Bach Partita №2- Chaconne
The Chaconne. Its name strikes awe, respect, fear, and admiration in any violinist who has sought to learn it. Written as the finale of his 2nd partita for solo violin, J.S Bach’s Chaconne is a notoriously difficult, yet beautiful piece in violin repertoire. It is on average 16–19 minutes long, making it the longest movement of Bach’s sonata and partita, and per tradition is usually performed from entirely from memory. Ironically, it has also become a standard in violin repertoire because of how instructive such a challenging piece can be. By going through the process of learning such a long, and diverse piece, one comes to understand how to learn large pieces, and, more importantly, learns a great number of different violin techniques as well. For this reason, the Chaconne is an essential part of the violin cannon.
Musicians are perfecting their technical mastery of the violin for their entire career. The Chaconne demands technical perfection of any performer, and is a great catalyst in this process. Since it is solo violin, clarity and intonation are essential, as there is no other instrument playing to cover mistakes. Throughout the piece, melody and chords are called for which must be executed in perfect time and rhythm. Chords are particularly difficult, but essential for any violinist. Fingers are placed on multiple strings, and then played simultaneously, creating a multi-voiced note in an otherwise linear melody. Bach uses this “double-stop” technique very generously, creating fugues and progressions throughout the piece, even using chords to mask changes of the melody’s register. This idea of voicing register becomes particularly important when deciding the execution of each chord. Are the notes of the chord played together, or is it a broken chord? If the chord is to be broken into smaller parts, how is it divided up? Is the top or bottom grouping played first? Is there an accent on a certain grouping? These are just a few of the many questions a performer must answer.
One of the most iconic techniques of the Chaconne, and one of my personal favorites, is arpeggiation. Starting in measure 89 and going to measure 120, Then again occurring at 201–208, are beautifully mesmerizing arpeggio passages where Bach illustrates his iconic use of harmonic progression. (Bach, 6 Sonatas and Partitas S. 1001- S. 1006 1971) However, this technique does come with its daunting difficulties. Similar in technique to multiple stop chords, this technique adds a difficult bowing element. The bow is to be used in a way as to emphasize every string, in rapid sequence clearly and calmly. Intense finger dexterity is required to perform these passages correctly, as the performer plays across the strings without extraneous sounds. Additionally, an element of beauty is required by phrasing and dynamics to develop the passage. But, how does one make informed decisions about phrasing and interpretation? How does a musician really know what aspects of the composition are traditionally respected, and what is within artistic right to change? It all comes down to what music you are using.
Bach’s Chaconne is unique in respect to editions for a few reasons. First of all, autographed manuscripts in Bach’s handwriting are publicly available. This makes for many opinions on how “authentic” you want your performance to be. Bach did not write fingering markings, and the slurs he uses are not necessarily used to solely indicate bowing. Bach wrote this way because musicians in his day had a common understanding of the ornamentation, and musical forms and styles of the days. Similar to modern day jazz notation, there are no dynamic markings, and no articulation, except for a few slurs. Many of these performance practices have fallen out of style or have been lost which means a thorough study and understanding of Baroque performance style can take years of training and study outside of the practice room. Edited editions put these concepts into “modern terms”, by indicating the general dynamic level and articulation throughout the pieces allowing amateurs to understand this older form of music.
Bach understood the limits of the violin, and like any great composer he pushed those limits. This opened the doors for new music that had never been written, but it also called for Musicians with greater skill and mastery. For this reason, publishers often edit in fingering options, and suggested bowings discovered and used by other violinists. This makes learning the piece much faster and simpler.
There are several notable printing companies that print the Bach Chaconne, but I personally use 2 editions that vary in editing. First is the International Edition, edited by Ivan Galamian, a prolific violin teacher and performer (Bach, 6 Sonatas and Partitas S. 1001- S. 1006 1971). As such, he adds many bowings, fingerings and articulation markings. The music is heavily edited, even changing the way certain passages are written to more accurately match what he thought the piece should sound like. This edition also has the added benefit of a complete facsimile of a signed Bach manuscript. The handwritten manuscript is difficult to sight read quickly, but is a great resource to see what Bach intended. The other edition I use is a Bärenreiter Urtext Edition (Bach 2001). This is a printed copy of Bach original writing. There are very few edited notes in it, and is a good, clear copy, that I use to notate, and add markings and ‘edits’ I like.
The Chaconne is part of the musical canon because of tradition. Felix Mendelssohn brought forward Bach’s compositions as credible and respectable, and ever since then, these sonatas and partitas have received great attention by music theorists, historians, and of course, millions of musicians for more than a century. Because of this tradition, it became a standard in the violin performance canon, by which violinists could be measured. It is now seen as a requirement in competitions, and auditions all around the world. The wide recognition of this as a great standard work for the violin motivated me to begin studying it at this point in my career. To master it, for me, means to achieve a great milestone in my development as a musician, opening many more opportunities for competitions and auditions in my future.
The traditional nature of this piece meant that I have known about it for many years. It is exciting to finally tackle it, but in order to more fully round my own musical canon I plan to find pieces and composers that are not as well known. I am interested in the repertoire of the solo violin, because of it’s ability to be played anywhere at any time, and because of the interesting challenge it faces composers and performers alike: How to make one instrument sound like many. There is a surprising amount of diversity in this canon, ranging from Bach and Telemann to Bartok and Prokofiev. Each composer is able to invoke a unique style unlike anything else. It is one of the best ways to showcase the dynamic ability of this wonderful instrument.
Bibliography
Bach, J.S. 6 Sonatas and Partitas S. 1001- S. 1006. Edited by Ivan Galamian. New York: International Music Company, 1971.
— . Drei Sonaten und Drei Partiten. Kassel: Barenreiter-Verlag, 2001.
