Johann Sebastian Bach was better known as a virtuoso
organist than as a composer in his day. His sacred
music, organ and choral works, and other instrumental
music had an enthusiasm and seeming freedom that
concealed immense rigor. Bach's use of counterpoint was
brilliant and innovative, and the immense complexities
of his compositional style -- which often included
religious and numerological symbols that seem to fit
perfectly together in a profound puzzle of special
codes -- still amaze musici...(+)
Johann Sebastian Bach was better known as a virtuoso
organist than as a composer in his day. His sacred
music, organ and choral works, and other instrumental
music had an enthusiasm and seeming freedom that
concealed immense rigor. Bach's use of counterpoint was
brilliant and innovative, and the immense complexities
of his compositional style -- which often included
religious and numerological symbols that seem to fit
perfectly together in a profound puzzle of special
codes -- still amaze musicians today. Many consider him
the greatest composer of all time.
The six Bach suites for solo cello may be arranged
according to their modern, galant dance movements into
three pairs (Nos. 1 and 2 use Minuets, Nos. 3 and 4
Bourrées, and Nos. 5 and 6 Gavottes). They also form
two sequences of three in terms of key and mood
(major-minor-major), and the Suite in E flat major
opens the second group of three. This second group goes
beyond the first group of three in its contrapuntal
density and in its sense of untrammeled imagination. So
we encounter in the opening movement the use of a
repetitive arpeggio to build complex phrases, as in the
first suite. But here the sense of improvisatory
fantasy is stronger: the arpeggio descends in a gradual
figure and varies negligibly as it explores a range of
keys. Bach alternates this descending arpeggio pattern
with three wave-like cadenzas that rise and fall in a
faster rhythm and gradually begin to sound more and
more like the arpeggio figures, until both emerge in a
triumphant E flat major. The broken-up texture and the
structural ambition remind one of Bach's large,
quasi-improvisatory organ pieces.
This extension and stretching of ideas from the earlier
suites pervades the remainder of the fourth suite. The
Allemande and Courante have simple lines, like those in
the first suite, and the stately Sarabande seems like
an optimistic take on its counterpart in the second
suite. The Sarabande is noteworthy for its startlingly
consistent maintenance of the texture of melody line
with harmonic accompaniment -- on a single cello! The
main section of the double Bourrée seems to implement
a call-and-response illusion with a single line, while
the second section offers a lovely contrast with a
limpid, quiet succession of quarter notes and textural
simplicity. The quirky rhythms of the Gigue confirm
that this is new ground, deeper in its multi-instrument
contrapuntal illusions, more ambitious in scope and
depth. And this finale in turn prepares us for the
glories of the final two suites..
PARTITION