The Sonatas & Partitas for unaccompanied violin.

Abstract

After the declamatory introduction of the opening Adagio, Bach gives us a fugue that is highly reminiscent of his "Unto Us a Child Is Born" fugue from Cantata 42. The Siciliano that follows is the perfect cradlesong, such as you find in the Christmas Oratorio. To me, Partita I brings Christ's own voice (given here a contrastingly high pitch) in B minor, Bach's most personal key. The Passion music begins with the Grave of Sonata II, where the step¬wise descending bass symbolizes departure from the world. This motive, which stems directly from the descending scale outline of the Resurrection theme, is further intensi¬fied through its use as a bass line throughout Partita II, culminating in the continuous variations which constitute the Chaconne, one of Bach's (and music's) undisputed and fath¬omless masterpieces. The Chaconne arrives at a pivotal moment in the "6 Solo": the "Golden Section," in fact, of ancient Greek architectural theory. That the Chaconne mirrors the overall structure of the "6 Solo" in its triptych form as well as in its 32 segments (the "6 Solo" has 32 movements) — and that in his manuscript Bach links it without a break to the opening Adagio of the following Sonata III — seem like further evidence of the overall unity of the set. This Adagio seems to emerge from the Chaconne's shadow, oscillating in its laboured tread between a promised new home-key and the previous, still-remembered home-key of the Chaconne. The dotted rhythm, general¬ly symbolic (in early music) of suffer¬ing, seems to carry a heavy weight and suggests to me the clear imagery of "The Way of the Cross." There are even three dramatic cadential "falls" before we finally arrive at the tonic major cadence, which has thus far been denied us (in fact we have no " certainty throughout this movement t, of what key we are in at all, until this final cadence). Furthermore, the entire work has thus (the far been almost wholly in the minor d (the exceptions are the two slow t movements from Sonatas I and II). So, agio this is the first time that Bach gives us i a real major mode feeling, and in its I immediate wake comes the Resurrection theme. The long with¬held and eventually released major the mode now carries us with a joyful exuberance through to the end of the "6 Solo." Bach crowns the work with some of the happiest music he ever wrote. In fact, Bach, in his Cantata 29, set the Prelude to Partita III with the words "We Thank Thee, God, We Thank Thee."