Classical Music | Guitar Music

Recorded on 11/02/2009, uploaded on 11/02/2009

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Lute Suite in C minor, BWV 997    Johann Sebastian Bach

Bach only composed two actual suites for the lute, the others being transcriptions of violin or cello works. The Suite in C minor, BWV 997 is thought to have been composed while Bach was Leipzig, possibly around 1740. Like many of the works of Bach’s last decade, its emotional depth is staggering, though with the restrained quality of an objective bystander; its structural details are also quite extraordinary and indicative of Bach’s later music.

The Suite has only four movements but only two are those usually found in a dance suite. It begins with a Prelude of poignant affect. It is through-composed in two voices. The upper voice unfolds in a florid line of sixteenth notes while the lower voice provides a steady foundation of mostly quarter notes. Following the Prelude, instead of the usual allemande, is a three-voice Fuga. The structure of this fugue is quite unusual. In place of the usual fugal form, Bach uses the da capo aria as the blueprint for this fugue. A full repeat of the first section is made after a contrasting middle section. It is remarkable to see such a wide departure from the fugal form in the Baroque period. In a sense, it is prophetic of the great expansion and changes the fugue would undergo at the hands of Beethoven.

The remaining two movements, a Sarabande and Gigue, are the two movements one would expect to end a dance suite. The Sarabande follows the pattern of the prelude with a florid upper voice held down by a steadily moving bass, with only a few points of imitation added between the voices. The Gigue is followed by a Double. The basic melodic and harmonic outline is retained throughout the Double with the melody embellished to a continuous line of sixteenth notes.    Joseph DuBose

Eric Henderson performs Prelude Ste No 2 by Johann Sebastian Bach from his CD "Homage" http://www.erichenderson.org/