Johann Sebastian Bach
Poster by T.A.
Poster by T.A.
Bach
Lute Suites
The dates of the seven surviving compositions for lute, apparently his total output for the instrument, cover at least 30 years. The earliest work is the Suite in E minor BWV 996, which dates from the Weimar period; it already shows a surprisingly balanced construction. The Prelude in C minor BWV 999 shows an affinity with the ‘48’, and may thus belong to the Cöthen or early Leipzig period. All the other lute works were composed in Leipzig, starting with the Fugue in G minor BWV 1000, an expanded polyphonic development from the violin fugue in BWV 1001, which like BWV 997 is in a tablature copied by Bach’s friend, the Leipzig lutenist Christian Weyrauch. The Suite in G minor BWV 995 after BWV 1011 for cello dates from the period 1727–31 and is dedicated in Bach’s autograph to an unidentifiable ‘Monsieur Schouster’. The Suite in E BWV 1006a, after 1006 for violin also survives in autograph form and is a much less demanding arrangement of its model as compared with BWV 1000 and 995; it dates from the second half of the 1730s. Bach must have composed the Suite in C minor BWV 997 before 1741; this is an original lute composition and is laid out in a similar virtuoso fashion to the Prelude, Fugue and Allegro in E♭ BWV 998 which can be ascribed to the early 1740s. They require an instrument with 10 to 14 strings, but in Bach’s day were at least occasionally played on the lute-harpsichord, an instrument in whose construction Bach had assisted. The indistinct line between lute and harpsichord music is illustrated by the autograph of BWV 998, marked ‘pour La Luth ò Cembal’.
The late works may have been written for the Dresden lutenists Sylvius Leopold Weiss and Johann Kropffgans, and in any case were probably played by them. There is evidence that Weiss and Kropffgans performed at Bach’s house at least once, in 1739. Bach’s arrangement for violin and harpsichord of Weiss’s lute suite in A major BWV 1025 may have been made in connection with this occasion. Bach’s contributions to the repertory of the lute, long past its heyday but enjoying a final flowering in the German-speaking countries, represent, along with the works of Weiss, the culmination of the instrument’s 18th-century repertory.
Christoph Wolff – Essays on his Life and Music, pages 214-222
BWV 995: Gavotte I & II – Julia Trintschuk
BWV 996: Prelude & Presto – Mari Mäntylä
BWV 996: Sarabande – Andreas Martin
BWV 996: Bourrée – Andreas Martin
BWV 997: Prelude – Anne Haasche
BWV 997: Fugue – Patrik Kleemola
BWV 997: Sarabande – Daniel Estrem
BWV 998: Prelude and Fugue – Anika Hutschreuther
BWV 999: Prelude – David Tayler
BWV 1000: Fugue – Ian Watt
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