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Music Revision - Notes (BACH)

– Published in 1728 - keyboard practice for good amateur performers
– This is a suite - stylised dance movements (binary form) followed by a prelude or other non-

dance piece

– Sarabande (5th movement), Gigue (7th movement) - there are only 7 movements
– Baroque period - Sarabande and Gigue, use of harpsichord, simple and rounded binary

form, fugal writing in parts of the Gigue, no periodic phrasing

Instrumentation

– No instrument specified - most likely a single-manual harpsichord - no dynamic markings
– Other than the low A in the penultimate bar of Sarabande it could have been played on a

Clavichord

– Clavichord or Harpsichord for both movements

Texture

– Sarabande Almost entirely two part writing, right hand has the melody - semiquavers and

demisemiquavers, left hand has supporting part - mainly quavers (melody dominated
homophony), beginning and end of each section strengthened - adding parts (3 part and 4
part), monophonic texture (bar 2)
– Gigue Mainly three-part, some fugal textures, monophonic (bars 1-6), two-part texture, three
part (17), monophonic (49)

Structure

– Sarabande Rounded Binary form, two main sections A and B (repeated), reference to A

section (29) - rounded, rhyming endings - the ending of A is repeated at the ending of B
(different keys)
– Gigue Ordinary Binary form, fugal elements, rhyming endings - ending of B is a descending
broken chord (finality) - ending of A is an ascending broken chord (leaves music open)

Tonality
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Major-Minor tonality, modulations to closely related keys
Each movement begins in tonic D major, modulates to dominant during A section
Returns to tonic at end of B section - via related keys
B minor - relative minor and E minor - relative minor of subdominant - are visited through
both movements

Harmony

– Sarabande Both sections end with perfect cadences, largely diatonic (some chromatic

movement), root position and first inversion, chords are frequently broken and arpeggiated,
dissonance - 7th chords are common (bar 8), suspensions - diminished 7th chord (with
suspension) over tonic pedal in A (12)
– Gigue Both sections end with perfect cadences, largely diatonic (some chromatic
movement), root position and first inversion, chords are frequently broken and arpeggiated,
dissonance, suspensions (75 and 77), appoggiaturas (41)

Melody

– Sarabande Conjunct movement - some scalic runs in faster moving passages, some

disjunct movement (leaps and broken chords) - minor 7th (22 and 23), use of sequence (bar
32), fortspinnung - use and repetition of short motifs (right hand)
– Gigue Conjunct movement, some disjunct movement (leaps and broken chords), use of
sequence (bar 3-4)

Rhythm

– Sarabande Simple triple time (3/4) - slow beat, frequent passages of steady, continuous

quavers (3-4 left hand), the right hand often has shorter notes, there is some use of
syncopation (bar 5)
– Gigue Compound triple time (9/16) - unusual (not common) - almost continuous quaver
semiquaver movement



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