Johann Sebastian Bach's French Overture for keyboard in
B minor, BWV 831 is also known as his Partita in B
minor. It was published 1735 as the second part of his
Keyboard Practice (Clavier Übung) series. The musician
who previously occupied Bach's position at St. Thomas
Church in Leipzig, Johann Kuhnau, had begun releasing
published works for harpsichord and organ for purchase
around Easter, a time when the general public was more
prone to spending money. This music was meant to be
appealing to...(+)
Johann Sebastian Bach's French Overture for keyboard in
B minor, BWV 831 is also known as his Partita in B
minor. It was published 1735 as the second part of his
Keyboard Practice (Clavier Übung) series. The musician
who previously occupied Bach's position at St. Thomas
Church in Leipzig, Johann Kuhnau, had begun releasing
published works for harpsichord and organ for purchase
around Easter, a time when the general public was more
prone to spending money. This music was meant to be
appealing to people in general. Installments of this
series had a great deal of diversity to them. This
second installment of Bach's series also included his
famous Italian Concerto. These publications were of
high value, and made good for extra income. Both works
in this release are written in an orchestral style. The
bright, grand beginning of the Concerto is fast and
brilliant, with the melodic style more indicative of a
group of players rather than a solo instrument. The
French Overture is less enormous in sound, more regal
with its distinctive brand of noble coolness. It is a
large work of ten movements, featuring an extended,
ten-minute overture, eight dances (mostly French), and
concluding with an Echo. The opening movement is
serious and stately, but many of the shorter, following
movements are flashy and quick. Some are under a minute
in duration. While the Italian Concerto is an explosion
of orchestral sound, the Partita in B minor is stylized
in a more aristocratic manner, sometimes brushing on
the haughty side, but never so much so that it would
alienate his generally middle-class audience. In fact,
the royals were not prone to listening to exclusively
dignified and reserved music either, but these elements
of elite existence have always been overstated
throughout history.
One of these peculiar qualities of the French Overture
for keyboard in B minor is that while it emulates
Kuhnau approach, Bach does not use his normal layout of
movements: Praeludium, Allemande, Courante, Sarabande,
and Gigue. Bach used this schema for his Cello Suites
instead. For his French Overture there is no Allemande.
The other dances are there, but interspersed with
other, brief dances, many of which he used twice (2
separate Gavottes, for example.) The result is a
multi-faceted, plural excursion into polyphonic writing
with a touch of the new galant stylizations to keep
them current and popular among those keen to stay with
the times. They remain fundamentally Baroque in the
melodic sequencing and general lack of sustainable
homophony. All of Bach's Partitas suffered from charges
of excessive difficulty. They were meant to be expand
the player's technique, and residents of Leipzig were
especially musical and up for taking on new musical
challenges. Bach appreciated this but tended to write
on a professional level for the keyboard. His ideas
were essentially virtuostic and products of the High
Baroque; beauty did not come with an exquisitely
rendered melody but in twining arabesque melodies.
Though the era of emergence of the popularity of style
galant, which the final part of Bach's career overlaps,
was about the simplicity of a single melody, it was not
in his nature to write in that manner. Bach's dense and
magnificent ideas were falling out of favor, but that
was not terribly apparent at this time in Leipzig. He
did learn how to emulate style galant in some ways, but
Bach never let it hold much sway over his writing.
Nonetheless, the French Overture is fun in its own way:
tough to play, but a joy to hear.
PARTITION