Sarabande from Partita in A minor BWV 1013 (1722–23)

Like the solo violin sonatas and partitas and the cello suites, the Partita in A minor for solo flute is generally thought to have been written during Bach’s time as Kapellmeister at Cöthen. Dissenting opinion draws attention to flute writing that is more “advanced” than that of Brandenburg Concerto No.5 and attributes it on those grounds to a later period. But no composer, least of all Bach, would write for an unaccompanied wind instrument in the same way as for one that is part of an ensemble of three soloists with string and continuo accompaniment. Certainly, the Partita in A minor presents problems for the flautist, not least the absence of breathing spaces – which, unless the secret of “circular breathing” had already been discovered, seems a curious omission on the composer’s part. That particular problem is not so evident in the Sarabande, the slowest of the four dance movements of the Partita, where the rhythm of breathing and the phrasng of the graceful solo line usually coincide.