Musically Speaking

Johann Sebastian Bach typically composed works in groups – six Brandenburg Concertos, fifteen three-part Sinfonias, six Sonatas for violin and harpsichord, etc. He composed for the flute, although not in such tidy groupings; and he wrote exactly one piece for flute alone, the Partita.

Before 1717 all of Bach’s compositions involving the “flute” were actually composed for the recorder. It was only after he moved from Weimar to Cöthen that Bach began writing specifically for the transverse flute, or traverso. The very first piece he composed for the new-fangled traverso was the Partita.

The Partita presents a quandary to the flutist. In the first movement, the Allemande, Bach writes continuous sixteenth notes, as if writing for a string instrument. He provides no dynamic indications, no phrasing indications, no ornamentation, no editing, – just sixteenth notes and bar lines. Two hundred eighty eight sixteenth notes pass before the first pause for breath is provided.  How can we possibly perform the thing?

We must find enough freedom in our phrasing to allow time for breath. As in speech, phrases may be long or short, urgent or leisurely; some passages have a headlong trajectory, some tread water. As we play, we listen for the architecture and logic of Bach’s notes; having been chosen by him, there is genius in their arrangement. Phrases, sequences, and cadences become apparent, and in the welter of notes we seek places where we can catch breath with the least disruption to the music’s progress.

The three remaining movements of the Partita present no such quandaries. But the fact that Bach never again wrote a Partita for solo flute – let alone an Allemande – suggests that he realized that, in performance, it presents a real challenge.

Fenwick Smith