Partita No.5 in G major BWV 829 (c 1726)

Praeambulum

Allemande

Corrente

Sarabande

Tempo di Minuetto

Passepied

Gigue

Although the six Partitas were the first of Bach’s keyboard suites to be published – they were issued separately between 1726 and 1730 and then collected together as Part I of the Clavierübung in 1731 – they actually represent the culmination of his work in that form. Some are less ambitious than others, it is true. But there is nothing in the earlier English Suites or French Suites to equal the stature of Partita No.4 in D or, even more impressive, No.6 in E minor. Having held back No.6 for at least five years to present it as the culmination of the Clavierübung – it was ready for inclusion in Anna Magadalena’s Clavierbüchlein in 1725 – Bach chose to offset it with the present work which is not only shorter but also, thanks partly to its G major tonality, brighter in temperament.

The Praeambulum of Partita No.5 in G is a delightfully spontaneous construction which distributed its favours, unevenly and unpredictably, between three different kinds of material – short descending scales followed by two or three clipped chords, a fantasia-like hand-crossing exchange of scales and arpeggios, and a more sustained two-part texture of quavers against semiquavers. Featuring fluent triplet figuration in two-part imitative counterpoint, the Allemande inverts the opening theme half-way through. A comparatively simple Corrente, where left and right hands exchange their roles at the half-way point, precedes a trio Sarabande with the two upper parts in the elaborately notated right hand and the third in the eloquent left. The next movement is headed Tempo di Minuetto rather than Menuet presumably because, in order to counteract the triple time prevailing in all other movements but the Allemande, it is written for the most part in such a way as to give the impression of a two-in-the bar 6/8. The contrastingly straightforward 3/8 Passepied is followed by one of the most brilliant of all Bach’s gigues, which is presented first as a fugue and then, after the entry of a new theme in the second half, as a technically challenging double fugue.