ÿþ<html> <head> <title>Forest Hill Chamber Music Festival 2004</title> <style> a:link {color:888888;text-decoration: none} a:active {color:888888;text-decoration: none} a:visited {color:888888;text-decoration: none} a:hover {color:000000;text-decoration: none} </style> </head> <body bgColor=ffffff topmargin=15 leftmargin=0 text=555555 link=000000 alink=000000 vlink=000000> <center> <a href="index.html"><img src="title01w.gif" border=0></a><BR> <BR><font size=3> { <a href="p1.html">6/11</a> &nbsp; <a href="p2.html">6/12</a> &nbsp; <a href="p3.html">6/13</a> &nbsp; <a href="p4.html">6/13</a> } &nbsp; { <a href="artists.html">artists</a> } &nbsp; { <a href="notes.html">program notes</a> } &nbsp; { <a href="photos.html">photos</a> } &nbsp; { <a href="contact.html">tickets</a> } &nbsp; { <a href="ack.html">acknowledgements</a> } &nbsp; { <a href="intro.html">about</a> } <BR><BR><BR> <table border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0> <TR> <Td align=right valign=top> <table border=0 cellpadding=15 cellspacing=0><TR><TD align=right> <a href="n01-bach.html">Johann Sebastian Bach </a><BR> <a href="n02-beet.html">Ludwig van Beethoven </a><BR> <a href="n03-berg.html">Alban Maria Johannes Berg </a><BR> <a href="n14-druk.html">Jacob Raphael Druckman </a><BR> <a href="n04-dvor.html">Antonín DvoYák </a><BR> <a href="n05-hind.html">Paul Hindemith </a><BR> <a href="n06-mech.html">Kirke Mechem</a><BR> <a href="n07-mess.html">Olivier Messiaen</a><BR> <a href="n08-moza.html">Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart </a><BR> <a href="n09-rohde.html">Kurt Rohde</a><BR> <a href="n10-ss.html">Charles Camille Saint-Saëns </a><BR> <a href="n11-scho.html">Arnold Schönberg </a><BR> <a href="n12-schub.html">Franz Peter Schubert </a><BR> <a href="n13-schum.html">Robert Schumann</a><BR> </td></tr></table> </td> <TD valign=top> <img src="black.gif" width=1 height=310><BR> </td> <TD valign=top width=500> <Table border=0 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=15><TR><TD> <font size=5><center><b>Johann Sebastian Bach</b><font size=2><br><i> b. 1685 Eisenach, Germany; d. 1750 Leipzig, Germany</i></center><font size=3><br><br> <b>Partita in A Minor For Solo Flute, S. 1013 (between 1717 23)</b><br> <br> Has Herr Bach written anything new lately? <br><br>Although J. S. Bach left an astonishing legacy of over 1,000 musical works, previously unknown works are still being discovered two centuries later, so one might legitimately ask such a seemingly silly question. <br><br>Such was the case for the Partita For Solo Flute, Bach s only known work for solo flute, which was unique in Germany in its time. <br><br>Discovered in 1917 by Karl Straube, a renowned Bach scholar and Cantor (Music Director) at the Thomaskirche in Leipzig, where Bach spent the final 27 years of his life as Cantor  and only in a manuscript made by two copyists, not Bach s hand  the partita was first performed publicly in our time in 1919. <br><br>The partita s first publication, in 1939, included an additive keyboard accompaniment by Gustav Schreck, another Thomaskirche Cantor, which has endured through many subsequent publications at least up to 1989. <br><br>It was not until fairly well into the 20th Century that Bach s flute sonatas were even acknowledged as a part of the concert repertoire, and sonatas for solo flute were such a rarity in concert performance that they attracted no interest on the part of music publishers. The 1927 <i>Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians</i> makes no mention of Bach s works for the flute, but lists Mozart, Spohr, Weber, Beethoven, Haydn, and Schubert, among others, as the major composers for the instrument. <br><br>A partita is defined as  an instrumental piece composed of a series of variations, as a suite. Bach s Partita For Solo Flute is also often listed as  Suite. It consists of four sections, each based on a dance style of the time which would have been well known to contemporary court audiences: allemande, courante, sarabande, and bourrée anglaise. <br><br>While the titles of the sections may suggest origins in courtly music for light entertainment, Bach s treatment of them reveals far greater complexity and depth than any mere dance music of that time. <br><br>Since the rediscovery of Bach s solo flute partita, it has been transcribed, transposed, or adapted for viola, cello, guitar, oboe, computer midi files, and it was used for a composition by Gary Schocker,  Bach Partita Ghost, which adds a second flute obbligato part and which won the National Flute Association s Competition for Newly Published Works in 2000. <br> </td></tr></table> </td> </tr> </table> </body></html>