According to the New York Times, Johann Sebastian Bach took first place in the list of the most influential composers in the world. His music inspired Beethoven and Mozart to create the greatest works. Bach's legacy is more than a thousand works covering all musical genres except opera. He is called the unsurpassed master of polyphony.
Bach music genres
Johann Sebastian began his career composing church music in traditional religious genres, but soon moved to more secular ones. In secular music, Bach found for himself that freedom of expression that he lacked in church music.
At first Bach imitated the works of other composers, then he began to combine different genres in one work. Fugue allowed Bach to show his genius of polyphony, while the suites revealed emotional depth, with only one instrument needed.
Bach wrote music for many different instruments, despite the fact that during his life he was famous for his virtuoso playing the organ. The composer wrote a lot of works for flute, violin, harpsichord and clavier.
Suites for clavier
His works brought secular music to a whole new level, which is especially pronounced in collections of clavier suites. In total, three of them were published: “French Suites”, “English Suites” and “Partitas for Clavier”.
Throughout his career, Bach improved the structure and content of the suite, adding more and more parts, changing instruments and deepening the sound. These collections contain suites on which the composer worked from 1718 to 1730. They differ in form, composition and content.
In each collection there are 6 suites with the same design - they consist of four main parts. In each of the cycles, the composer adds additional parts, such as preludes. French Bach suites are distinguished by simplicity of composition and ease of execution.
What is a suite?
From French, the suite translates as "sequence." Historically, the suite has consisted of several musical parts, strongly contrasting with each other. This construction was drawn from the tradition of combining dances - slow and solemn immediately after the living and the lungs.
Then the suite became less contrasting. The standard composition of chamber suites was developed in the seventeenth century in Germany, and Bach himself partially strengthened it. Today, the composition consists of four parts:
- allemand;
- chimes;
- saraband;
- jig.
Each of these parts is an old dance.
Suite Elements
Allemanda is the name of a dance especially popular during the Baroque period. It came from the French word allemande, which means “German” in translation. The roots of this progenitor of the waltz come from Germany of the XVI century. French Bach suites are distinguished by the fact that the composer experimented a lot with the Alemanda, sometimes making it sound like a prelude.
Courant - French dance, popular in the 16th century, characterized by a fast pace. At the time of Johann Sebastian Bach, the chimes lost its popularity, but remained an element of the suite in which the composer concentrated the emotional load of the work.
Sarabanda is a Spanish folk dance. Its original form was too frivolous and frank, and the church, failing to ban, decided to ennoble it, turning it into a funeral melody at a slower pace. In the time of Bach, the saraband became popular again, but in a significantly "cultured" form.
Gigue is another baroque dance whose roots come from England. This is the only element of the suite that has never been a dance of high society. The first French suite in C minor stands out because Bach completely changed the pace of the jig.
In addition to these four mandatory parts, the suite may include a prelude and an additional part, usually played between the last two.
French Bach Suites
The composer himself did not give names to his suites; they were called “French” by the first biographer Johann Forkel. He mentioned that these six pieces of music were written in the French style of harpsichord music.
Of all the suites written by the composer, the French are the simplest in content and execution. However, they are not as simple in composition as the English, and not as complex as the partitas that Bach composed. French suites, the Alemande of which sometimes resembles a prelude, besides deviations in the usual rhythm, contain several additional optional parts between the sarabanda and the jig. Although the composer always remained faithful to the standard scheme: first the allemand, then the chime, followed by the saraband, after which one or more additional elements, and at the end of the suite - gig.
Contents of the French Suite Series
The cycle of French suites consists of six works, differing in numbers or names of keys:
- The first is suite in D minor. It consists of allemands, chimes, saraband, minuet and igi. Moreover, the latter has a completely different pace - 2/2.
- The second is a suite in C minor. There are three optional parts between the sarabanda and the jig - one aria and two minuets.
- The third is the French Suite in B Minor. A remarkable suite with three additional parts, gavotte, minuet and trio.
- Fourth - Suite in E Flat Major. In addition to the main parts, it also contains gavotte, aria and minuet.
- Fifth - Suite in G Major. In it, between the last two obligatory elements are gavotte, lura and burre.
- Sixth - Suite in E Major with additional gavotte, polonaise, burr and minuet.
Despite the fact that Bach did not shy away from the usual composition, his suites are full of innovations and external influences typical of the composer. They are full of new rhythms, melodies and even polyphony. You can hear gavotte, polonaise or minuet between the sarabanda and the jig, and the sarabanda itself is extremely melodic and emotional in all six suites.