Untitled - The Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra

Johann Sebastian Bach
German composer and organist
Born: 1685, Eisenach
Died: 1750, Leipzig
Orchestral Suite No.3 in D Major
BWV 1068
Overture
Air
Gavotte
Bourée
Gigue
First Classics performance: November
22, 1936, conducted by Franco Autori;
most recent performance: February
26, 1995, conducted by Maximiano
Valdes; duration: 20 minutes
The period known as the Late Baroque
- with its ornateness of fashion, decor
and style - is often regarded as a natural
precursor to the more serious and austere
Classical Age, particularly with regard
to music. But another idea holds that,
throughout the arts, a yin-yang momentum
prevails, represented by two alternating
modes: the Classical and the Romantic.
From this we can infer that Bach was a
Romantic; the music of Haydn, Mozart
and the scores from Beethoven’s early
period were Classical; what ensued
was again Romanticism in Chopin,
Brahms, Wagner, Tchaikovsky et al; then
what followed was another period of
Classicism from the early 20th Century
through Schoenberg, Webern and Berg;
etc. And while qualified exceptions can
be made to such a rotating theory of
aesthetics, the idea has held its own in
the real world.
Bach scored just four orchestral suites,
all of which are structured similarly:
an opening overture followed by a set
of dance movements based on well
established motifs borrowed from Italy,
Spain and France.
Suite No.3 in D Major was composed
roughly at the time of the Brandenburg
concertos, perhaps in 1720, and is
scored for strings, harpsichord, oboes
and trumpets, the latter assigned an
ambitious role in all of the movements
except the second. The Overture offers
an invocation that peals as if to a
firmament beyond. The slow and elegant
movement which follows is sometimes
known as the Air on a G String - one
of the most treasured movements in all
of music - a good example of why the
Baroque era enjoys such a ‘Romantic’
reputation. Bach then offers a rhythmic
counterpoise through the remaining
dance movements, each of which is a
paradigm of elegance and charm.
A Gavotte was originally a bright folk
dance believed to have originated in
the Britanny region of Northern France.
Likewise, the origins of the Bourrée
are also traceable to French soil,
emerging first as a folk dance and then
appropriated as formal entertainment by
the leading courts of the 17th and 18th
centuries. The provenance of the Gigue
(originally ‘jig’) was altogether from the
British Isles as a light, quick-stepping,
common dance, here all dressed up in
formal attire by Johann Sebastian. About
50 years earlier a witty English writer
and composer named Thomace Mace
observed: Toys or Jigs are Light-Squibbish
Things only fit for Fantastical and Easie-
Light-Headed People. Bach would have
enjoyed the word play.
Program Notes by Edward Yadzinski
31