Yoyo Zhou

1460712
26th March 2023

History Assignment 1

Johann Sebastian Bach’s (1685-1750) Presto, from Sonata no. 1 in G Minor, BWV 1001, is
found amongst his collection of 6 Sonatas and Partitas for Violin Solo. This collection was
roughly composed during Bach’s stay in Cöthen, between the years 1717 to 1723, where he also
wrote his violin concertos. Throughout this period of his life, Bach was the chief conductor of
Prince Leopold’s court orchestra.1 Significantly, Bach’s solo violin sonatas and partitas were not
publicly performed until the first half of the nineteenth century. A reasonable explanation for the
public performative neglect of this collection is perhaps due to the difficulty of the works for
eighteenth century violinists, as the amount of technique and virtuosity required is considerable
for the time.2

When approaching the performance of Bach’s Presto, players must consider the tempo,
articulation and dynamics. As Bach does not often employ a presto tempo marking in his
compositions, Jaap Schröder warns that the use of that indication here should not be mistaken for
an “excessive ‘modern’ speed”. It is important to note that tempi in the Baroque period was often
measured in relation to the human pulse. While Schröder describes the fast patterns of the Presto
as “typically violinistic”, they are by no means a technically easy bow stroke. Due to the convex
construction of the baroque bow, such fast rhythms require “well-articulated” and very short bow
strokes that slightly bounce from the string, played in the lower half of the bow.3 Like many of
his contemporaries, Bach was generally quite vague about dynamic markings in his music,
opting to let the performer have creative freedom in its interpretation. Robin Stowell mentions
that dynamics often follow the contour of the phrase, and are used to highlight certain
dissonances, embellishments and cadence points. This often results in stressed dissonance that is

1 Walter Emery and Christoph Wolff, “Bach, Johann Sebastian: 6. Cöthen,” in Grove Music Online, Oxford Music
Online, https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.6002278195, 2001, accessed 23 March 2023.
2 Zay D. Sevier, “Bach's Solo Violin Sonatas and Partitas: The First Century and a Half, Part 1,” Riemenschneider
Bach Institute, Vol. 12, no. 2 (1981): 11-19.
3 Stowell, “Violin Technique,” 167.

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resolved by a decrescendo.4 Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach confirms this through the statement that
dissonances are generally played louder than consonances, as emotions are suspended in the
former, while the latter releases them.5

Argument arises between historical and more contemporary scholars around the articulation of
individual notes. Stowell states that the baroque bow naturally has a clean non-legato stroke, due
to both the physicality of the bow and the technique of holding it. He believes that these fast
continuous notes should be played at the “three-quarter point,” with less length, yet still enough
bow to adequately vibrate the string.6 A similar comment by Schröder advocates playing just
below the middle point.7 Constrastingly, an earlier argument by Donnigton prefers the upper half
part of the bow for this stroke. He states that the natural bounce of the “sprung détaché” is best
achieved in the upper middle of the bow, where a balance between a light and heavy stroke is
brought out, in comparison to the overwhelming energy of the heel of the bow.8 Donnington’s
argument in this case is perhaps outdated, and becomes irrelevant when applied to the context of
the modern Tourte bow, which evidently benefits from playing fast continuous semiquavers in
the lower half of the bow.

Bibliography

4 Donington, “String Playing,” 39-40.

5 Jaap Schröder, Bach’s Solo Violin Works: A Performer’s Guide (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007), 72.
6 C. P. E. Bach, Essay on the true art of playing keyboard instruments, trans. and ed. by William J. Mitchell.
(London: Cassell, 1951), 163.
7 Robin Stowell, Violin Technique and Performance Practice in the Late Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth
Centuries (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1990), 290-291.
8 Schröder, “Bach’s Solo Violin Works,” 72.

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Bach, Carl Philipp Emanuel. Essay on the True Art of Playing Keyboard Instruments. Translated
and edited by William John Mitchell. London: Cassell, 1951.

Donington, Robert. String Playing in Baroque Music. London: Faber Music Ltd, 1977.

Emery, Walter, and Christoph Wolff. “Bach, Johann Sebastian: 6. Cöthen.” In Grove Music
Online, Oxford Music Online, 2001.
https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/display/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.000
1/omo-9781561592630-e-6002278195?product=grovemusic#omo-9781561592630-e-
6002278195-div1-6002278195.3.7.6, accessed 22 March 2023.

Schröder, Jaap. Bach’s Solo Violin Works: A Performer’s Guide. New Haven: Yale University
Press, 2007.

Sevier, Zay David. “Bach's Solo Violin Sonatas and Partitas: The First Century and a Half, Part
1.” Riemenschneider Bach Institute. Vol. 12, no. 2 (1981): 11-19.

Sevier, Zay David. “Bach's Solo Violin Sonatas and Partitas: The First Century and a Half, Part
2.” Riemenschneider Bach Institute. Vol. 12, no. 3 (1981): 21-29.

Stowell, Robin. Violin Technique and Performance Practice in the Late Eighteenth and Early
Nineteenth Centuries. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1990.