English Suites (complete)

Last year, in the notes for Bach’s French Suites, I remarked that two aspects of that designation can be misleading. The same two caveats will apply to the English Suites discussed today. First, Bach did not use the title “English Suites.” He would have called them simply “suites” or perhaps “suites pour clavecin or cembalo”; several terms for keyboard were generally in use. Second, there remains nothing particularly English about the works themselves. Rather, the title may refer to an English patron involved in Bach’s original composition, or it may reference similar suites that Bach knew and which were composed in England or for English consumption. Thus, while we might wish to see them as one-third of a cosmopolitan triumvirate—alongside the French Suites and Italian Partitas—there appears to have been no impulse in Bach’s mind to create such a tidy structure. In fact, the English Suites actually represent one of his most successful syntheses of French and Italian elements.
We are not on much firmer ground when it comes to dating the English Suites. In general, these Suites are larger and more ambitious than the French Suites or Partitas. This led some scholars to place them around 1720 or slightly later. However, recent opinion holds that they were composed as early as 1715, while Bach was in Weimar. Lacking conclusive evidence, we can safely date the English Suites to the latter days at Weimar or the early days in Cöthen (thus, 1715-18). Bach devoted much time in both cities to instrumental composition.

In their earlier manifestations, keyboard suites included many different titled movements, mostly dances like pavanes, galliards, and minuets. By the early 1700’s, the suite format had coalesced around four core elements: an allemande in moderate tempo, a faster courante, a slow and often poignant sarabande, and fast gigue. One factor distinguishing the English Suites from their cousins is the presence of an opening prelude, which Bach includes in all six Suites before the allemandes. Opening preludes were extremely rare in the North German tradition of Bach’s youth. Their appearance shows Bach’s awareness of 17th-century French lutenists. Lute suites generally opened with a short improvisatory, possibly “unmeasured” prelude. By contrast, Bach’s preludes are strictly measured and swell to proportions akin to a concerto’s opening allegro.
Such concerto-style preludes actually help date these works, for Bach’s exposure to Vivaldian concerto forms in 1713-14 strongly influenced his musical style from then on. The most modest prelude is the opening of the A-major Suite, which features just two sections: a short arpeggiated introduction followed by a fluid, imitative main section. On the other hand, the prelude to Suite No. 6 (in D minor) could be an entire work in itself. At roughly nine minutes, it is twice as long as any of the other five preludes. At the tail end of each suite, Bach puts a fast, contrapuntal gigue in the best Italian style. Thus these “English” Suites are bookended by traditions developed either south of the Channel or even south of the Alps.
Between the opening prelude and closing gigue, these suites contain four French-flavored dances: allemande, courante, sarabande, and an “alternative” dance that varies from case to case, such as a bourée or passepied. (In passing, it may be mentioned that none of Bach’s dances were written for actual dancing.) The allemandes do not carry the burden of opening the whole affair, and as such they are free to be more languorous than in Bach’s other suites. For instance, the vigorous fugal prelude of Suite No. 3 in G minor allows the following allemande to carve out an entirely new emotional realm—should the performer wish to highlight the contrast. Occasionally, elements recur that unite multiple movements in a way that is not common with Bach. His predecessors actually used such motivic connections more frequently. Instead, we enjoy contrasting moods as we pass through a musical landscape unified by key.

ENGLISH SUITES NOS. 2, 4, 5
In the notes for Part 1 of these English Suites, performed by Carsten Schmidt in late September, I remarked that Bach did not use the title “English Suites.” He would have called them simply suites or perhaps suites pour clavecin or cembalo. The designation was added for later publication, though it may refer to an English patron or publishing connection that Bach did know. Furthermore, there remains nothing particularly English about the works themselves. In fact, they are more French in style than the so-called “French Suites” that Bach composed around the same time—which we think was roughly 1715 to 1718.
The French connection comes through most strongly in Bach’s decision to include an opening prelude in all six Suites. By the early 1700’s, the suite format had coalesced around four core dances: an allemande in moderate tempo, a faster courante, a slow and often poignant sarabande, and fast gigue. Opening preludes were extremely rare in the North German tradition, which nearly always placed the requisite allemande in first position. On the other hand, French lute suites typically did open with a short improvisatory, possibly “unmeasured” prelude before the dances. Bach’s preludes are strictly measured and swell to proportions akin to a concerto’s opening allegro, but his decision to include the opening prelude is clearly a gesture toward French musical tastes. (It should be noted that Bach encountered French culture at several points in his early years, from the court at Luneburg to the famous “pseudo-Versailles” at the German court of Celle.)
The preludes themselves depict the widest range of influences and affects. That in F major (Suite No. 4) recalls Bach’s two-part inventions and is likewise largely based on canonic imitation between two voices. A central indulges in fuller, three- and four-part textures, before the opening invention recurs to close. Contrast this with the furious fugal prelude in E minor that opens Suite No. 5. It is driven and intense, unrelenting exploration of the subject material carried through numerous keys and registers. Striking a pose somewhere in between is the brilliant A-minor prelude (Suite No. 2), which merges the two-part invention texture with the leaping athletics of the latest Italian violin idioms. In a show of typical bravura, Bach merges a French idea (opening prelude), Italianate skipwise main theme, and German interest in rich, thoroughgoing counterpoint.

In addition to the preludes and core dance movements, Bach adds three “alternative” dances to these Suites, including a bourée, menuet, and passepied. Suite No. 4 actually includes two minuets: one in the tonic key (F major), the other in the relative minor (D minor). Both are fairly fluid and melodic in keeping with the general tone of the suite. The passepied was considered a slightly faster version of the minuet (both were in triple), though it may be only the more continuous texture that gives the illusion of faster tempo. To find something genuinely more intense and motoric, one need go no further than the inspired first bourré from the A-minor English Suite. It is surely a highlight among movements that comprise one of Bach’s finest suites for any instrument.

(c) Jason Stell