Suite No. 1 in G major for solo cello BWV 1007 (c1720)

3 movements from Suite No. 1 in G major for solo cello BWV 1007 (c1720)

Sarabande

Menuets I & II

Gigue

The centre of gravity in Bach’s suites for solo cello is in each case the fourth movement, the sarabande, which is not always the longest of the six but is usually the most expressive. The Sarabande of Suite No.1 in G major, the least developed work in the series, is nearer than most to its dance origins in that it so clearly retains the characteristic emphasis on the second beat of the bar, often marked by a trill or a double-stopped chord. It is no less melodious or less thoughtful for that, however. It is followed by a pair of tuneful Menuets, the first (in G major) repeated after the second (in G minor). The last movement in all six of the suites is a lively Gigue, this one being the shortest of them but not the least entertaining.

Prélude

Allemande

Courante

Sarabande

Menuets I and II

Gigue

One of the many things we do not know about Bach’s six solo cello suites – and we know even less about them than the sonatas and partitas for solo violin – is the order in which they were written. Even so, while we cannot be sure that No.1 in G major is the first in order of composition, it is tempting to think it is, if only because it is the shortest of a set in which each work is longer than its predecessor. Another, more fanciful, reason for thinking of it as the first is the way in which an instrument then normally confined to the continuo emerges as a soloist in the Prélude. Although the figuration is in semiquavers virtually throughout, it is tied at first to a repeated insistence on a tonic pedal and only gradually liberates itself. At about the half-way point, after pausing thoughtfully on the dominant, it takes more and more risks, culminating in a climactic rise in semitone steps to the highest note it will touch on in the whole work.

As in the five other suites, the Prélude is followed by an Allemande, a Courante and a Sarabande, none of them the most ambitious of its kind. Those movement are admirable, however, for their (respectively) linear fluency, tuneful good humour and rhythmic elegance. When they come to the fifth movement the cello suites pair off: the fifth and sixth opt for the gavotte, the third and fourth the bourrée, the first and second the minuet, presenting two examples of the favoured dance in each case. Suite No.1 offers a particularly effective contrast between the cheerful disposition of a minuet in G major and the discreet but unexpected pathos of its companion in G minor. The sixth movement, it is generally agreed, can be in 3/8, 6/8 or 12/8 as long as it is a gigue. The 6/8 Gigue in G major is the shortest of the six but as entertaining as any.

Prélude

Allemande

Courante

Sarabande

Menuets I and II

Gigue

We know even less about Bach’s six solo cello suites than we know about his sonatas and partitas for solo violin. If the composer’s manuscript for the cello suites were available the situation would be different but, unlike that of the violin works, it is lost: printed editions all derive from one or more of four, frequently contradictory, copies made by other hands. Otherwise the problems are much the same. It is probable that both the cello and the violin works were written during the composer’s time at the court of Anhalt-Cöthen but we do not know, and cannot guess with any confidence, for whom they were intended, prodigious musicians though they must have been. It has been suggested that for the cello suites Bach had Christian Ferdinand Abel in mind but, while it is known that the two men were friends at Cöthen and that Abel was a highly accomplished exponent of the viola da gamba, it is not known how much he played the cello – an instrument which, unlike the gamba, was more often hidden in the continuo at that time than featured as a solo instrument.

It would obviously be fanciful to claim the first movement of Suite No. in G major, the shortest of the six preludes, as symbolic of the cello’s emergence from its modest role in the continuo. Even so, although the figuration is in semiquavers virtually throughout, it is tied at first to a repeated insistence on a tonic pedal and liberates itself only gradually. At about the half-way point, after pausing thoughtfully on the dominant, it takes more and more risks, culminating in a climactic rise in semitones to the highest note it will touch on in the whole work. As in the five other suiites, the Prélude is followed by an Allemande, a Courante and a Sarabande – none of them the most ambitious of their kind, admirable though they are for (respectively) linear fluency, tuneful good humour and rhythmic elegance.

When they come to the fifth movement the cello suites pair off: the fifth and sixth opt for the gavotte, the third and fourth the bourrée, the first and second the minuet, presenting two examples of the favoured dance in each case. Suite No.1 offers a particularly effective contrast between the cheerful disposition of a minuet in G major and the discreet but unexpected pathos of its companion in G minor. The sixth movement, it is generally agreed, can be in 3/8, 6/8 or 12/8 as long as it is a gigue. The 6/8 Gigue in G major is the shortest of the six but is as entertaining as any.