Johann Sebastian Bach is one of the most important
composers of Western music history. He came from a
widely ramified musical dynasty, which produced
numerous musicians and organists in the
Thuringian-Saxon area
The Sarabanda con Partite (Sarabande with variations)
in C Major (BWV 990), attributed in the sources to
Johann Sebastian Bach, presents the interesting and not
too often encountered linking of a variation sequence
and a suite. A harmonic bass pattern is developed over
a success...(+)
Johann Sebastian Bach is one of the most important
composers of Western music history. He came from a
widely ramified musical dynasty, which produced
numerous musicians and organists in the
Thuringian-Saxon area
The Sarabanda con Partite (Sarabande with variations)
in C Major (BWV 990), attributed in the sources to
Johann Sebastian Bach, presents the interesting and not
too often encountered linking of a variation sequence
and a suite. A harmonic bass pattern is developed over
a succession of twelve variations and four dance
movements. This new edition once again makes accessible
a work which in all probability was composed in the
18th century, and in so doing draws upon newly
discovered sources. It is loosely adapted from the
overture for Bellérophon (LWV 57) by Jean-Baptiste
Lully.
The Sarabanda con Partite would be a welcome addition
to the short list of variation sets by Bach. Leonhard
Scholz, the Nuremberg organist whose manuscript clearly
attributes it to Bach, has emerged in recent years as
an important Bach copyist who had access to rare and
early works. Although the style of BWV 990 has been
placed in the mid-seventeenth century (Eichberg
1975,45-6), the wide-spanning scales and arpeggiation
in several variations (here called partitae) are more
likely to have been written in the 1690s or later. The
same is true of the harmony in some of the more
expressive variations (e.g., the Neapolitan in partita
12, m. 14). The sixteenth and last variation is a
little gigue (L'ultima partita o giguetta) using the
type of running figuration in 6/8 found in several of
Bach's early gigues (e.g., in BWV 996). Although
occasionally suggesting north-German organ style, the
virtuoso writing seems calculated for the harpsichord,
clavichord being a second choice; in this the work is
distinct from the more modest variation sets by
Pachelbel and his pupils, including older members of
the Bach family. The piece is surely German. The
Latinizing title ("sarabande with variations") is
reminiscent of that of BWV 833, and the opening
partita, that is, the sarabande, is a German adaptation
of the French dance. Its da-capo form recurs in
north-German sarabandes, notably the famous one from
Handel's Hamburg opera Almira that became the aria
"Lascia ch'io piango" in Rinaldo. There is another
sarabande of this type in the slightly doubtful Suite
in F Minor BWV 823, whose opening measures contain a
descending bass somewhat similar to the one here. The
present bass line, together with the rhythm, would not
be out of place in a chaconne," and the style of some
variations recalls Handel's early keyboard chaconnes. A
few mannerisms, such as the slurred downward leaps in
mm. 6 and 11 of the sarabande, recur in authenticated
early Bach works, and the same motive plays an
important role in the first variation (partita 2).
Hence, if the present order of the variations is
original, the composer's first thoughts included the
development of an expressive "sigh" figure, not
virtuoso showmanship. The basis of the variations is
not primarily the melody of the sarabande but its bass
line. Despite the strict maintenance of da-capo form in
all sixteen partitae, which may grow wearying, BWV 990
remains a very attractive work. The intense
concentration on a few simple motivic ideas in partitae
2, 3, 5, and others—sometimes requiring considerable
keyboard dexterity, as in partitae 6 and 10—points to
an intellectually rigorous virtuoso such as Bach. A
significant work, BWV 990 would considerably broaden
our view of Bach's early style if it could be shown to
be his.
Source: IMSLP
(http://imslp.org/wiki/Sarabande_con_partite_in_C_major
,_BWV_990_(Bach,_Johann_Sebastian))
Although originally written for Harpsichord. I created
this Arrangement of the Sarabande a Partitas in C Major
(BWV 990) for Flute, Violin & Classical Guitar.
PARTITION