Prior to Bach, few composers attempted to write major works for unaccompanied violin; this is not entirely surprising when one considers that the violin was a relative baby in the European instrumental world. Through the end of the Renaissance and into the early 17^th century, the viol family ruled the string world. It was in Italy that the violin really took hold first (and, no doubt, this is why the oldest Italian violins–the Amati and Stradaverius models especially–are so highly prized). But one of Bach’s German predecessors, Heinrich Biber, was among the earliest violin virtuosos. He introduced double and triple stops (playing two or three pitches simultaneously) to the repertoire, and began to treat the violin as a distinctly different instrument from its Renaissance ancestor. Perhaps Biber’s works, which do include some unaccompanied works, were the inspiration for Bach.

We do not know for whom Bach wrote these works. There were a few excellent violinists in the Cöthen court, and Bach himself was an accomplished violinist. Bach composed six multi-movement works for unaccompanied violin: three are titled "sonata" and three are "partita." Each of the sonatas begins with a slow movement, then has a fugue as the second movement–a challenge for the performer, who must make each of the necessary individual lines speak on this single instrument with only four strings. The partitas use French stylized dances for the movements.

The Chaconne from Partita No. 2 in D minor for Unaccompanied Violin may be the single most famous movement from these unaccompanied works for violin; it is among the most famous movements from Bach’s chamber works as well. This particular movement may have been inspired by the famous chaconne from Corelli’s "La folia" sonata. By the time Bach wrote the Partita No. 2 in D minor, Corelli’s violin sonatas, published in 1700, were well known throughout Europe and were looked to as models for violin writing. Although Corelli’s sonatas were all accompanied by continuo, they still could have served as models for Bach; perhaps he even studied them as a violinist himself, and they therefore had a subconscious influence on his own works.

A chaconne is French dance, although modern audiences hardly ever consider it as a dance. We are most familiar with the term "chaconne" (French) as being synonymous with "passacaglia" (Italian) and "ground bass" (English)–that is, any of these terms indicates a repeating melodic line (usually in the bass and composed of four or eight measures) with strong harmonic implications, over which an embellished texture is built. The number of repetitions of the ground bass (the term means both the melody which repeats and the composition based on that repeating bassline) is variable from one work to the next. Chaconnes are almost always in triple meter and performed at a moderately slow tempo–largely to accommodate the many ornamental passages which will follow. Chaconnes are similar to sarabandes in their triple meter, moderately slow tempo, and the frequent emphasis on the second beat–often through the use of a longer rhythm than appeared on the downbeat.

This chaconne is considered one of the most important contributions to the genre. Brahms admired it enough to write a piano piece based on Bach’s work. Because this work is written for solo violin, there is no actual bassline; instead, the melodic phrase on which the entire composition will be based is presented in a middle register of the violin. (The chaconne/passacaglia/ground bass theme is normally presented alone, without accompaniment, the first time.) The opening portion of the score is presented below. Notice that the initial statement is chordal, which creates a distinct harmonic impression in the listeners’ ears before Bach clouds the texture with rapid rhythms and many figurations:

The chaconne moves from D minor to D major for the middle portion, closing with a final section in D minor. Related colors in the score above show pairs of related variations: red and pink, light and dark green, dark and light purple, etc. Notice that the type of ornamentation/variation used by Bach seems to carry for pairs of statements: the initial statement (red) and the one that follows (pink) are both chordal. The next two use dotted rhythms and rising stepwise motion; the third pair has the descending chromatic passage below (marked with light blue) [I’m running out of colors! J ] But don’t worry about following the variations, or the pairs of variations, or about counting the total statements–simply sit back and enjoy how Bach weaves such a complicated fabric out of such little initial material.

©2003 Carol Traupman-Carr.