Description
Two voices interweave densely and almost without a break in this B-flat major allemande, the second movement of Partita No. 1, which follows the transparency of the prelude. The allemande began as a German dance, but in Bach's suites it long ago left any dancing function behind and became the place where the most closely worked part-writing goes.
Across the common time, fine note values run on in both hands, the right hand playing nearly twice as many notes as the left. There is no division into melody and accompaniment; two independent lines each carry their own song while sharing the harmony between them. It is among the longest movements in the suite.
There are no leaps or double stops to speak of; what makes it advanced is the concentration needed to hold two voices in balance for two and a half minutes. When the hands are put together after separate practice, check by ear that the voices match in volume. Ornaments should not be dispatched at speed: fix their place within the beat first, and the lines stay clean.
Suite-form works from the Baroque era; Bach's Partitas, a sequence of varied dances, are ranked among the greatest keyboard works.
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Sheet music provided by Mutopia Project
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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