Description
Eighth notes grouped in threes run without a break through this E major Gigue in 6/8, the brisk finale of BWV 1006a. Here Bach reworked the last movement of his Partita No. 3 for solo violin, BWV 1006; which instrument the arrangement was meant for is not stated, with lute or lute-harpsichord the likeliest candidates. It brings the line of dances that began with the Prelude to a close.
The violin's quick passages sound on the keyboard together with an added bass. It has 435 notes in 99 seconds, and its range, A1 to B4, sits fairly low for this suite; the lowest note falls below the left end of a 61-key keyboard, though an octave shift fits it on one.
Rated intermediate. The task is to feel 6/8 as two large beats and carry each group of three notes without stumbling. Check how the motion is shared between the hands with the hand colours, and take a passage isolated with the A-B loop from a reduced playback speed gradually up to the original tempo. Heard after the rest of the suite, its drive as a finale comes through clearly.
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About the Composer
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
Johann Sebastian Bach was the towering figure of German Baroque music, serving for decades as Cantor of St. Thomas Church in Leipzig. Renowned for his mastery of counterpoint, he laid the foundations of keyboard music with works such as The Well-Tempered Clavier and the Inventions. This site includes minuets and polonaises from the Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach, the Inventions and Sinfonias, and fugues from The Well-Tempered Clavier. The Notebook pieces are catalogued with BWV Anh. (appendix) numbers, but many are by other composers - Petzold's minuets among them - or by no one known, and most of their song pages give the current view of who wrote them.
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