Partita for Violin No. 2 (Bach)

The Partita in D minor for solo violin (BWV 1004) by Johann Sebastian Bach was written during the period 1717–1723 and one scholar, Professor Helga Thoene, suggests this partita, and especially its last movement, was a tombeau, written in memory of Bach's first wife, Maria Barbara Bach (who died in 1720), though this theory is controversial. The partita contains five movements, given in Italian as:

1. Allemanda
2. Corrente
3. Sarabanda
4. Giga
5. Ciaccona

The Ciaccona

Ciaccona

The Ciaconna, commonly known as "the Chaconne," is composed in D minor and is set in simple triple meter. It contains the commonly and well known baseline, D D C♯ D B♭ G A D, and the subject, known as the romanesca, D C B♭ A, a baseline descending from tonic to dominant within four bars. The Chaconne contains three repetitions of the four-bar theme and a total of sixty-one four-bar variations, thirty after each of the first two themes and the remaining one after the third as a final cadence. Bach employs several different variational techniques in the Chaconne, several of them resulting in implied counterpoint of four or more voices, remarkable for a composition for a solo instrument.

Violinist Joshua Bell has said the Chaconne is "not just one of the greatest pieces of music ever written, but one of the greatest achievements of any man in history. It's a spiritually powerful piece, emotionally powerful, structurally perfect." Johannes Brahms, in a letter to Clara Schumann, said about the ciaccona:

On one stave, for a small instrument, the man writes a whole world of the deepest thoughts and most powerful feelings. If I imagined that I could have created, even conceived the piece, I am quite certain that the excess of excitement and earth-shattering experience would have driven me out of my mind.

See also

• Sonatas and partitas for solo violin (Bach)

Bibliography

• Humphreys, David. 2002. "Esoteric Bach". Early Music 30, no. 2 (May): 307.
• Rich, Alan. 2006. "Morimur: Is There Sex after Bach?" In his So I've Heard: Notes of a Migratory Music Critic, 66–67. Milwaukee: Amadeus. ISBN 1574671332.
• Silbiger, Alexander. 1999. "Bach and the Chaconne". The Journal of Musicology 17, no. 3 (Summer): 358–85.
• Thoene, Helga. 1994. "Johann Sebastian Bach. Ciaconna—Tanz oder Tombeau. Verborgene Sprache eines berühmten Werkes". In Festschrift zum Leopoldfest [15. Köthener Bachfesttage] , 14–81. Cöthener Bach-Hefte 6, Veröffentlichungen des Historischen Museums Köthen/Anhalt XIX. Köthen.
• Thoene, Helga. 2001. Johann Sebastian Bach, Ciaccona: Tanz oder Tombeau?—Eine analytische Studie. Oschersleben: Ziethen. ISBN 3-935358-60-1.
• Thoene, Helga. 2003. "Verborgener Klang und verschlüsselte Sprache in den Werken für Violine solo von Johann Sebastian Bach". In AnsBACHwoche, Almanach: 25 Juli bis 3. August 2003, 22–35. Ansbach: Bachwoche Ansbach GmbH.

External links

• Solo violin partita No. 2: Free scores at the International Music Score Library Project.
• Bach's Chaconne in D minor for solo violin: An application through analysis by Larry Solomon
• Nathan Milstein playing the Chaconne
• Recording of Busoni's transcription of the Chaconne by Boris Giltburg in MP3 format
• Partita No. 2 (complete), played on electric bass by Dave Grossman (Audio and Video)
• Violinist and author Arnold Steinhardt discusses his lifelong quest to master the chaconne; interesting interview, good links
• Audio of Joshua Bell playing at L'Enfant Plaza in January 2007 for largely oblivious commuters; includes 2 performances of the complete chaconne
• Partita No. 2 performed on guitar by Yaron Hasson