It is thought that Bach wrote his six suites for
unaccompanied cello between 1717 and 1723, while he was
in the employ of Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Cöthen and
had two superb solo cellists, Bernard Christian Linigke
and Christian Ferdinand Abel, at his disposal. However,
the earliest copy of the suites dates from 1726, and no
autographs survive. Thus a chronological order is
difficult to prove, though one guesses that these
suites were composed in numerical order from the way
that they gradually ...(+)
It is thought that Bach wrote his six suites for
unaccompanied cello between 1717 and 1723, while he was
in the employ of Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Cöthen and
had two superb solo cellists, Bernard Christian Linigke
and Christian Ferdinand Abel, at his disposal. However,
the earliest copy of the suites dates from 1726, and no
autographs survive. Thus a chronological order is
difficult to prove, though one guesses that these
suites were composed in numerical order from the way
that they gradually evolve and deepen, both technically
and musically.
A Baroque suite is typically a collection of dance
movements, usually in binary form with each half
repeated. Common elements of the suite were the
Allemande (German dance), a moderately slow duple-meter
dance; the Courante, a faster dance in triple meter;
the Sarabande, a Spanish-derived dance in a slow triple
meter with emphasis on the second beat; and a Gigue
(Jig), which is rapid, jaunty, and energetic. Bach took
these typical dance forms and abstracted them, and then
added a free-form, almost improvisatory Prelude which
sets the tone for each suite, and a galanterie, an
additional dance interposed between Sarabande and
Gigue. (In the first two suites, Bach uses a pair of
Minuets.) With these dances, Bach experimented and
created the first, and arguably still the finest, solo
works for a relatively new instrument.
The Suite in D minor is one of two minor-key suites
among the six for solo cello. With this suite, Bach
seems to aspire to an almost Beethovenian mixture of
tragedy and defiance, all within his usual framework of
strict procedures. There are six movements: a Prelude,
Allemande, Courante, Sarabande, double Minuet, and
Gigue.
The Prelude reminds this listener of a great Bach organ
toccata (and some observers, indeed, have speculated on
links between Bach's organ improvisations and his
string writing). Bach uses a simple arpeggio figure to
build phrases of ever-increasing complexity, as in the
parallel passage in the first suite. But here the
minor-key arpeggio that sets the tone for the work is
used to gradually build tension as it climbs through
the cello's range in a series of rising waves. The
movement builds to a high-pitched, tense climax,
followed by an improviser's silence while the echoes
die out. Finally we return to the low strings for a
coda that sums up the movement in small, intimate
terms.
Although this piece was originally written for cello, I
transcribed it for Viola.
PARTITION