 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
French Suites 1-6 This suite contains my single favorite movement from all the French Suites—the sarabande. This sarabande is also among the most famous individual movements from Bach’s keyboard suites in part because it requires somewhat less facility to perform than many of his other movements, but also because it is a favorite movement for teachers of music theory to give to their students for analysis. I have done a detailed analysis of the entire movement here. You may or may not agree with it—it is surprisingly complex for as short and seemingly simple as the movement is. In this sarabande, Bach creates a static feeling through the use of many repeated notes (especially in the same “voice”) and a very slow harmonic rhythm. At the same time, the almost constant eighth notes create the opposite effect of movement. The fact that the harmonies change so slowly and so seldom is contrasting with the many non-chord tones which cloud our ears and eyes to make us think that there are many more chord changes than actually appear in this work. One of the characteristics of sarabandes in general is the emphasis on the 2nd beat. Notice here how Bach both writes strong second beats as well as weak downbeats in numerous places throughout this movement. The overall feeling of this sarabande is that of a lament, with the slow tempo, d minor key, descending bassline, and the many lamenting appoggiatura figures in all parts throughout the movement.
Like the sarabande that precedes it, the first menuet of the D minor French Suite is a bipartite movement in which the opening melody is transported to the bassline at the beginning of the second half. (This melody, and subsequent fragments of the same tune, is shown in blue below.) Furthermore, an inner countermelody appearing at the opening is given more prominence at the beginning of the second half when it shifts to the highest-sounding voice. (This countermelody, and subsequent fragments of the same, is shown in red below.) Near the end of each half, we find good sue of sequencing to accelerate the movement towards the final cadence. (See green markings) This is a prime example of Bach’s innovation in manipulating the contrapuntal material in a seemingly simple texture to create something far more complicated than it appears.
Following this is another minuet (menuet), setting up the only minuet-and-trio arrangement in all the French Suites. The second minuet is longer, but employs some of the same techniques in manipulating the counterpoint—transporting the opening melody into interior and lower voices, for example. The beginning of the second half is more chromatic than we see in menuet I, though still somewhat restrained and not deviating far from d minor. The gigue is an unusual one, with heavily dotted rhythms and set in cut time. Normally, we find gigues (and the Italian version, the giga) in triplet meter, and often using triple subdivisions of the beat. This is one of only two movements with the label “gigue” written by Bach in duple meter. (The other is also a keyboard work, in the Partita in e minor (BWV 830).) This leads to a significant performance question: should the dotted notes be performed in such a way as to feel like triplets? Little and Jenne point to other examples outside Bach’s works, so there are some precedents for this aberration from convention prior to Bach. But Bach left no instructions as to whether the movement should be “translated” into 12/8, for example, in order to keep the typical triple feel.
©2005 Carol Traupman-Carr. |
