Sonata No.3 in C major for solo violin, BWV 1005

Adagio

Fuga (alla breve)

Largo

Allegro assai

The major technical problem for the present-day violinist in performing Bach’s solo sonatas and partitas (he wrote three of each) is the result of two comparatively modern developments, the concave bow and the high-arched bridge. Both of them make it harder to play on two or more strings at once. The sonatas and partitas, on the other hand, are abundant in multi-stopped effects of all kinds.

In the Adagio prelude to Sonata No.3 in C, for example, the stately progress of the melodic line is accompanied by harmonies which apparently require the violinist to play on all four strings at once. Many of these chords can be simulated by spreading them in arpeggios but not all of them. And what is the violinist to do about holding onto one note while playing a six-note phrase underneath it?

These problems, however, are negligible compared with those of the ensuing Fuga which is a virtual-reality fugue in four parts based on the chorale melody “Komm, heiliger Geist”. The fact that it is impossible to play four parts at once does not prevent the inspired composer giving the impression that it is actually happening - by postulating the harmonies which would have been created by the contrapuntal interaction of four voices - and sublimely going through the whole formal process, including non-fugal episodes and entries in stretto and in inversion.

Although there are multi-stops in the lyrical Largo in F major, the principal feature here is the supple melodic line and the increasingly elaborate decorations applied to it. The Allegro assai is more like a concerto finale, with no chords but with the occasional brilliantly conceived illusion of two voices in excited dialogue.

Adagio

Fuga (alla breve)

Largo

Allegro assai

The major technical problem for the present-day violinist in performing Bach’s solo sonatas and partitas - he wrote three of each - is the result of two comparatively modern developments, the concave bow and the high-arched bridge. Both of them make it more difficult to play on more than two strings at once. The sonatas and partitas, on the other hand, are abundant in multi-stopped harmonic and contrapuntal effects of all kinds. Unless he was being perversely idealistic, he must have known at least one violinist at the court of Anhalt-Cöthen (where he finalised the collection of these works in about 1720) who excelled in such effects. Or perhaps he had himself in mind as a performer. In either case, even though no other composer of the time is known to have written anything anywhere near as ambitious in this style, Bach was surely working within the capabilities of the violin as he knew it in his day.

In the Adagio prelude to Sonata No.3 in C the stately progress of the melodic line - based almost exclusively on a two-note figure in dotted rhythm - is accompanied by harmonies which apparently require the violinist to play on all four strings at once. On a modern instrument most of these chords have to be simulated by spreading them in arpeggios. As for holding onto a chord while simultaneously bowing a melodic phrase above or below it, the scoring seems to be more theoretical than practical in this case. Whether the same restrictions would have applied in the early eighteenth century it is impossible to say, but it seems that at least some of them would have been inevitable even then.

These problems are negligible, however, compared with those of the ensuing Fuga which is a virtual-reality fugue in four parts based on one of Bach’s favourite chorale melodies, “Komm, heiliger Geist.” The fact that it is impossible to play four parts at once does not prevent the inspired composer giving the impression that it is actually happening - by postulating the harmonies which would have been created by the contrapuntal interaction of four voices - and sublimely going through the whole formal process, including non-fugal episodes and entries in stretto and in inversion.

Although there are multi-stops in the lyrical Largo in F major, the principal feature here is the supple melodic line and the increasingly elaborate decorations applied to it. The Allegro assai is more like a concerto finale, with no chords but with the occasional brilliantly conceived illusion of two voices in excited dialogue.