869?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents, accessed 10 October 2019. The most recent study is the NBA Series VI:5, Verschiedene [Various] Kammermusikwerke, https://www.baerenreiter.com/en/shop/product/details/BA5295_41/.
³ Hans Eppstein, Studien über J. S. Bachs Sonaten für ein Melodieinstrument und obligates Cembalo (http://swb.bsz-bw.de/DB=2.355/SET=1/PRS=HOL/SHW?FRST=71&COOKIE=Us209,P2e6A,I2094,B1493+,SY,NRecherche-DB,D2.355,Edbaea4f8-0,A,H,R193.197.31.8,FY).
⁴ Christoph Wolff, Johann Sebastian Bach: The Learned Musician, updated ed. (New York: W. W. Norton: 2013: 200).

Chamber Music, Part 2: Transcriptions, Annotated Bibliographies

William L. Hoffman wrote (October 26, 2019):
While the catalogue of Bach's chamber music seems quite scant with only some 45 works extant, BWV 995-1039 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_compositions_by_Johann_Sebastian_Bach#BWV_Chapter_9, http://www.bach-cantatas.com/NVD/index.htm#Solo), transcriptions beginning in Bach's time have generated countless versions for other instruments of the solo string works Bach collected first, while stimulating a cottage industry of recordings. For example, there are almost 400 recordings of his lute works (https://www.bach-cantatas.com/NVD/BWV995-1000.htm) and in recent years there are all manner of new adaptations. Originally, Bach conceived this chamber music for personal presentation in courtly and town salons as well as at private homes. Bach also used this music as pedagogy, teaching his students composition and applied performance. What drove the impetus for the development of this music was the mixed German style that absorbed the influences of the Italian concerto and the French dance with Germanic fugal and occasional Lutheran hymn influences. Bach seized the opportunities by composing instrumental concertos, sonatas, and suites in three and four parts as the concurrent common practice period shaped the various genres that would be perfected in the evolving classical style of solo sonatas for all manner of instruments, the challenge of trios quartets, and quintets, and the larger ensembles of virtuoso concertos and full-textured symphonies. This music formed the crest of the wave of classical music as to spread north from Italy to the German-speaking lands of Austria and Germany.

Recently, Bach scholars have selectively studied these works from the perspectives of musical analysis as well as contextual studies, dating, various versions, authenticity and theological meanings. Essentially, the historical studies of the chamber music have yielded findings based on stylistic and collateral evidence that some of the earliest chamber pieces — violin solos, trio sonatas, and concertos — were initiated in Weimar about 1714, were revised sometimes in as many as three stages and assembled: the first before Cöthen in 1717 involving variants, the second during the Cöthen period (1717-23), and the third in Leipzig beginning about 1725 and used for teaching. Bach's favored chamber music instruments were the violin, harpsichord, and emerging transverse flute. In some cases, he continued to adapt flute music in the 1740s when he visited the court of Frederick the Great where his son Emanuel was employed as keyboardist and composer. There is still considerable scholarly debate over which of the solo string collections came first. Some say that the simpler cello suites were composed first; others that the violin works were prompted by Bach being the concertmaster in Weimar while having no working experience with the cello. Perhaps, instead of academic, dualistic (binary) thinking, both collections may have evolved at the same time, 1720.

The following is an annotated bibliography of important studies of Bach's chamber music, from monographs to articles with a variety of perspectives.

Series VI: Chamber Music, Neue Bach Ausgabe (New Bach Edition, Complete Works). Kassel: Bärenreiter, 1958-2013). Five volumes in German, each with critical commentary: works for violin, cello solo suites, flute, viola da gamba and harpsichord, and various (https://www.baerenreiter.com/en/catalogue/complete-editions/bach-johann-sebastian/nba/series-vi/#c1587). Recently completed are a New Bach Revised Edition of the Music for Violin (https://www.baerenreiter.com/en/shop/product/details/BA5937-01/) and the Cello Suites (https://www.baerenreiter.com/en/shop/product/details/BA5942-01/, https://www.baerenreiter.com/fileadmin/Service_Allgemein/Werbemittel/englisch/SPA174_Bach-Cellosuiten_engl_Web.pdf), while a new edition of "Chamber Music with Flute" is in preparation (https://www.baerenreiter.com/en/catalogue/complete-editions/bach-johann-sebastian/nbarev/overview-of-volumes/). The most recent study is the NBA Series VI:5, Verschiedene [Various] Kammermusikwerke (https://www.baerenreiter.com/en/shop/product/details/BA5295_41/: Contents), involving duo sonatas for flute or violin and harpsichord continuo.
Vogt, Hans. Johann Sebastian Bach's Chamber Music: Background, Analyses, Individual Works, Eng. trans. Kenn Johnson. Portland OR: Amadeus Press, 1988; original, Johann Sebastian Bachs Kammermusik: Voraussetzungen, Analysen, Einzelwerke (Stuttgart: GmbH & Co., 1981). Overview, https://searchworks.stanford.edu/view/1711970. The only English language study of the chamber music.
Rampe, Siegbert, ed. Bachs Orchester- und Kammermusik: Das Handbuch, Vol. 5. Laaber: Laaber-Verlag, 2013). Review, https://www-jstor-org.libproxy.unm.edu/stable/43672869?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents. The emphasis is on historical performance practice while exploring 12 publications on Bach's chamber music.
Brieg, Werner. "The instrumental music," Part II: Profiles of the Music, trans. Stewart Spencer. In The Cambridge Companion to Bach, edited by John Butt, 123-35. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997. Covers BWV 1001-1069, solo, ensemble sonatas, co, overtures.

Articles

Geck, Martin "The Instrumental Works," 525-607. In Johann Sebastian Bach: Life and Work, trans. John Hargraves. Orlando FL: Harcourt, 2006. Geck begins with the keyboard works (fugues, chorales) and then the chamber works ("Sonatas and Suites"), presenting all manner of anecdotes and insights with an extensive but abbreviated footnote style.
Jones, Richard D. P. Articles "The Brandenburg Concertos and other instrumental works," 65-105; "The Harpsichord concertos and other instrumental works," 248-70; and "The Musical Offering and other instrumental works," 363-73. In The Creative Development of Johann Sebastian Bach: Music to Delight the Spirit, Vol. II: 1717-1750. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013. This is a selective survey of Bach's compositions by categories and periods, including historical context, genres, and musical ingredients. Nicholas Kenyon, "Instrumental music," 342-81. In Bach: The Faber Pocket Guide to Bach. London: Faber, 2011. This concise study of Bach's music involves the orchestral works and concertos, BWV 1041-69, as well as the chamber music and lute music, BWV 995-1040, including highlights, alternate versions, and recordings. The material updated and abridged in Kenyon's "Chamber Works," in Bach 333: The Music, 163-72, J. S. Bach: The New Complete Edition (Berlin: Deutsch Grammaphon, 2018). Another "complete" set of Bach's music with extensive commentary from the Bach Archiv Leipzig, observing the 333rd anniversary of Bach's birth (1685).
Ledbetter, David "Instrumental Chamber and Ensemble Music," 317-57. In The Routledge Research Companion to Johann Sebastian Bach. ed. Robin A Leaver. London: Routledge: 2017. This is a research guide in essay form from leading Bach scholars on subjects and genres, including surveys and such topics as "Aspects of Performance," "French Overtures," "Performance Analysis," "Instruments," "Pitch and Intonation," "Forces," "Analytical Approaches" (styles, genres, improvisation, interpretations) and Work Groups (BWV 1001-1069). The bibliographies are found in the footnotes for each chapter.
Terry, Charles Sanford. "The Chamber Music." In The Music of Bach: An Introduction, 43-54. New York, Dover, 1933. Before the BWV catalog, the music is identified by editions; includes solo, suites, sonatas, concertos, overtures; with tables.
Wolff, Christoph "Bach's Leipzig Chamber Music." In Bach: Essays on His Life and Music. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 1991. Except for the solo works, BWV 1001-1012, this covers the works for instrumental ensemble, BWV 1014-1069 and the Musical Offering, BWV 1079, showing that these works have a history in Leipzig, 1725-47; music performed at home, the Collegium Musicum and other Leipzig venues, and during travels.

In addition to Kenyon's survey of music through recordings, there are liner notes on chamber music in "complete" recording edition collections from Hänssler Edition Bachakademie (CD 155-156, 161-168), Bach 2000 Das Alte Werke Teldec (Bach 2000: vol.11, http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/album.jsp?album_id=19427), and Brilliant Classics (CD 9-17, 19-20, 22, https://www.brilliantclassics.com/media/1119359/94940-JS-Bach-Complete-Edition-Liner-Notes-Sung-Text-download.pdf). These recordings omit works that are considered doubtful, reworkings, or assemblages, especially clavier/continuo sonatas (BWV 1020-26) and trio sonatas (1036-1038). These may be found in individual recordings on various labels.

There are a growing number of Bach realizations or transcriptions. For example, recordings include the guitarist Paul Galbraith (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/NVP/Galbraith-P.htm), lutenist Hopkinson Smith (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/NVP/Smith-H.htm), and violist Scott Slapin (https://www.bach-cantatas.com/NVP/Slapin-S.htm). The solo violin and cello works, BWV 1001-1012 have been arranged for viola and recorded often, most notably the print editions of Meyer/Vieland (violin) and William Primrose (5 suites). More than any other performer, guitarist Andres Segovia (1893-1987, https://www.bach-cantatas.com/Bio/Segovia-Andres.htm) brought Bach music to the fore in the 20th century with his transcriptions, performances, and recordings of movements from the violin, cello, and lute solo works (BWB 995-1012, https://www.bach-cantatas.com/NVP/Segovia.htm). Others who have added to the repertory with transcriptions include cellist Yo-Yo Ma and friends (https://www.bach-cantatas.com/NVP/Ma-YY.htm), flutist James Galway (BWV 1067, 1032, 1044, https://www.amazon.com/James-Galway-Plays-Bach-Harpsichord/dp/B00P7DC88M), oboist Albrecht Meyer (https://www.bach-cantatas.com/NVP/Mayer-A.htm), guitarist Sharon Isbin (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/NVP/Isbin-S.htm), trumpeter Alison Balsom (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/NVP/Balsom-A.htm), and violinist Laura St. John (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/NVP/St-John-L.htm). Reconstructions of clavier concertos for violin and oboe have spurred other reconstructions (https://www.bach-cantatas.com/NVP/Poppen-C.htm#O1), first published in 1970, https://www.baerenreiter.com/en/shop/product/details/BA5034_41/: "Contents."

At the heart of Bach's pursuit of chamber music in Cöthen was the rare genre of unaccompanied solo works in sonata and suite genres beginning with the violin and cello works, BWV 1001-1012, followed primarily in Leipzig with the duo sonatas for violin, flute, and viola da gamba, as well as 24 transcriptions of 14 of these works for different instruments and the perfection of the solo pieces. During much of this time Bach also composed works for lute or lute harpsichord while focusing on the flute in Leipzig. The music was intended for varied purposes: to teach composition to family members, students, and friends; to develop a repertory to reflect emerging genres and tastes, and to meet the needs of a growing general public to experience music first-hand.

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To Come: The collections of the solo string works for violin and cello.