Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin (Bach)

The sonatas and partitas for solo violin (BWV 1001–1006) are a set of six works composed by Johann Sebastian Bach. They are sometimes referred to in English as the sonatas and partias for solo violin in accordance with Bach's headings in the autograph manuscript: "Partia" (plural "Partien") was commonly used in German-speaking regions during Bach's time, whereas the Italian "partita" was introduced to this set in the 1879 Bach Gesellschaft edition, having become standard by that time.[1][page needed] The set consists of three sonatas da chiesa in four movements and three partitas (or partias) in dance-form movements. The 2nd Partita is widely known for its Chaconne, considered one of the most masterly and expressive works ever written for solo violin.[2]

Title page of the autograph manuscript of BWV 1001–1006, dated 1720

The set was completed by 1720 but was not published until 1802 by Nikolaus Simrock in Bonn. Even after publication, it was largely ignored until the celebrated violinist Joseph Joachim started performing these works. Today, Bach's Sonatas and Partitas are an essential part of the violin repertoire, and they are frequently performed and recorded.


History of compositionEdit

Opening adagio from BWV 1001 in autograph manuscript, 1720

The surviving autograph manuscript of the sonatas and partitas was made by Bach in 1720 in Köthen, where he was Kapellmeister. As Wolff (2002) comments, the paucity of sources for instrumental compositions prior to Bach's period in Leipzig makes it difficult to establish a precise chronology; nevertheless, a copy made by the Weimar organist Johann Gottfried Walther in 1714 of the Fugue in G minor for violin and continuo, BWV 1026, which has violinistic writing similar to that in BWV 1001–1006, provides support for the commonly held view that the collection could have been reworked from pieces originally composed in Weimar.

The goal of producing a polyphonic texture governed by the rules of counterpoint also indicates the influence of the first surviving works of this kind for solo violin, Johann Paul von Westhoff's partitas for solo violin composed in 1696. The virtuoso violinist Westhoff served as court musician in Dresden from 1674 to 1697 and in Weimar from 1699 until his death in 1705, so Bach would have known him for two years.[3][4] The repertoire for solo violin was actively growing at the time: Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber's celebrated solo passacaglia appeared c.1676; Westhoff's collections of solo violin music were published in 1682 and 1696; Johann Joseph Vilsmayr's Artificiosus Concentus pro Camera in 1715, and Johann Georg Pisendel's solo violin sonata was composed around 1716; and finally, Georg Philipp Telemann published 12 Fantasias for solo violin in 1735.

First performanceEdit

It is not known whether these violin solos were performed during Bach's lifetime or, if they were, who the performer was. Johann Georg Pisendel and Jean-Baptiste Volumier, both talented violinists in the Dresden court, have been suggested as possible performers, as was Joseph Spiess, leader of the orchestra in Köthen. Friedrich Wilhelm Rust, who would later become part of the Bach family circle in Leipzig, also became a likely candidate.[5] Bach himself was an able violinist from his youth, and his familiarity with the violin and its literature shows in the composition of the set and the very detailed autograph manuscript, as does incidental fingering in the text. According to his son Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, "in his youth, and until the approach of old age, he played the violin cleanly and powerfully".

Manuscripts and published editionsEdit

Partia Tza
á Violino Solo senza Basso
, the heading on the first page of the autograph manuscript of the opening Preludio in Partita No. 3 in E major, BWV 1006.


Four other early manuscripts also exist. One, originally identified as an authentic Bach autograph from his Leipzig period, is now identified as being a copy dating from 1727–32 by Bach's second wife Anna Magdalena Bach, and is the companion to her copy of the six suites Bach wrote for solo cello. Another copy, dated July 3, 1726 (the date is on the final page), made by one of Bach's admirers Johann Peter Kellner, is well preserved, despite the fact that the B minor Partita was missing from the set and that there are numerous deviations and omissions. These differences may have come from an earlier source or composing copy, and not necessarily copying errors on Kellner's part. This view is supported by Zoltán Szabó. The three manuscripts are in the Berlin State Museum and have been in the possession of the Bach-Gesellschaft since 1879, through the efforts of Alfred Dörffel. Two other eighteenth century manuscripts, both by unidentified copyists, have also survived.



One of the most famous performers of the Sonatas and Partitas was the violinist and composer Georges Enescu, who considered this work as "The Himalayas of violinists" and recorded all the sonatas and partitas in the late 1940s. One of his students (Serge Blanc) collected the notes of his master Enescu regarding sonority, phrasing, tempo, fingering and expression, in a now freely distributed document.[6]

Musical structureEdit


Alternative scoringEdit

Aside from the surviving transcriptions BWV 964 and 968, two different sources also indicate that Bach and his circle performed the Sonatas and Partitas on keyboard instruments, rather than on the violin. Music theorist, instrument maker and organ player Jakob Adlung writes (Anleitung zu der musikalischen Gelahrtheit, Erfurt, 1758), regarding the keyboard works by Bach – ”They are actually violini soli senza basso, 3 Sonatas and 3 Partitas, which are well suited for performance on the keyboard”.[7] Johann Friedrich Agricola, who co-wrote Bach's obituary, reports that ”Their composer often played them himself on the clavichord, and added so much harmonies to them, as he found necessary”.[8]


Sonata No. 1 in G minor, BWV 1001Edit

  1. Adagio
  2. Fuga (Allegro)
  3. Siciliana
  4. Presto


Partita No. 1 in B minor, BWV 1002Edit

  1. Allemanda – Double
  2. Corrente – Double (Presto)
  3. Sarabande – Double
  4. Tempo di Borea – Double

This partita substitutes a bourrée (marked Tempo di Borea) for the gigue. Each movement is followed by a variation (double in French).

Sonata No. 2 in A minor, BWV 1003Edit

  1. Grave
  2. Fuga
  3. Andante
  4. Allegro

Partita No. 2 in D minor, BWV 1004Edit

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


Sonata No. 3 in C major, BWV 1005Edit

  1. Adagio
  2. Fuga
  3. Largo
  4. Allegro assai


Partita No. 3 in E major, BWV 1006Edit

  1. Preludio
  2. Loure
  3. Gavotte en rondeau
  4. Menuet I
  5. Menuet II
  6. Bourrée
  7. Gigue

Selected arrangements and transcriptionsEdit

  • J. S. Bach, Transcription for keyboard, organ and lute of various movements, some of them later attributed to Bach's pupils. The pieces for keyboard appear in the Miscellaneous Keyboard Works, Bach Gesellschaft Edition, 1853 (reissued by Dover Publications).
    • Fugue in D minor, BWV 539/ii (BWV 1001/ii) for organ
    • Fugue in G minor, BWV 1000 (BWV 1001/ii) for lute
    • Suite in E major, BWV 1006a (BWV 1006) for lute or keyboard
    • Sonata in D minor, BWV 964 (BWV 1003, doubtful) for keyboard
    • Adagio in G major, BWV 968 (from BWV 1005, doubtful) for keyboard
  • Chaconne, BWV 1004.
  • Preludio, BWV 1006
    • J. S. Bach, Sinfonia in BWV 29, a reworking of the Preludio from BWV 1006 for obbligato organ, trumpets, oboes and strings
    • Various arrangements for organ of the sinfonia, including the versions by Alexandre Guilmant, Marcel Dupré and Friedemann Winklhofer (Hans Sikorski)
  • British lutenist Nigel North transcribed the entire sequence for lute, as well as Bach's Cello Suites and recorded them on four CDs for Linn Records (volumes 1 to 4, respectively CKD 013, CKD 029, CKD 049, CKD 055)

Selected recordingsEdit

Classical violin

Baroque violin




  1. ^ Ledbetter 2009
  2. ^ Menuhin, Yehudi. 2001. Unfinished Journey, new edition. London: Pimlico. ISBN 978-0-7126-6809-5. p 236
  3. ^ Wolff 2002, p. 133
  4. ^ Bach 2001, p. VIII
  5. ^ Rust's grandson, Wilhelm Rust, eventually became one of the editors of the Bach-Gesellschaft.
  6. ^ "Sonatas & Partitas : Educational Edition".
  7. ^ Schulze, Hans-Joachim (1972). Bach-Dokumente, Dokumente zum Nachwirken Bachs. 1750-1800. Volume III. Kassel: Bärenreiter Verlag. p. 124. ISBN 3761802498.
  8. ^ Schulze, Hans-Joachim (1972). Bach-Dokumente, Dokumente zum Nachwirken Bachs, 1750-1800. Volume III. Kassel: Bärenreiter Verlag. pp. 292, 293. ISBN 3761802498.
  9. ^ Menuhin, Yehudi (1976). Unfinished Journey. p. 236.


Manuscripts and published editions

  • Bach, J.S. (2001), Günter Haußwald; Peter Wollny (eds.), Three Sonatas and three Partitas for Solo Violin, BWV 1001–1006 (Urtext), Bärenreiter, ISMN 979-0-006-46489-0. Preface by Peter Wollny, pages VIII–XII.
  • Bach, J.S. (2014), Peter Wollny (ed.), Kammermusik mit Violine BWV 1001–1006, 1021, 1023, 1014–1019 (Urtext), Johann Sebastian Bach. Neue Ausgabe sämtlicher Werke. Revidierte Edition (NBArev), 3, Bärenreiter, ISMN 9790006556328, Part of the preface

Books and journal articles

External linksEdit