Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin (Bach)

thumb|Title page of the autograph manuscript of BWV 1001–1006, dated 1720

The Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin (BWV 1001–1006) are a set of six works composed by Johann Sebastian Bach. They are sometimes referred to in English as the Sonatas and for Solo Violin in accordance with Bach's headings in the autograph manuscript: "Partia" (plural "Partien") was commonly used in German-speaking regions during Bach's time, whereas the Italian "partita" was introduced to this set in the 1879 Bach Gesellschaft edition, having become standard by that time. The set consists of three sonatas da chiesa in four movements and three partitas (or partias) in Baroque suite dance-form movements. The 2nd Partita is widely known for its chaconne, considered one of the most masterful and expressive works ever written for solo violin.

The set was completed by 1720 but was not published until 1802 by Nikolaus Simrock in Bonn. Even after publication, it was largely ignored until the celebrated violinist Joseph Joachim started performing these works. Today, Bach's 'Sonatas and Partitas are an essential part of the violin repertoire, and they are frequently performed and recorded.

The Sei Solo a Violino senza Basso accompagnato (Six Solos for Violin Without Bass Accompaniment), as Bach titled them, firmly established the technical capability of the violin as a solo instrument. The pieces often served as archetypes for solo violin pieces by later generations of composers, including Eugène Ysaÿe and Béla Bartók.

History of composition

The surviving autograph manuscript of the sonatas and partitas was made by Bach in 1720 in Köthen, where he was Kapellmeister. As Christoph Wolff comments, the paucity of sources for instrumental compositions prior to Bach's period in Leipzig makes it difficult to establish a precise chronology;

The goal of producing a polyphonic texture governed by the rules of counterpoint also indicates the influence of the first surviving works of this kind for solo violin, Westhoff's partitas for solo violin composed in 1696. The virtuoso violinist Westhoff served as court musician in Dresden from 1674 to 1697 and in Weimar from 1699 until his death in 1705, so Bach would have known him for two years. The repertoire for solo violin was actively growing at the time: Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber's celebrated solo passacaglia appeared c.1676; Westhoff's collections of solo violin music were published in 1682 and 1696; Johann Joseph Vilsmayr's Artificiosus Concentus pro Camera in 1715, and Johann Georg Pisendel's solo violin sonata was composed around 1716; and finally, Georg Philipp Telemann published 12 Fantasias for solo violin in 1735.

First performance

It is not known whether these violin solos were performed during Bach's lifetime or, if they were, who the performer was. Johann Georg Pisendel and Jean-Baptiste Volumier, both talented violinists in the Dresden court, have been suggested as possible performers, as was Joseph Spiess, leader of the orchestra in Köthen. Friedrich Wilhelm Rust, who would later become part of the Bach family circle in Leipzig, also became a likely candidate. Bach himself was an able violinist from his youth, and his familiarity with the violin and its literature shows in the composition of the set and the very detailed autograph manuscript. According to his son Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, "in his youth, and until the approach of old age, he played the violin cleanly and powerfully".

Manuscripts and published editions

Upon Bach's death in 1750, the original manuscript passed into the possession, possibly through his second wife Anna Magdalena, of Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach. It was inherited by the last male descendant of J. C. F. Bach, Wilhelm Friedrich Ernst Bach, who passed it on to his sister Christina Louisa Bach (1762–1852).

Four other early manuscripts also exist. One, originally identified as an authentic Bach autograph from his Leipzig period, is now identified as being a copy dating from 1727–32 by Bach's second wife Anna Magdalena Bach, and is the companion to her copy of the six suites Bach wrote for solo cello.

Another copy, dated July 3, 1726 (the date is on the final page), made by one of Bach's admirers Johann Peter Kellner, is well preserved, despite the fact that the B minor Partita was missing from the set and that there are numerous deviations and omissions. These differences may have come from an earlier source or composing copy, and not necessarily copying errors on Kellner's part. This view is supported by Zoltán Szabó. The three manuscripts are in the Berlin State Museum and have been in the possession of the Bach-Gesellschaft since 1879, through the efforts of Alfred Dörffel. Two other eighteenth century manuscripts, both by unidentified copyists, have also survived.

The first edition was printed in 1802 by Nikolaus Simrock of Bonn. It is clear from errors in it that it was not made with reference to Bach's own manuscript, and it has many mistakes that were frequently repeated in later editions of the 19th century.

Performers

Virtually every great violin performer has recorded the Sonatas and Partitas, often multiple times, as in the case of Joseph Szigeti, Nathan Milstein, Yehudi Menuhin, Henryk Szeryng and many other distinguished players. Strikingly, David Oistrakh, the towering performer of the violin, is not known to have recorded the complete set of Sonatas and Partitas. One of the most famous performers of the Sonatas and Partitas was the violinist and composer George Enescu, who considered this work as "The Himalayas of violinists" and recorded all the sonatas and partitas in the late 1940s. One of his students (Serge Blanc) collected the notes of his master Enescu regarding sonority, phrasing, tempo, fingering and expression, in a now freely distributed document.

Musical structure

The sonatas each consist of four movements, in the typical slow-fast-slow-fast pattern of the sonata da chiesa. The first two movements of each sonata are a prelude and a fugue. The third (slow) movement is lyrical, while the final movement shares the similar musical structure as a typical binary suite movement. Unlike the sonatas, the partitas are of more unorthodox design. Although still making use of the usual baroque style of allemande, courante, sarabande, and gigue, with some omissions and the addition of galanteries, new elements were introduced into each partita to provide variety.

<!-- Comment by 173.28.229.40 on 20 January 2014:

Please note that your paragraph seems to imply that each piece within these six has four movements and begins with a prelude-fugue combination. This is a poorly written generalization. Some of these works follow the convention of using a prelude, and then we have a choice: either the fugue option is presented as in the first sonata, or the coupling of slow and fast dances begins. If I am not faulty in my memory, we'd say that the ones with preludes lean more toward the sonata da chiesa configuration, while those without preludes would be sonatas da camera. Indeed the variety of the partitas is noteworthy--it is clear that Bach is composing within the different national flavors of the dance types, so that a saraband is not always exactly the same saraband. The published paragraph needs better editing, for sure. -->

<!-- Do we really need this? Should really be in some other section, maybe under "interpretations". BW.

Contemporary violinist Christian Tetzlaff, believe these works should be regarded as a singular work, "like a big Bruckner symphony," he said. He also has a theory about the meaning of these works: He describes the three sonatas as religious works depicting the Christmas story, the Passion of Christ, and the Resurrection. The three partitas, on the other hand, in his opinion are the more "earthly" side of life, dances and songs. However, the two meet in the D Minor Partita, especially in the Chaconne, a personal requiem to his late wife Maria Barbara.

-->

Alternative scoring

Aside from the surviving transcriptions BWV 964 and 968, two different sources also indicate that Bach and his circle performed the Sonatas and Partitas on keyboard instruments, rather than on the violin. Music theorist, instrument maker and organ player Jakob Adlung writes (Anleitung zu der musikalischen Gelahrtheit, Erfurt, 1758), regarding the keyboard works by Bach – ”They are actually violini soli senza basso, 3 Sonatas and 3 Partitas, which are well suited for performance on the keyboard”. Johann Friedrich Agricola, who co-wrote Bach's obituary, reports that ”Their composer often played them himself on the clavichord, and added so m[any] harmonies to them, as he found necessary”.

The pieces and their movements

Sonata No. 1 in G minor, BWV 1001

thumb|Bach's autograph of the Adagio of Sonata No. 1 in G minor, BWV 1001 [[File:J. S. Bach – Violin Sonata No.1 in G minor, BWV 1001, I. Adagio.ogg]]

Though the key signature of the manuscript suggests D minor, such was a notational convention in the Baroque period, and therefore does not necessarily imply that the piece is in the Dorian mode.

The second movement, the fugue, would later be reworked for the organ (in the Prelude and Fugue, BWV 539) and the lute (Fugue, BWV 1000), with the latter being two bars longer than the violin version.

Partita No. 1 in B minor, BWV 1002

This partita substitutes a bourrée (marked Tempo di Borea) for the gigue. Each movement is followed by a variation (double in French).

Sonata No. 2 in A minor, BWV 1003

Partita No. 2 in D minor, BWV 1004

In the original manuscript, Bach marked Segue la Corrente at the end of Allemanda. The monumental Chaconne, the last and most famous movement of the suite, was regarded as "the greatest structure for solo violin that exists" by Yehudi Menuhin. It involves a set of variations based on a simple phrase repeated in harmonic progression in the bass line (ground bass).

Sonata No. 3 in C major, BWV 1005

The opening movement of the work introduced a peaceful, slow stacking up of notes, a technique once thought to be impossible on bowed instruments. The fugue is the most complex and extensive of the three, with the subject derived from the chorale Komm, heiliger Geist, Herre Gott. Bach employs many contrapuntal techniques, including a stretto, an inversion, as well as diverse examples of double counterpoint.

Partita No. 3 in E major, BWV 1006

thumb|300px|Autograph of the opening Preludio in Partita No. 3 in E major, BWV 1006.

<!-- this is a temporary solution …

Recordings on violin

Portions were first recorded by Joseph Joachim in 1903, and the first complete set was recorded by Yehudi Menuhin in the mid-1930s.

Yehudi Menuhin, 1934–1944 and 1957
George Enescu, 1948
Jascha Heifetz, 1952
Joseph Szigeti, 1956
Arthur Grumiaux, 1961
Henryk Szeryng, 1954 and 1967
Nathan Milstein, 1956 and 1973
Sergiu Luca, 1977 (baroque violin: 1669 Nicolo Amati)
Jaap Schröder, (baroque violin)
Nell Gotkovsky, 1978–80
Sigiswald Kuijken, 1981 (baroque violin)
Jean-Jacques Kantorow, 1985
Mark Lubotsky, 1987 (1728 G. B. Guadagnini)
Itzhak Perlman, 1988
Yuval Yaron, 1989
Gidon Kremer, 1980 and 2005
Yossi Zivoni, 1990
Viktoria Mullova, 1992 (partitas only)
Lucy van Dael, 1996 (baroque violin)
Ida Haendel, 1996
Salvatore Accardo, 1996
Vanessa-Mae, 1996
Hilary Hahn, 1997 (1004–1006 only)
Rachel Podger, 1997–1999 (baroque violin)
David Grimal, 2000
Ingrid Matthews, 2000 (baroque violin)
John Holloway, 2006 (baroque violin)
Dmitry Sitkovetsky
Oscar Shumsky
Elizabeth Wallfisch (baroque violin)
Monica Huggett (baroque violin)
Thomas Zehetmair
Shlomo Mintz
Lara St. John
Christian Tetzlaff
Julia Fischer, 2005 (1750 Guadagnini)
Wolfgang Schneiderhan, Jan. 12./15. 1955 (1004 only)
Emil Telmanyi (with Vega/Bach bow)
James Ehnes, 2000
Christoph Poppen, 2001: Recording of Partita No. 2 on baroque violin, with the Ciaconna in two versions, one for violin solo and one with "reconstructed" voices from chorales set by Bach, added by musicologist Helga Thoene and sung by the Hilliard Ensemble.
Kristof Barati, 2002, concert recording in Salle Pleyel (1712 "ex-Cobbett" Stradivari)
Richard Tognetti, 2005 (1759 Guadagnini)
Michael Vaiman, 2006 (released 2008)
Ilya Kaler, 2006 (released 2006)
Haroutune Bedelian, 2007 (Complete Sonatas and Partitas, first time on DVD, released 2007)
Jacqueline Ross, 2007
Yūko Shiokawa, 2009
Viktoria Mullova, 2009

BW -->

<!--

Interpretation

An interesting aspect on the Sonatas and Partitas is interpretation. There are two factors surrounding this issue. First, the Bach manuscript did not leave specific instructions on how the passages should be executed; this was presumably left to the discretion of the performer. The bridge of the Baroque violin is flatter than that for the modern violin. Therefore, certain passages, primary those with chords, must be played differently than notated to accommodate these physical changes.

An example from the G minor fugue best illustrates the issue at hand. In the original manuscript,

-->

<!-- Also a temporary solution BW

Transcriptions and orchestrations

Although this work was intended for violin, Bach himself transcribed portions for other instruments, and the entire set has been transcribed by others for guitar, viola, cello and piano. There have been 200 transcriptions, for a variety of instruments, of the Ciaccona from the D-minor Partita.

The Fuga from the First Sonata, for organ as BWV 539 and for lute as BWV 1000
The entire Second Sonata, for keyboard (possibly by Bach) as BWV 964
The Chaconne of the Second Partita has been transcribed by Ferruccio Busoni and Joseph Joachim Raff for piano, by Johannes Brahms for left hand piano solo, by Andrés Segovia for guitar, and has been orchestrated by Leopold Stokowski.
The Largo of the Third Sonata, for keyboard as BWV 968
The entire Third Partita is also the Fourth Lute Suite, BWV 1006a
The Preludio to the Third Partita is also used in two different cantatas, BWV 29 (where it is scored rather dramatically for organ obbligato and orchestra) and 120a
Selected movements from Sonatas and Partitas 1, 2, & 3 as the Bach-Grandjany Etudes for harp, transcribed by Marcel Grandjany.
Two sonatas and one partita have been transcribed for piano by Godowsky.
The entire set has been transcribed for Harpsichord by Associate Professor Winsome Evans at the University of Sydney, and a recording by Evans of the set is due to be released later in 2007.
Numerous selections from the set of 3 Sonatas and 3 Partitas arranged for solo classical guitar are to be released by Savage Classical Guitar Editions in September 2008.

List of recordings on other instruments

The Sonatas and Partitas have been transcribed for and recorded on many other instruments.

Scott Slapin, viola
Andrei Pricope, cello
Vito Paternoster, cello
Andrés Segovia, guitar (selected movements)
John Williams, guitar (selected movements)
Paul Galbraith, 1998, 8-stringed guitar
Goran Sollscher, guitar
Hopkinson Smith, 13-course baroque lute
Nigel North, complete set (and the cello suites) on lute
Sergei Rachmaninoff, piano (prelude to the third Partita)
Béla Fleck, banjo (prelude to the third Partita, played in C instead of E)
Manuel Barrueco, guitar (The Sonatas BWV 1001, 1003 & 1005)
Frederick Charlton, string bass (selected movements) [http://www.frederickcharlton.com/music.html]
Dave Grossman, 7-string electric bass
Leigh Howard Stevens, marimba
Kazuhito Yamashita, 1989 – guitar (Complete Sonatas and Partitas BWV 1001–1006)

BW -->

Selected arrangements and transcriptions

J. S. Bach transcribed for keyboard, organ or lute various movements from these suites. Some of them were later attributed to his pupils. Arrangements of the Sonatas and Partitas for keyboard appear in the Miscellaneous Keyboard Works, Bach Gesellschaft Edition, 1853 (reissued by Dover Publications).
Fugue in D minor, BWV 539/ii (BWV 1001/ii) for organ
Fugue in G minor, BWV 1000 (BWV 1001/ii) for lute
Suite in E major, BWV 1006a (BWV 1006) for lute or keyboard
Sonata in D minor, BWV 964 (BWV 1003, doubtful) for keyboard
Adagio in G major, BWV 968 (from BWV 1005, doubtful) for keyboard
Chaconne, BWV 1004.
Johannes Brahms, piano left hand
Ferruccio Busoni, piano solo
William Thomas Best, organ
Henri Messerer, organ
Matthias Keller, organ, Carus-Verlag, 2011
Arno Landmann, organ, Simrock Verlag
Gustav Leonhardt, harpsichord
Pieter-Jan Belder, harpsichord
Preludio, BWV 1006
J. S. Bach, Sinfonia in BWV 29, a reworking of the Preludio from BWV 1006 for obbligato organ, trumpets, oboes and strings
Various arrangements for organ of the sinfonia, including the versions by Alexandre Guilmant, Marcel Dupré and Friedemann Winklhofer (Hans Sikorski)
British lutenist Nigel North transcribed the entire sequence for lute, as well as Bach's Cello Suites and recorded them on four CDs for Linn Records (volumes 1 to 4, respectively CKD 013, CKD 029, CKD 049, CKD 055)
Swiss-American lutenist Hopkinson Smith transcribed the entire sequence for baroque lute, as well as Bach's Cello Suites for the theorbo and recorded them on three CDs for Naïve Records (Sonatas and Partitas on E 8678, Suites 1 to 3 on E 8937, and Suites 4 to 6 on E 8938)

Selected recordings

Classical violin

Joseph Szigeti, 1931 (selected for the NARAS Hall of Fame) and 1956
Yehudi Menuhin, 1934–1944 and 1957 and 1975
George Enescu, 1948
Jascha Heifetz, 1952
Henryk Szeryng, 1954 and 1967
Emil Telmányi, 1954
Nathan Milstein, 1956 and 1973
Arthur Grumiaux, 1961, included on the Voyager Golden Record
Gidon Kremer, 1980 and 2005
Oscar Shumsky, 1983
Shlomo Mintz, 1984
Itzhak Perlman, 1988
Ida Haendel, 1995
Salvatore Accardo, 1996
Vanessa-Mae, 1996
Dmitry Sitkovetsky, 1997
James Ehnes, 2000
Gregory Fulkerson, 2000
Christian Tetzlaff, 1993, 2006 and 2017
Viktoria Mullova, 2009
Isabelle Faust, 2010–2012
Gil Shaham, 2014
Kyung Wha Chung, 2016
Julia Fischer, 2017 (re-release)
Hilary Hahn, 1997 and 2018
Milan Pala, 2018
Augustin Hadelich, 2021

Baroque violin

Sergiu Luca, 1977
Sigiswald Kuijken, 1981, 1999-2000
Jaap Schröder, 1984–1985
Monica Huggett, 1991
Lucy van Dael, 1996
Rachel Podger, 1998–1999
Elizabeth Wallfisch, 1997
Ingrid Matthews, 2000
Hélène Schmitt, 2004
John Holloway, 2004
Pavlo Beznosiuk, 2007
Alina Ibragimova, 2008-2009
Amandine Beyer, 2011
Stanley Ritchie, 2013
Rachel Barton Pine, 2016
Giuliano Carmignola, 2018
Fabio Biondi, 2020
Bojan Čičić, 2021

Viola

Scott Slapin, 2006

Violoncello

Tanya Anisimova, 2001
Mario Brunello, 2019

Keyboard

Robert Hill, 1999

Mandolin

Chris Thile, 2013, 2025
Avi Avital, 2019

Guitar

Kazuhito Yamashita, 1989
Paul Galbraith, 1998 (8-string guitar)
Eliot Fisk, 2001
Frank Bungarten, 2001
Timo Korhonen, 2009/2010
Francesco Teopini, 2016
Franz Halász, 2024

Lute

Nigel North, 1985
Hopkinson Smith, 2000

Notes

References

. Preface by Peter Wollny, pages VIII–XII.

External links

Digitised copy of autograph manuscript (1720) at the Bach Archive, Leipzig.
Free sheet music of all six works from Cantorion.org
MIDI Sequences of Bach's Violin Sonatas/Partitas
Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin Vito Paternoster – MP3 Creative Commons Recording, played on cello
Violinists talk about their approach to Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin
From liner notes of a Benedict Cruft recording
Discussion of recording history
Recordings of the Sonatas and Partitas in the 1950s at Enesco's Profile at The Remington Site
Discussion of publishing history and Second Sonata
Free Bach Violin Sheet Music With bowing and fingering instructions.
Music for Glass Orchestra by Grace Andreacchi, a novel that contains an extensive analysis of the Sonatas and partitas for Solo Violin.
Bach's Chaconne in D minor for solo violin: An application through analysis by Larry Solomon
Violinist and author Arnold Steinhardt discusses his lifelong quest to master the chaconne; interesting interview, good links
In the BBC Discovering Music: Listening Library