The Green caldron - University Library

March, 1962 19
personal feelings. In the field of religious music, therefore, counterpoint was
the natural medium. For secular music, however, the Italians felt a long,
flowing vocal style best. Out of this concept came the aforementionel hel canto
method of instrumental writing and, eventually, opera.
Bach's air is a perfect example of the flowing, expressive Italian style.
It is, in fact, a song for the violin. Since the violin was deemed more like
the human voice in its power of expression than any other instrument, the
Italians excelled in writing music for strings. Bach follows their example
by deleting from the orchestra the trumpets, oboes, and timpani of his basically
French overture and writing his air for string orchestra. The counterpoint of
the overture is also virtually absent, leaving a bel canto of which any Italian
would have been proud.
The air is, then, of the Italian style. Once again, however, Bach is not
satisfied with being a mere follower. He takes his flowing Italian melody and
puts it over a continuo or bass which is definitely German.
Bach was, of course, primarily an organist, for the organ was the major
instrument of Germany. German music, especially in the North, centered
around the Lutheran chorale. According to Farley K. Hutchins, German
high baroque resulted from the development of this contrapuntal form and the
advancement of harmonic innovations.^ The church organists, especially
Buxtehude (1637-1707), had much influence on Bach. In his youth, Bach
heard Buxtehude and greatly admired his harmonic skill, a trait rather
lacking in the French and Italians. It is from this great organist that Bach
learned to manipulate harmony with ease.^*'
The bass of Bach's air, composed mainly of octave jumps, is therefore
nothing more than the pedal bass used in his organ compositions. This bass,
however, imparts a rich harmonic feeling not found in Bach's Italian models.
Once again a perfect fusion of two national styles, each enhancing the other,
is the result.
The next two movements of the suite, the gavotte and bouree, are
almost pure French galanteries. The gavotte was a folk-dance of a district
of Dauphine, the inhabitants of which were called Gavots. The dance was
popularized by Lully at the court of Louis XIV.^^ It is of a steady tempo, as
were all of the French dances. In Bach's suite there are really two gavottes, the
first one being repeated after the second. In addition to exhibiting the strict
rhythm of the French dance, the second gavotte also again demonstrates the
use of an organ-like bass, for the continuo plays a figure which is actually an
arpeggio or broken chord. The bourree was an old dance from Auvergne.
Its name means "to flap wings." ^~ Since the dance is very similar to the
gavotte except in being a little faster, the bourree may be taken with the
gavottes to form the ancient tanc and nachtanc set of the old German suites.
In addition, Bach refrains from naming the dances as the French would have
done.