A Performer's Guide To The English Suites

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Boston University
School for the Arts
Dissertation
A PERFORMER'S GUIDE TO THE ENGLISH SUITES

OF J. S. BACH, BWV 806-11
by
PETER WATCHORN
Submitted in partial fulfillment of the

requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Musical Arts
1995
UMI Number: 9533140
UMI Microform 9533140

Copyright 1995, by UMI Company. All rights reserved.
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^ C o p y rig h t by
Peter Watchorn
1995
Approved by
First Reader
John'Daverio, Ph. D.
Associate Professor of Music
Second Reader
Mark Kroll, M. Mus.
Associate Professor of Music
Third Reader
Max Miller, Ph. D.
Professor of Music
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
My thanks are due to the many who have generously cooperated in the
prelim inary research for this work. For assistance in the tedious w ork
associated w ith the m any and various m anuscript sources for the English
Suites, thanks are due to the staff of the various music libraries of Boston
University and H arvard University. In addition, I w ould like to record my
appreciation of the efforts of the following individuals who have given
generously of their time in answering many questions which arose during
the w riting of this study: Isolde Ahlgrimm, A nthony Jennings, Gregory
Miller, H ow ard Schott, David Schulenberg, Robert Marshall and Christoph
Wolff. Thanks are especially due to my advisor, John Daverio, who, w ith
patience and wisdom, steered this work through its various stages, and whose
experience and expertise have greatly enhanced the quality of the finished
product. I also wish to acknowledge the respective contributions of the other
members of my committee, Mark Kroll and Max Miller, for their assistance in
reading the manuscript.
Finally, I w ould like to record my ongoing gratitude to my father,
Donald Thomas Watchorn, whose love of Bach and whose playing of some of
the English Suites thirty years ago provided me w ith my first experience of
them, and whose wise and authoritative m usicianship has been a constant
inspiration in the many years since those early experiences.
Peter Watchorn
Cambridge, Mass.
iv
with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
A PERFORMER'S GUIDE TO THE ENGLISH SUITES OF J. S. BACH

(Order No.
Peter Watchorn
Boston University, School for the Arts, 1995
Major Professor: John Daverio, Associate Professor of Music
ABSTRACT
The six English Suites (BWV 806-11) of Johann Sebastian Bach are
among his best known pieces for harpsichord, and have been acknowledged
as great w orks since the time of Johann Nikolaus Forkel, Bach's first
biographer. However, they have not received the attention by musicologists
which their intrinsic quality and great reputation among
earlier Bach
scholars warrants. The present study attem pts to redress this situation by
presenting both a summary of what has been already been written about the
English Suites and new research into the many questions surrounding their
origins and early history. A complicating factor, so far as musicologists are
concerned, is the lack of surviving autograph material. M oreover, the
questions regarding the title, unlikely to have been used by Bach himself, and
a date of composition, are complicated by conflicting and slight surviving
evidence.
The present study deals first with the question of the many surviving
early manuscript copies of the English Suites. In Chapter 2, the question of the
origin of the title is thoroughly investigated, and a case is made for linking
the composition of the English Suites with Bach's interest in the music of
French and Italian composers in the 1710's. Chapter 3 presents a complete
descriptive analysis of the English Suites, with special emphasis given to
their performance on the harpsichord. In subsequent chapters, the history of
publication and performance of the English Suites is traced, and a comparison
of the English Suites with Bach's remaining suite collections is presented.
Finally, a discussion of the latest research into surviving G erm an
harpsichords, especially those in which a link with Bach can be established, is
included as an Appendix.
vi
TABLE OF CO N TE N TS
page
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
ABSTRACT
Introduction
Chapter 1. The Genesis of the English Suites

a. Manuscript Sources
22
b. Establishing the Composition Dates of the English Suites
39
c. The Editions
49
Chapter 2. The Title and Origins of the English Suites
54
Chapter 3. The English Suites, BWV 806-11: Performance
68
Chapter 4. Performance and Reception History
132
Chapter 5. The Suites of Bach: A Comparison
141
Chapter 6. Conclusion
148
Appendix: The Bach Harpsichord
154
Bibliography
164
Vita
170
vii
A Performer's Guide to the Six English Suites

of J. S. Bach (BWV 806-11)
Introduction:
The great collection of six large harpsichord suites with introductory

preludes by Johann Sebastian Bach, known for well over two centuries as the
English Suites, has received the consistent attention of keyboard players since
the second quarter of the eighteenth century. However, both in recent and
not-so-recent times, they have been rather scantily addressed by those writers
w ho have dealt with Bach's voluminous keyboard output. The reasons for
the lack of attention devoted to these important staples of the Bach repertoire
are not entirely clear, though the lack of a surviving autograph (or a
composer-supervised edition, as in the case of the six Partitas, BWV 825-30)
has clearly been a factor. The appearance in 1979 of the text of the Nene BachAusgabe (hereafter NBA) overseen by the Germ an scholar Alfred Diirr,
provided a truly reliable edition which, although it took into account the
different readings contained in the m any surviving m anuscript sources,
nevertheless avoided mixing them together indiscriminately, as happened in
the second of the two editions produced by the old Bach-Gesellschaft. The
accompanying Kritische Bericht presented clearly the m any variants of text,
ornamentation, articulation and other indications contained in the m ultitude
of copies, and attem pted to arrange them in a pecking order of importance
and reliability.
Indeed it is the sheer num ber of surviving copies that points to the
great popularity of the suites avec preludes, as Bach probably called them, among
musicians in Bach's circle in Germany from the first quarter of the eighteenth
century. That the English Suites were used by Bach and others as part of a
course of instruction in keyboard playing as well as composition is evident
from the copies m ade by various Bach students, one of whom , H einrich
Nicolaus Gerber, indicated on his manuscript that his copy was m ade during
his years of study at Leipzig University (between 1724 and 1727).
The research of many scholars, beginning w ith the w ork of Ludwig

Landshoff and Alfred Kreutz in Germany in the 1930's and culminating in
the exhaustive work by the NBA, has established the relative reliability of the
various surviving copies. In cases where the copyist for the English Suites
was also employed by Bach as scribe for some other works, such as the church
cantatas, for which autographs are still extant, comparison of the replica with
the original reveals Bach's early copyists to have been remarkably reliable. W e
may also surmise that their work on the English Suites was no less accurate,
and it is often remarkable how closely their handw riting resembles Bach's
own. This is especially so in the case of Johann Schneider, very likely the
scribe for the most important and complete early copy of the English Suites. It
was only the advances in handw riting analysis and im proved dating of
m anuscripts m ade possible through w aterm ark identification that enabled
scholars to correct the original m is-attribution of Schneider's manuscript as a
genuine Bach autograph. By the same techniques it was also possible to
conclude that Bach had corrected this copy, writing in seven bars of his own
towards the end of the prelude to the third suite.1
For the sake of convenience, the N B A divided the more than thirty
surviving m anuscript copies of the English Suites into groups based on
various criteria w hich they outlined in their Critical Report. Some
manuscripts are clearly copies of other surviving scores, as is the case with the
Schneider and Gerber copies: the second was clearly copied from the first. The
work of the NBA, in sifting the evidence provided by the manuscript sources
and the many textual variants which they present, has been so exhaustive
that it is clearly unnecessary to offer more than a summary of their findings,
and to include references to the N B A Critical Report as necessary.
My aim here is threefold. First, I will present w hat is know n

concerning the history of these w orks from the tim e of the earliest
manuscript copies through to their performance in the late twentieth century.
Second, I w ish to attem pt an explanation of some of the m ysteries
surrounding the English Suites by a review of all available evidence and to
present my own opinions as to when these works were composed and what
influenced their composition. The third and perhaps chief purpose of this
study is to present a survey and analysis of all the various m ovements that
comprise the English Suites, providing commentary on m atters concerning
performance: a survey of the various dance types and Bach's use of them, the
mixture of forms and styles, and issues relating to tempo and articulation. My
1 See Chapter 1, Manuscript Sources.
aim has also been to make accessible, through footnotes and other references,
virtually everything of importance which has been written about the English
Suites, at the same time presenting my own conclusions which are based on
an extended period of research both as a scholar and performing musician.
Clearly the starting point of such a discussion m ust be an accurate text.

In the case of the English Suites, establishing even this basic foundation is no
easy matter, and I will list and discuss the textual alternatives in the chapter
devoted to performance. It is not so much a question of one text being better
than another, but rather, as occurs w ith the French Suites, a m atter of a
different text containing a later and som etim es m ore au th o ritativ e
(presumably revised) reading. The NBA, in recognition of this situation,
printed two complete versions of Bach's French Suites in their edition. In the
case of the English Suites, the variants are not so numerous or distinct as to
warrant a separate text. Unlike the French Suites, the English Suites survive
neither in an autograph fair copy, nor is there any evidence of significant
revisions having been made by Bach, the single exception being the first suite
in A major.
The num erous m anuscript copies, while containing small
differences agree on many details of articulation and phrasing - a fact that

points to a common original source for a number of them. The ornaments, as
has been noted by Alfred Durr, are another matter, and a truly reliable reading
for them is difficult, to say the least. Perhaps this situation reflects the
possibility that in the eighteenth century such m atters were left, even in the
case of Bach, with his reputation for accurately notating everything, pretty
much to the discretion of the performer.
The present study, therefore, is designed not only to present an

assessment of w hat is currently known about these works, but to add useful
information and opinion to the existing literature as well. To this end, I have
consulted m any reference w orks, b o th old and new to com pile a
comprehensive guide to the English Suites. Because of the im portance of
these works to the harpsichordist, I have also included a presentation of the
latest evidence concerning the instrum ent which Bach may have had at his
disposal, and those which he may have preferred (the two are not necessarily
alw ays the sam e thing). W ith the exception of Paul B adura-Skoda's
Interpreting Bach at the Keyboard cited below, no other study of Bach's keyboard
works has attempted to do this in any detail.
The am ount of space devoted to the English Suites by w riters about

Bach's music is surprisingly small. Considering that they are, despite the
m ysteries surrounding m any aspects of their com position, consistently
acknowledged to be among the more im portant works among Bach's output,
it is surprising just how little has actually been written about them. However,
in recent years some very useful books dealing with Bach's keyboard output
and, specifically, his dance-based repertoire have appeared2. These all include
references to the English Suites, although, again the sum of what they have to
say about this m usic is
disappointingly m eager. D avid Schulenberg's
magisterial work The Keyboard Music of J. S. Bach (Schirmer: N. Y, 1992) is the

most extensive in its treatm ent of the English Suites, although the author
2 D avid Schulenberg, The Keyboard M usic o f j. S. Bach ( N ew York: Schirmer, 1992);
M eredith Little and N atalie Jenne, Dance and the Music o f ]. S. Bach (Bloomington: Indiana
U. P, 1991); Paul Badura-Skoda, Interpreting Bach at the Keyboard (Oxford U. P, 1993).
often fails to conceal his opinion of them as in some ways rather unpolished
forerunners of the later suites, especially the Partitas.3 Schulenberg describes
the English Suites as lying somewhere between the French Suites and the six
Partitas in term s of their standard of difficulty, length and complexity (an
assertion with which the present author is not in agreement) and speculates
that Bach may have considered them to be too old-fashioned to serve as
candidates for his first keyboard publication, w hich he first announced in
1726, and which by 1731 produced the set of six Partitas.4
Schulenberg's view contrasts w ith the opinions of w riters from the

early years of the century, when the English Suites were much less positively
dated than is now the case. The editors of the Bach-Gesellschaft believed that
the manuscript copy, probably in the hand of Bach's pupil Johann Schneider
(listed here, following the NBA, as source B 1), was in fact an autograph dating
from the 1720's or even later. Sir Hubert Parry, for example, believed that the
English Suites represented Bach's final and definitive statem ent concerning
the genre, exceeding the more 'galant' Partitas in length, seriousness and
profundity5. Another English scholar, J. A. Fuller Maitland wrote:
In the set of six Suites which have always been known as the 'English'
suites, we reach the culminating point of Bach's work for the harpsichord...6
3 The courante of the sixth suite seem s to particularly d isplease him. See p. 251.
4 Schulenberg, 1992, p. 277.
5 Sir Hubert Parry, Johann Sebastian Bach (London, 1909) pp. 461-4.
6 J. A. Fuller M aitland, Bach's Keyboard Suites (London, 1928).
Many a listener (and performer) might be forgiven for agreeing w ith Parry
rather than Schulenberg, at least in assessing the musical qualities of the
English Suites, and one w onders to w hat extent the latter a u th o r's
conclusions are based on the presumed early date of composition, rather than
on the inherent quality of the music itself.
The other recent books, while containing various references to the
English Suites, discuss them as examples in a w ider survey of stylistic
elements contained in Bach's output. For example, in M eredith Little and
Nathalie Jenne's Dance and the Music o f J. S. Bach, the dance types represented
among all of Bach's works in suite form, rath er than the actual suite
collections, are the subjects of focus. Though the work of Little and Jenne
ostensibly deals w ith practical music-making by stressing the importance of
applying a knowledge of the physical dance steps to musical performance, it is
still far from clear just how closely the actual physical dance in the end
determines the tempi for the keyboard suites of Bach's period. (The authors,
in acknowledgement of this caveat, omit any discussion of the allemande on
the grounds that by Bach's time it was a mere stylized shadow of its former
self.) Alfred Durr, however, goes even further than this:
The clavier suite[
] had become broadly stylized even by Bach's time -
nobody would seriously have thought of dancing, say, to the Double from the
Sarabande in the Third English Suite.7
7 Alfred Durr, "The Historical Background of the Com position of Johann Sebastian Bach's
C lavier Suite", BACH XVI, 1985 pp. 53-68
The question of just how far the stylization of the English Suites (and
Bach's other works in the same genre, for that m atter) removes them in
performance from their models is not one that can be easily answered. From
the many recordings of the English Suites that have been made over the last
seventy years, it is equally clear that few performers agree on this issue. It
seems obvious, however, that the dance, through its direct relationship to the
series of organized physical movements that gave rise to it, gives us a clearer
guide to m atters of tempo and affect than is afforded by the more abstract
forms: toccatas, preludes and fugues, in which the evidence provided by
discernibly physically based m odels is lacking. The present w riter has
addressed the issue, basically following Little and Jenne, by relating discussion
of the dance movements to quotations from contemporary w riters on the
subject, including M attheson, W alther and Brossard. Thereby hangs the
subsidiary issue of how literally (or accurately) the Germans applied what
they knew of foreign dance types from France and Italy to their own
compositions. In Bach's case, his early interreaction w ith one of the most
famous French dancing masters of his day, Thomas de la Selle, would have
guaranteed him a knowledge of fashionable French court dances.8 Of course,
basic dance tempos are often subject in performance to the influence of other
factors such as affect, time-signature, type of instrument, performance space
and acoustics. That choreographed dance is similarly subject to ephemeral
performance considerations and variations of tempo and affect is made clear
by Little and Jenne.9
8 Karl Geiringer, Johann Sebastian Bach, Oxford University Press, p. 13. For a full discussion
of the influence of French dance on the you n g Bach, see Little and ]enne (1992), Chapter 1
"French Court Dance in Bach's World."
9 Little and Jenne 1991, p. 19.
Paul Badura-Skoda, in Interpreting Bach at the Keyboard, divides his

discussion of Bach's clavier output into tw o parts. The first is w ritten from
the point of view of such overall criteria as rhythm, tempo, articulation and
other more subjective topics deemed im portant by the author. In the second
part a comprehensive and thorough survey of ornam entation is undertaken.
Though the English Suites are often cited as examples, the layout of the book
precludes systematic or comprehensive discussion, and indeed, this is not the
author's aim. In both the works of Little and Jenne and Badura-Skoda the
questions of the composition dates, history and background of the English
Suites are left unexplored. In addition, many of Badura-Skoda's suggestions
for performance are conceived in terms of performance on the m odem piano,
an emphasis that is on its ow n term s satisfactory, but w hich is largely
irrelevant to a proper understanding of Bach's harpsichord music.
Among the older standard works that discuss the English Suites, those
o( Hermann Keller10 and Erwin Bodky11 are perhaps the best known. Neither
treats the w orks in anything like the detail w hich their position of
importance in Bach's output merits. Bodky, like Badura-Skoda, deals with the
English Suites, and the other works cited only in the context of his chosen
criteria (furthermore, many of his suggestions for performance are clearly
outmoded), and Keller devotes a scant eight pages to them, mixing fact w ith
legend on several occasions.
10 Herman Keller, Die Klavierwerke Bachs (Leipzig, C. F. Peters, 1950).

11 Erwin Bodky, The Interpretation o f Bach's Keyboard Works (Cambridge, MA Harvard
University Press, 1960).
10
Thus, a comprehensive overall survey of the English Suites has still

not been undertaken, w ith the exception of the exhaustive Critical Report
produced by the N B A 12. This, of course, concerns itself mainly w ith textual
problems, source identification and dating, and is therefore of more use to the
(German reading) scholar than to the perform er. Among the published
material in English, only David Schulenberg's book attem pts to cover the
English Suites fully, and the present author's conclusions differ m arkedly
from some of his. Much of the inform ation concerning the English Suites
that has been w ritten to date has been in the form of articles, many buried in
relatively inaccessible publications, and most in German. The present work is
among the first to have consulted and reviewed virtually all of them, and a
summary of their most im portant findings is provided by the footnotes found
th ro u g h o u t the c u rren t study. The relative lack of accessible and
com prehensive m aterial concerning the English Suites underlines the
necessity, at least in this writer's opinion, for the current study.
So what, exactly, are the English Suites? The collection consists of six
large suites in a mixture of French and Italian styles, each suite preceded by a
long and highly developed Prelude. The first of these is w ritten in distinctly
Germanic four-part counterpoint and the remaining five all borrow from
Italianate concerto-derived forms, complete with da capos repetitions of the
opening sections. Though no dynamic m arkings are included am ong the
preludes (indicating alternating m anuals of a two manual harpsichord) the
12 Die sechs Englische Suiten, Neue Bach-AusgabeV/ 7 Kritische Bericht. (Barenreiter, Kassel
1981).
11
structure clearly mim icks the division betw een the ritornello and solo
sections of a typical baroque concerto.
The sequence of dance m ovem ents is invariably: A llem ande C ourante13 (always in the French rather than the faster Italian Corrente style) Sarabande (with or without an ornamented double or set of agrements) - some
sort of "modern" galant dance in altemativement - Gigue. As will be shown,
there is evidence that this plan was derived from Bach's study of the suites of
French composers, most particularly those of the French composer, resident
in the early eighteenth century in London, Charles (Francis) Dieupart, whose
1701 publication of Six Suittes pour le Clavessin may well have provided Bach
w ith the models for his own set (a comparison of the movement plans of the
two sets of six suites bears this out). In the opinion of the present writer,
Dieupart's importance in the development of the keyboard suite, especially in
relationship to the com position of the English Suites, has been hitherto
greatly underestimated. A full discussion of the relationship of Dieupart to
Bach's English Suites is contained in the C hapter 2 which deals with the
enigmatic title that has attached itself to these works. Though definitive proof
that the Dieupart suites were the model for Bach's set of suites is still lacking,
the circumstantial evidence is convincing.
The English Suites are in some ways the most consistently intricate,
complex, and challenging of all Bach's keyboard suite collections, different in
detail and emphasis from the Partitas, but in no way inferior to them or less
13 The set of courantes w ith ornamented variants found in BWV 806 is the only deviation
from the basic seven m ovem ent plan found throughout the English Suites.
12
challenging to perform . Though Bach changed the em phasis in his later

collection, stressing the u p to date galant aspects of dance music, the English
Suites, as pure expressions of his ability to blend various styles into a
h o m ogenous w hole, rem ain u n su rp a ssed . W ithin th e ir o u tw a rd ly
unchanging form at there is
trem endous variety: no tw o preludes, for
example, are cast in exactly the same mould, though they all bear the title.
(The opening movement of the sixth Partita was originally titled Prelude as
well, though the title was later changed to Toccata for the publication in 1731,
an in d icatio n of how unspecific and a d ap tab le eighteenth century
terminology could, on occasion, be). Despite the various m ovem ent titles
applied to the opening pieces of the Partitas, they are, in fact, no more or less
than preludes, similar in function to those found in the English Suites.
The Prelude to the first English Suite, the only one that is not based on
an Italianate concerto form , is a piece of careful im itative four-part
counterpoint, the them atic m aterial inspired by one or m ore of three
surviving compositions by other composers, while the second is like an
extended two-part invention, with interpolated contrasting episodes utilizing
fashionable Italianate parallel thirds. The Prelude to the third suite is the
most obviously like a Vivaldian concerto, although the elaborate imitative
counterpoint of the contrasting episodes is clearly Bach's own idea, while the
fourth is another essentially tw o-part invention, again containing, like the
second, episodes contrasting in both style and texture. The Prelude to the fifth
suite features three distinct voices, each entering individually in the style of a
fugal concerto movement and the sixth, perhaps the greatest Prelude to any of
13
Bach's keyboard suites, is really a prelude and fugue in one movement, with a
slow introduction followed by an immense fugal structure in which the
subject and its inversion are fully and elaborately worked out.
The dances, despite their outwardly consistent titles, present, as do the

preludes, trem endous diversity. Among the sarabandes, for example, the
second and third are represented both in unadorned versions and with fully
written out French-style agrements; the sixth contains a double in the French
style brise , while the fourth and fifth are impressive by means of their stark
and unadorned simplicity (presumably the perform er is expected to supply

the agrements ). The gigues range from the boisterous (e.g, the gigue in Suite 2,
written in tarantella style, w ith a direction at the end to play the whole
m ovem ent a third time) to the demonic and apocalyptic (the fifth and
especially sixth suites, w here the elaborate counterpoint and level of
invention transcend the boundaries of the dance types which they enrich.
Of the remaining dance m ovem ents, the allem andes are notable in
that they are among the earliest examples of the dance that contain elaborate
im itative counterpoint. Schulenberg considers some of them as direct
descendants of the allemandes in the suites of Froberger14. I would suggest
that the immediate m odel is, again, Dieupart, whose allem andes contain
features which bear m ore than a passing resem blance to ideas found
throughout the Bach set. The courantes, all in the French rather than the
Italian style, often contain the cadential hemiolas common to the style, while
14 Schulenberg 1992, p. 234.
14
the galanterien, sandw iched betw een the sarabandes and the final gigues,
include such up-to-date dances as bourrês, passepieds and minuets, either in
alternativement or en rondeau .
Overall, it can be said that the English Suites achieve a high degree of
integral unity, through the close motivic relationship of one m ovem ent to
the next, a feature that again recalls the Dieupart "Six Suittes", for, as David
Fuller notes15 this was a feature of the D ieupart set which was, in 1701, when
they were first published, without precedent among French keyboard suites.
Forkel, Bach's first biographer, clearly held the works in high esteem
when he wrote of the English Suites:
All of them are of great m erit as works of art, and some movements,
particularly the gigues of the fifth and sixth suites are perfect masterpieces of
harmony and melody16.
The English Suites were included among the earliest publications of

Bach's compositions in the early nineteenth century, and have achieved
increasing popularity among performers of Bach's music since the early days
of the tw entieth century. The English pianist and Bach specialist, Harold
Samuel (who collaborated with Donald Francis Tovey in his famous edition
of Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier) recorded the second suite between 1923 and
15 D avid Fuller, "Dieupart, Charles (Francois)" The New Grove Dictionary o f Music and
M usicians, ed. Stanley Sadie( London: M acmillan, 1980).
16 Johann N ikolaus Forkel, Johann Sebastian Bach: His Life, A rt and Work, Leipzig, 1802.
Translated by A. C. F. Kollman, 1820. Reprinted in The Bach Reader, ed. D avid and Mendel
(N ew York, 1966).
15
1926, for example, while W anda Landowska's harpsichord recording of BWV

807 was included by His Master's Voice as a filler for Edwin Fischer's pioneering
recording on the pianoforte of the Well-Tempered Clavier in the 1930's.
While the revival of interest in historically appropriate performance

has resulted in num erous recordings of the English Suites, musicologists,
w ith the
exceptions of Alfred Diirr and David Schulenberg, have been
reluctant to discuss them, apparently solely because there is no "definitive"

text available. This has also excluded them from consideration in many
interesting and im portant discussions of the perform ance practice-related
aspects of Bach's music. To cite but one recent example: John Butt's study of
articulation and phrasing m arks in Bach's m anuscripts, being based on
prim ary sources, includes no m ention of the English Suites17. In fact, the
English Suites have rarely received the serious consideration accorded by
scholars to those works for which primary sources are available. I believe that
the lack of prim ary source m aterial, ra th e r th an any qu estio n of
compositional maturity or refinement, is the m ain reason why the English
Suites have taken second place to the Partitas and even the much shorter and
simpler French Suites in recent discussions of Bach's suite compositions.
Of the three sets of keyboard suites by Bach, the other two being the
French Suites [BWV 812-17] and the Partitas [BWV 825-30], the English Suites
are now generally agreed to have been the first set composed.18 Substantial
17 John Butt: Bach Interpretation. Articulation Marks in Primary Sources o f ]. S. Bach
(Cambridge, 1990).
1^This opinion is w idespread. A m ong the more recent scholars w ho subscribe to it are
Schulenberg, Durr, Schulze and Eppstein.
16
evidence supports this opinion. First, they are not included in the two
presen tation m an u scrip ts w hich Bach com piled for his wife, A nna
Magdalena, in 1722 and 1725, while five of the French Suites and two of the
Partitas appear among the contents of both volumes. One may easily agree
with Alfred Diirr on the reasons why the English Suites do not: either they
had not been composed yet, or, far more likely, they had been around for
some time and Bach did not include them because he wished to present his
wife with something more recently composed19. Also, if the English Suites
were written as a commission for an English nobleman, Bach w ould hardly
have been likely to copy them into his wife's new presentation manuscript.
Significantly, though the French Suites and Partitas w ent through a num ber
of revisions throughout Bach's lifetime, as is revealed by their appearance in
different versions in various anthologies compiled by Bach for use in his
household, there is scant evidence that any such treatment was accorded the
English Suites (the earlier version of BWV 806 copied by W alther being the
sole exception). This perhaps further supports Forkel's explanation that the
compilation of the English Suites as a set was the result of a commission. If
this is true, then the fair copy was presumably also the presentation copy. If, as
Forkel states, the recipient was a visiting English nobleman, then Bach would
have had no opportunity of revising the autograph, nor would the need to do
so have existed. This may also explain why an autograph or dedication score
is no longer to be found.
19 Diirr 1985, pp. 53-68.
17
There is one final point to be m ade in this introduction, regarding a

mystery that has attached itself to the English Suites: the problematic origin of
its title, which is fully explored in Chapter 2. I believe that the explanation
may well be contained in the various references to the music of the French
composer, who resided for a long time in England Charles (Francis) Dieupart,
which have been noted by musicologists from Edward D annreuther in the
1890's through to the present. Though most of the information which forms
the basis of my own research is not in itself new, I have tied together a
number of interrelated and documented facts which have been hinted at by
various writers about the English Suites since Dannreuther, but never taken
to their logical conclusion. They may be summarized as follows:
1) Bach copied out all six suites of Dieupart in about 1713. This was not
known by earlier writers, the m anuscript having temporarily disappeared.
The disappearance and rediscovery of this manuscript is fully described in the
notes to Chapter 2. Suffice it to say here that the reappearance of the copy,
now in Frankfurt, considerably alters the weight of evidence linking Dieupart
with Bach.
2) Bach's cousin, Johann Gottfried Walther, at almost exactly the same time
copied both Dieupart's A-major suite and the A-major English Suite into the
same collection of manuscripts. These copies are reliably dated around 17121420.
3) The A major English Suite contains, at the beginning of its prelude, a direct
and obvious quotation from the Gigue to Dieupart's suite in the same key.
20 Hermann Zietz, Quellenkritische Untersuchungen an den Bach-Handschriften P 801, P 802
und P 803 aus dem Krebsschen Nachlass" unter besonderer Berucksichtigung der
Choralbearbeitungenen des jungen ]. S. Bach. (Hamburg, 1969).
18
4) The basic movement plan of the English Suites is the same as that found in
Dieupart's set.
5) Dieupart's suites were unique among French works up to that time in the
inclusion of w ritten-out preludes, and a fixed and invariable sequence of
m ovem ents21. Both of these features occur, among Bach's output of keyboard
suites, only in the English Suites.
Other facts which may or may not be relevant are:
1) J . C. Bach's copy of the English Suites contains a description linking these
works to "the English", a relationship which is not clear. However, due to its
absence from the earliest surviving manuscript copies, it seems that the nam e
was not formally applied by Bach to the set, but may have been used as a sort
of nickname among members of the Bach circle
2) Forkel, Bach's first biographer stated clearly (without giving his source) that
the English Suites were w ritten for an English nobleman.
Edward Dannreuther, who was the first to link the Bach suites w ith
those of Dieupart in a lecture to the Royal Institution in London22 suggested
that the Dieupart suites were known in Bach's household as the "English"
Suites, due to D ieupart's having been famous in England as a teacher, and
that the title of Bach's set was an acknowledgement of his debt to the French
composer, resident in London at the turn of the eighteenth century and for
the next forty years.
21 Fixed m ovem ent order w as, how ever, a feature of certain German com posers before Bach,
for exam ple, Froberger and Fischer.
22 Quoted by J. A Fuller M aitland, Bach's Keyboard Suites ( London, 1928). Paul Brunold, in
his introduction to the L'oiseau-Lyre edition o f the Dieupart Suites, gives the date of
Dannreuther's lecture as April 30, 1892
It is the combination of various known facts which suggests that the

Dieupart works, coupled perhaps w ith a commission from an Englishman,
hold the key to the whole puzzle. I believe that the explanation of the title is
related to the fact that Bach knew and esteem ed the D ieupart suites
sufficiently to make m anuscript copies of all of them, and then, perhaps as
the result of a commission, to compose six suites of his own, in basically the
same format. Most of the above-mentioned facts have been referred to by
many writers in the past, but the linkage between certain of them established
in the present study is new.
Dannreuther was quick to claim direct links between D ieupart's suites

and Bach, basing his idea primarily on the fam iliar quotation from the A
major Gigue by Dieupart in Bach's own Prelude to the English Suite in the
same key (BWV 806). 23W hat D annreuther could not confirm (though it
seems he may have sensed it) w as that Bach's interest in D ieupart also
extended to copying the very suite containing the them e referred to by
D annreuther, transform ing it in the process. D annreuther's failure to
m ention this was because the complete Bach m anuscript copy had, at that
time, disappeared from its last known w herabouts in the collection of the
musicologist, Alois Fuchs, in Vienna. That Dannreuther, however, suspected
more is revealed in his comments:
23 See Chapter 3, Exam ple 3.1.
20
An autograph copy by J. S. Bach, of the entire Suite No. VI in F minor

is preserved at Berlin, and there is strong evidence that Bach knew and
valued the other Suites.24
The only primary evidence available to Dannreuther that Bach "knew

and valued" the music of Dieupart was the copy, presumably made from the
missing complete manuscript, of the sixth suite in F minor. The information
that confirmed the existence of this complete copy was similarly unavailable
to any of the other early writers on Bach's suites: Dannreuther, Spitta or Pirro,
all of whom refer only to the copy of the F m inor suite. Later writers, from
Geiringer to Schulenberg have not brought this area of Bach research up to
date, though the original manuscript has now been located in Frankfurt.25 In
fact, the questions discussed here have not been seriously considered since the
time of Dannreuther, who, I believe was essentially correct in making the
link between Dieupart and Bach, and one has the feeling that the English
Suites never have been quite the attention w hich their qualities m erit. If
Dannreuther's claims seemed to some at the time to be "a little far-fetched,"
(as Fuller Maitland p u t it in 1928), then the extra evidence supplied by the
reappearance of Bach's complete copy of D ieupart's works makes them now
appear to be far more solidly based, and, indeed, convincing.
I have, therefore, formulated a hypothesis that accords with and takes

account of all the know n evidence, and is consistent w ith the surviving
24 Edward Dannreuther, M usical Ornamentation (N ovello, London, 1893) Vol i. pp. 137-8.
25 Staats und Ciniversitatsbibliothek, Frankfurt am Main ms. 1538. See Bach-Dokumente III
(ed. H. J. Schulze, Kassel) pp. 634-5.
21
m anuscripts which can be reliably dated from one source or another. This
conclusion is described fully in Chapter 2, which specifically concerns the
background to the title of the English Suites The research for this chapter
yielded an increasingly clear and logically compelling picture of the young
Bach of 1713 or so, full of admiration for the French Clavecinists, and, quite
suddenly, equally curious about the works of Italian musicians. This was a
young composer whose imagination was fired by one of the most im portant
musical ideas of his day, most eloquently outlined by Francois Couperin: a
fusion of styles in the service of a higher form of music, les Gouts Reunis.
Though proof in the form of absolute primary source material, regarding the
mysteries surrounding the English Suites is still lacking, perhaps we now
may begin to formulate the real solution to the nearly three-hundred-year-old
puzzle regarding these fascinating works: w hen they were written, and why
they were called the English Suites.
22
Chapter 1: Genesis of the English Suites.

a) Manuscript Sources.
That the English Suites were importantly regarded works both during
and immediately after Bach's lifetime is confirmed by the fact that they figure
among the list of unpublished works in the obituary by C. P. E. Bach and
Johann Friedrich Agricola printed in Mizler's Musikalische Bibliothek of 17541.
(Oddly, certain other highly im portant works, such as the six sonatas for
violin and harpsichord, BWV 1014-9, which do survive in autograph, are not
listed). T here the English Suites are identified only as "six suites",
distinguished clearly from "six shorter suites" (the French Suites, BWV 81217) and the six Partitas which form the first part of the Clavierubung (BWV 82530). For the musicologists of the latter part of the 20th century, they present
numerous problems both chronological and textual since they survive only
in a considerable num ber of complete and partial copies made by members of
the Bach circle and other later copyists between perhaps as early as 1712 and
the end of the eighteenth century. Positive dating of the works is therefore
unreliable, with musicologists in many cases forced to rely on stylistic analysis
in order to place these works in a plausible chronological order in the Bach
canon.
This is a problem which was unknow n to the editors of the BachGesellschaft edition, for one of the m anuscript sources, that listed by the
1 Reprinted in The Bach Reader, ed. David and M endel (Norton: N ew York, 1966) pp. 214-224.
23
Staatsbibliothek Preuftischer Kulturbesitz as mus. ms. P. 1072 (listed by the Neue

Bach-Ausgabe [hereafter NBA ]as Bl) was for a long time considered to be an
autograph. Exhaustive research has been done by the editors of the N B A in

term s of collating and docum enting the m any 18th- century copies of the
English Suites w hich survive. The sam e advances in the study of
handw riting and music paper which resulted in the revised chronology of
Bach's vocal music (by Alfred Diirr and Georg von Dadelson) in the 1950's
have also led to more complete information about Bach's copyists becoming
available. The following summary, based not only on the Kritische Bericht 2
published in 1981 by the NBA , but also on the research published in various
journals over the last few decades, describes the most im portant m anuscript
sources, their significance, and their relationship to one another. For
convenience and consistency, I have retained the grouping allocated to them
by the NBA. The many significant variants in both text and titles will be dealt
with fully in the section on the individual suites. Finally the reader will find
listed the various printed editions of the English Suites, with identification of
the sources upon which each one is based. Further discussion of the earliest
printed sources will be found later in the chapter devoted to the performance
history of the English Suites.
A. Berlin Deutsche Staatsbibliothek mus. ms. P 803.
The third volume of a collection of manuscripts from the Bach circle in

the Deutsche Staatsbibliothek (mus. ms. P801-3) contains the only surviving
2 N eue Bach-Ausgabe, Kritische Bericht V /7 , (Barenreiter: Kassel, 1981).
24
copy of an earlier version of one of the English Suites. The first suite in A
major, BWV 806 (in this version know n as BWV 806a), is included among
the works contained in a set of three m anuscripts w hich also contain
num erous other works for keyboard, both organ and harpsichord, by Bach
and other composers. These m anuscripts together constitute an im portant
source for num erous early compositions for organ and harpsichord of Bach3
and were compiled over a long period by three prom inent members of the
Bach circle. The first, Bach's distant cousin and associate in W eimar from
1708-1717, Johann Gottfried Walther (1684-1748) is conjectured to have begun
the manuscript around 1710, perhaps as preparatory work for his Musikalisches
Lexicon, published over two decades later4. Compositions by other composers,
especially French clavecinists, were also copied, including some pieces by two
composers whose works have since the nineteenth century been linked with
the English Suites, and may have provided Bach w ith certain them atic
material used in the prelude to the first English Suite: Charles (Francis)
Dieupart5, and Gaspard Le Roux. The adm iration W alther felt for the French
harpsichord writers is demonstrated by the inclusion of works by d'Anglebert,
d'Andrieu, C16rambault, Lebfegue and Louis M archand. As well as Walther,
the other scribes for this vast manuscript collection were Johann Tobias Krebs
(1690-1762), whose copies of BWV 807 and 811 also appear in P. 803, and his
3 Included in this m anuscript collection in W alther's handw riting are also the Piece d'orgue
BWV 572, Toccata in fU BWV 910, Sonatas after Reinken BWV 965-6 and num erous other
organ works, chiefly chorale preludes.
4See Stephen Daw: "Copies of J. S. Bach by Walther and Krebs: A Study of the M anuscripts
P801, P802, P803," Organ Yearbook VII, (1976), pp.33-58
5 Dieupart's Ouverture and Suite in A, from the Six Suittes de Clavessin are included among
Walther's copies of harpsichord m usic. The gigu e from the A major suite, which
Dannreuther and others considered to be the m odel for the Prelude from BWV 806 is,
how ever, according to David Schulenberg, not included in Walther's manuscript. See
Schulenberg (1992) p 415, fn 15. A study of the manuscript reveals this to be not the case: the
gigu e is included, though its title is not.
25
son Johann Ludwig (1713-80). W alther's early version of BWV 806 has been
cautiously dated by scholars, on the basis of the handwriting style, sometime
aroundl7126. It bears the title:
Prelude avec les suites, com posed par Giov: Bast: Bach.
Given the many interesting variants contained in W alther's copy of the first
English Suite, the N B A reprints it as an appendix to their edition.7 The
present work discusses it in the section dealing with BWV 806.
B 1. Staatsbibliothek PreuBischer Kulturbesitz mus. ms. P 1072.
This manuscript, dating from the first half of the 18th century, is the
work of a copyist know n to Bach scholarship as Anonymous 5, probably
Bach's student and later associate in Leipzig, Johann Schneider (1702-1788)8,
who was the organist at the Nikolaikirche from 1729. The evident care with
which the copying was done as well as the fact that the m anuscript contains
all six suites makes it by general consent the single most important source for
the English Suites. It is clear that certain parts of the m anuscript were
produced w ith Bach's ow n know ledge and perh ap s even u n d e r his
6 Hermann Zietz: Quellenkritische Untersuchungen an den Bach-Handschriften P 801, P 802 and

P 803 aus dem 'Krebs'schen Nachlass' unter besonderer Berucksichtigung der Choralbearbeitungen
des jungen J. S. Bach . Ham burger Beitrage zur M usikwissenschaft, Bd 1, (Hamburg, 1969)
pp. 100-102, 215.
7 Johann Sebastian Bach: Die sechs Englischen Suiten , ed. Alfred Diirr, (Kassel: Barenreiter
BA 5165, 1979).
8 Marianne Helm s, "Zur Chronologie der Handschrift des A nonym us 5.NBA Kritische Bericht
, V /7 (1981)
p. 195.
26
supervision9. For many years regarded as an autograph, and used by the BachGesellshaft as the basis for its edition10, it contains seven bars of autograph
m aterial (suite 3, BWV 808, Prelude, mm 181-7), clearly indicating Bach's

involvement at some level w ith the copying procedure. The waterm arks on
the paper are the same as those contained on a num ber of Bach's own
autograph scores11. Comparison of Schneider's handwriting with Bach's own
reveals striking sim ilarities12 (the same applies to the w riting of Anna
Magdalena Bach, which became increasingly similar to that of her husband),
and his copy of the French Suites was also formerly regarded as an autograph.
The manuscript copy of the English Suites is believed to have been compiled
over a relatively long period of time, with the first part (that containing the A
major suite) dating from around 1719 and the rest not later than 1725.13 Paul
Kast, in his study of the m anuscripts of the Staatsbibliothek Preufiischer
Kulturbesitz and the Deutsche Staatsbibliothek, considered the two parts of P.1072
to have been produced by two different writers, whom he described as

Anonymous 5b (first fascicle, BWV 806) and Anonymous 5a (second fascicle,
BWV 807-11).14 However, through study of the other, dated m anuscripts
copied by Schneider, especially those of Cantatas BWV 186 (dated 1723) and
9 Alfred Diirr: 'T he Historical Background of the com position o f Bach's Clavier Suite(s)",
Part 1. BACH XVI, (January, 1985), p. 54.
10 The text contained in BG 13, full of inaccuracies, w as later replaced by BG 45. Both
editions are fully described in Chapter 4, Performance History.
11 Diirr 1985, p. 54.
12 The page containing Bach's seven bar insertion enables a comparison of the two
handw riting styles. The NBA reproduce it at the beginning of their edition of the English
Suites (Barenreiter, BA 5165).
13 Diirr 1985, pp. 53-68.
14 Paul Kast, Die Bach-Handschriften der Berliner Staatsbibliothek. Tiibinger Bach-Studien, 2 -3,
(Trossingen: Hohner-Verlag, 1958).
27
154 (1724), Diirr concluded that the same w riter was responsible for the entire
manuscript, though a num ber of years separated its two sections.15
Schneider's m anuscript also contains many details of articulation and
some fingerings, perhaps derived from Bach him self16. In any case, he
appears to have been approved by Bach as a careful and reliable copyist, since
he copied not only the English and French Suites, but many other of Bach's
works as well.
B 2. Universitats-und Landesbibliothek Halle 12C 14-17.

12 C 14: BWV 810
12 C 15: BWV 808
12 C 16: BWV 806
12 C 17: BWV 811
This copy, produced by another im portant Bach student, H einrich
Nicolaus Gerber (1702-1775)17 is, on account of its relatively early date (around
1725),18 regarded after P. 1072 as the next m ost im portant source for the
English Suites. Gerber was one of the most im portant of Bach's copyists and
he also wrote out the Inventions and Sinfonias, the French Suites and the
first part of the Well-Tempered Klavier.19 Gerber's manuscript contains four
of the English Suites: BWV 806, 808, 810-11, but there is evidence from a
catalogue of his music now in Vienna20, that he copied altogether fifteen of
15 NBA KB V /7 p l8 . See also H elm s 1981, p. 183.
16 Reproduced by the NBA in BA 5165.
17 For a fuller discussion of the Gerber Bach m anuscripts, see Diirr, Alfred: "Heinrich
N icolaus Gerber als Schuler Bachs," Bach -Jahrbuch 1978, pp. 7 - 18.
18 Gerber must have copied the m anuscripts w h ile a student at Leipzig U niversity, for the
title page is signed Litterarum Liberalium Studiosus ac Musicae Cultor.
19 Durr 1978, p. 10.
20 Collection of the G esellschaft der M usikfreunde. See NBA KB p. 22.
28
Bach's suites into two books, one (the one containing four of the six English
Suites) originally containing seven suites, presumably the six English Suites,
and the sixth French suite with the addition of the E major prelude from the
first p a rt of the W ell-Tem pered Klavier)21. The o th er contained the
remaining eight (five of the French suites, plus the suites in a (BWV 818) and
Eb (BWV 819), w ith one more (originally num bered by Gerber as 7), now
missing from the m anuscript.
Both of G erber's suite m anuscripts are of
interest for a number of reasons, not least on account of the numerical order
of the suites, which does not correspond to the sequence of any other known
collection.22 Gerber's m anuscript copies of Bach's suites are also notable for
their arrangem ent of the included works into three volumes: listed in the
catalogue in Vienna are the six Partitas (BWV 825-830), suites w ith preludes
(presum ably the volum e originally containing seven suites) and the
rem aining eight w ithout, a grouping w hich is perhaps indicative of the
importance which Bach himself attached to that distinction. Surviving in the
manuscript containing the suites w ith preludes we find the following works,
listed below with Gerber's original numbering indicated in each case:
Suites with Preludes

Gerber BW V
Remarks
806 in A
First English suite
II
808 in g
Third English suite
21 Diirr 1978, pp. 11-12.

22 H ow ever the copy by Johann Tobias Krebs (P.803) sim ilarly lists the D m inor English
Suite (BWV 811) as number 5, presum ably follow ing Gerber. See Diirr 1978, p. 16.
Ill
M issing from the manuscript23
IV
810 in e
Fifth English suite
811 in d
Sixth English suite
6 (sic)
854/1, 817
Prelude in E (WTC I), Sixth French Suite
VII
810 in F (?)
M issing from the manuscript
In the remaining volume may be found:
Suites without preludes
812 in d
First French suite
II
818 in a
III
819 in Eb
IV
814 in b
Third French suite
813 in c
Second French suite
VI
815 in Eb
Fourth French suite
VII
m issing from the manuscript24
VIII
816
Fifth French suite
23 Diirr 1978, p. 15 cautiously suggests that a symmetrical tonal plan (A, g, a, e, d, E) may
indicate that BWV 807 w as originally suite 3 in Gerber's manuscript of Suites auec preludes.
H ow ever, the presum ed position of the F major suite as number 7 places it outside this neat
tonal ordering.
24 Bischoff, in his edition of the keyboard works, (Steingraber) suggested the suite for lute
or Lautenwerk (BWV 996) as the m issing work.
30
D urr's reasoning that the manuscript of suites with preludes originally

contained all six English suites is supported by the num bering of the volume
containing the works w ithout preludes, which initially (as can be seen from
Gerber's numbering) contained eight suites. Since the catalogue in Vienna
lists the six Partitas of the Clavierubung in a separate volume, it seems clear
that the book which originally contained seven suites m ust have included
the two remaining English Suites. The date of 1725 which has been assigned
to the copy of the English Suites has been arrived at on the basis of
handwriting analysis and comparison of the suite manuscripts with the two
which are dated: the Inventions and Sinfonias (22nd January, 1725) and the
Well Tempered Klavier (21st November, 1725).25
B 3. Deutsche Staatsbibliothek mus. ms. P. 803.
Contained in the same m anuscript as W alther's early version of the

first suite, the second and sixth suites are also included in the hand of
W alther's collaborator on P 803, Johann Tobias Krebs. Krebs clearly copied
Gerber's manuscript, adopting Gerber's numbering for BWV 811 (suite 5), and
correcting a num ber of Gerber's mistakes.26 BWV 807 does not survive in
Gerber's manuscript, and Krebs does not assign a num ber to it so it cannot be
proved that Krebs copied it from Gerber m anuscript, his copy dates from
some time after 1725.27
25 Diirr 1978, p. 10.

26 NBA Kritische Bericht V /7 , p. 55.
27 Though Zietz 1969, p. 215 dates the manuscript, on the basis of handw riting analysis,
around 1714.
B 4. Musikbibliothek der Stadt Leipzig Ms. 8.

B 5. SPK Mus. ms. Bach P. 836.
B 4 is in the hand of Johann Nicolaus Mempell, who died in 1747. It

contains BWV 806, w ithout the second courante. B 5, an early 19th-century
copy in the hand of the 19th century organist and collector of manuscripts,
Fritz Knuth, contains BWV 808 and 811.
C 1. Private collection, Luneburg.

This copy dates from the first half of 18th century, and is in the hand of
the scribe known to Bach researchers as Anonymous 428, a writer responsible
for many of the manuscript copies produced during the last years of Bach's
life, including those of the final versions of the St John Passion, Easter
Oratorio and certain cantatas, including BWV 195. This is the m anuscript
which once belonged to J. C. Bach, and bears the additional description
(perhaps, but not certainly in the hand of J. C. Bach) in incorrect French: fait
pour les Anglois. J. C. Bach's own name appears twice in the manuscript, at the
beginning of the first and third suites. This copy transmits the complete set,
excepting the fourth suite in F, BWV 809.
C 2. MB Lpz Ms. R 14.
28 Kast (1958). Durr in his Chronology of Bach's Leipzig vocal works (Kassel, 1976)
describes him as Hauptkopist H.
32
Containing only BWV 808, this copy dates from the second half of the
18th century. Originally (with C 3 and D 5) it formed part of the collection of
Ernst Rudorff.29
C 3. Berlin. Hochschule der Kunste ms. 6138/15b.
This manuscript, dating from the m iddle of the 18th century, contains
BWV 808/1, as well as the three suites listed under source D 5.
D 1. BB Am. B 489.
This manuscript, copied by an unknow n writer30, and Bach's student,

Johann Friedrich Agricola (1720-74), with later additions by Johann Philipp
Kirnberger (1721-83) contains all six of the English Suites, and was copied
during Bach's lifetime. Agricola m ade additions and revisions in the late
1730's.31 He wrote out the agrements to the sarabande of BWV 807 separately
from the rest of the suite. Only the soprano part was notated by him, the bass
part is omitted
D 2. SPK Mus. ms. Bach P 291 adnex 5.
This later copy dates from after 1750 and contains all six of the English
Suites. The title, which refers to the "Englischen Suiten" is not original, and
29 NBA KB V /7 p. 30.
30 Kast (1958) lists him as anon. 436.
31 N BA KB V /7 p. 32.
33
was added at a later date by Karl Otto Friedrich von Vofi (1786-1864)32. The
copyist is identified33 as Anon 300, who also copied num erous m anuscripts
for C. P. E. Bach during his time in Berlin.
D 3. SPK Mus. ms. P 422.
This copy from after 1750 contains movements from BWV 806 and 807.
D 4. Leipzig. KMU M. pr. Ms. 20.
Dating from the second half of 18th century, this m anuscript also
contains the six French Suites (BWV 812-17) and the second part of the
Clavieriibung (Italian Concerto, BWV 971; O verture in the French M anner,
BWV 831). Regarding the English Suites, the title refers to:
Six grandes Suites dites Suites anglaises pour le Clavecin.
D 5. Hochschiile der Kunste. Berlin. 6138/15b.
This late 18th century manuscript, also containing the source listed above as C
3, contains a further three of the English Suites: BWV 806, 807 and 811. The
scribe for BWV 806 and BWV 811 is the same.
32 NBA KB V /7 p. 32.
33 Kast (1958).
34
D 6. SPK Am. B. 56.
A copy containing only a few movements from tw o of the English Suites

(BWV 808/1, 7 and 810/7), the anthology containing these fragm ents came
from the personal library of Princess Anna Amalia, sister of Frederick the
Great. The scribe for this m anuscript is know n to Bach scholars as Anon
40 1 .3 4
D 7. SPK mus. ms. Bach P. 218.
Again dating from some time after 1750, this m anuscript contains only the
sixth suite, BWV 811 in the handwriting of the same scribe who copied D 6.
D 8. SPK Mus. ms. Bach P. 419.
This copy is from the collection of the Bach pupil J. C. Kittel (1732-1809). Kittel
copied BWV 806 and p a rt of BWV 807, and p rovided annotations
(articulation and phrase markings) to the rest, which were copied by Michel,
singer and copyist for C. P. E. Bach in Hamburg. The title used in the catalogue
of the manuscript collection at Kittel's death reads:
6 Suiten engl. m. p geschr., 47 seiten stark.
The prelude to the third suite, BWV 808/i is missing.

E 1. MB Lpz Poel. mus. Ms. 26.
34 Kast (1958).
35
This manuscript, in the hand of Christian Friedrich Penzel, dates from

around 1753-5 and bears the following title:
SIX SVrTES AVEC LEVRS PRELUDES POUR LE CLAVECIN c o m p o s e s par MR. JEAN SEB.
BACH.
Later, this copy came into the hands of Griepenkerl and Roitzsch, and was,
along with other no longer extant copies (Yl-3),35 the basis for the edition by
Czerny, which first appeared in 1841. A note appended by Griepenkerl
described the manuscript as having come from the estate of W. F. Bach36.
E 2. Riemenschneider Bach Institute. Berea, Ohio 536. 537, 539
The manuscripts contain the following: BWV 806/1, 2; BWV 808/1, 7;

BWV 811/7; BWV 810/1, 7; BWV 811/1; and date from the mid 18th century
(1725-51), according to research by Alfred D urr's study of the watermarks,
between 1725 and 1751.37
F 1. Private collection. Luneburg
This copy of all six English Suites was identified by Ludwig Landshoff and
Alfred Kreutz38 as being in the hand of Christian Friedrich Carl Fasch (1736-
35
36
37
38
NBA KB V /7 p. 49.
NBA KB V /7 p. 38.
Riemenschneider Bach Facsimiles, Vol 1, book 111, (Ohio, 1985) pp. 2-3.
See Kreutz's edition of the English Suites, (Leipzig, Peters 4580a/b, 1950).
36
1800). On the basis of a comparison of the handw riting w ith Fasch's other
known manuscripts, the copy was dated between 1756 and 1790.
F 2. BB Am. B. 50.
This copy dates from the second half of the 18th century and comes from the
collection of Princess Anna Amalia (sister to Frederick the Great). It bears the
following title:
Sechs Suiten fur das Clavier von Johann Sebastian Bach, d ie Englischen
Suiten gennant.
F 3. SPK mus. ms. Bach P. 836.
This early 19th century copy in the hand of the organist Fritz Knuth, as is the
source listed as B 5, bears the following title:
S e c h s engl. Suiten bestehend aus 45
versch. Stiicken furs C la v ie r .
The six suites, num bered 1-6 appear in the following order: BWV 807, 806,
809, 810, 808, 811.
F 4. MB Lpz Ms. 2a.
From around 1800, this copy contains only the prelude to BWV 808.
37
G.
This group of m anuscripts is im portant chiefly for its association with
Bach's first biographer, Johann Nikolaus Forkel. The name of Beethoven's
patron Prince Karl Alois Lichnowsky (1761-1814) is also associated with these
copies, as he ordered m ost of them to be m ade in Gottingen in 1782.
Consideration of these manuscripts and their history takes us into the era of
the Bach revival, where the names of Forkel, van Swieten, and Lichnowsky
all figure prominently. These manuscripts are briefly summarized below:
G 1. Vienna, Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde VII 834.
This m anuscript found its way into the collection of Baron Gottfried van
Swieten(1733-1803). Its title reads:
S i x grandes Suites pour le Clavecin, com poshes
par Jean Seb. B a c h
G 2. Beethoven-Archiv. Bonn Ad 5/Lichnowsky.

This late eighteenth century copy of five of the English Suites comes from the
same source as G 1, though it lacks BWV 811.
G 3. SPK Mus. ms. Bach P 305.
This m anuscript was copied by a w riter who also worked for Mozart and
Haydn. The suites, numbered 1-6 appear in the following order:
BWV 807, 808 (without the sarabande, 4a), 806, 809-11. The title reads: >VI
Grandes Suites pour le Clavecin par Jean Seb. B ach.<
38
G 4. Salzburg. Archiv des Domchores MN 100.

This copy is in the handw riting of the composer Johann M ederitsch (1752 1835), after whose death the m anuscript passed into the hands of M ozart's
son, Franz Xaver (1791-1844).
G 5. SPK mus. ms. Bach P 212.
This manuscript contains various single movements from the last two suites,
some in the hand of J. N. Forkel. This manuscript refers to the works as the
"English" Suites.
All the other sources (G 6 - M) listed by the NBA are 18th-or early 19th
century copies of various movements from the English Suites.
Of the remaining early manuscript copies referred to in the literature,

but which do not survive, the two most important are:
1) the score from the estate of J. N. Forkel (Y 2) of which G 1. is supposedly a
copy and
2) the copy from the estate of W. F. Bach which was am ong the scores
belonging to Friedrich Conrad Griepenkerl, a prom inent early 19th century
editor of Bach's music.
39
b) Establishing the composition dates of the English Suites:
i. Possible French models:

The varying opinions expressed by w riters on Bach's music from the
early years of the 20th century to the present point to the hazards inherent in
attempting to date compositions on the basis of a subjective analyis of style
alone. Sir Hubert Parry39 expressed the opinion that the English Suites, due to
their length, seriousness and complexity, represented the culm ination of
Bach's suite output, causing him mistakenly to date them even after the six
Partitas (BWV 825-30). J. A. Fuller M aitland, while largely agreeing with
Parry's assessment of the qualities of the English Suites, pointed out that the
w orks survived in a m anuscript copy d a te d betw eenl724 and 1727,
presumably Gerber's.40 More recently, Malcolm Boyd41, basing his conclusion,
no doubt, on the research of Hans Eppstein42 refers to their "uniformity of
structure", and includes them among the works from the Cothen years43. In
fact, the evidence is strong that the uniform m ovem ent structure of the
English Suites is but one feature of the six suites of Charles Dieupart,
published in 1701, which Bach emulated w hen he came to w rite his set of
suites avec preludes.
39 Sir Hubert Parry, Johann Sebastian Bach, (London, 1909) p. 461.

40 J. A Fuller M aitland, Bach's Keyboard Suites, (London, 1928). Though Gerber's copy does
not actually bear a date, Fuller Maitland clearly based h is assertion on Spitta's observation
that Gerber's copy m ust have been m ade during his years as Bach's student at the
U niversity of Leipzig, 1724-7. (see fit 18). See Spitta, Johann Sebastian Bach, v o l iii, tr. Bell
and Fuller-Maitland, (London: N ovello, 1889; rpt. N e w York: Dover, 1951), p. 289.
41 Malcolm Boyd, Bach. The Master Musicians, (London: Dent, 1983), p. 94.
42 Hans Eppstein: "Chronologieprobleme in Johann Sebastian Bachs Suiten fur
Soloinstrument," Bach-Jahrbuch, (1976) pp. 35-57.
43 A s does Karl Geiringer, Johann Sebastian Bach (London, 1966), p. 304.
40
Schulenberg (1992) points to various features of the English Suites

which suggest an early composition date: the allem andes which still owe
much to Froberger and the French style courantes (rather than the Italianate
corrente, as appears in the partitas)44. The allem andes found in the English
Suites though as long as many of those found in the Partitas, are w ritten in a
som ewhat more conservative and perhaps uncom prom ising style, more
related to the original dance type than some of the more elaborate examples
found in the Partitas. The other dance m ovem ents are all equally m ature
examples of their respective types, astonishingly so, given the likely date of
com position: the courantes full of rhythm ic com plexity and melody
(Schulenberg's rem arks45 concerning the courante of the sixth suite
notwithstanding), the sarabandes ranging from the deceptively simple (BWV
810) to the highly complex (BWV 808), and the gigues all composed in one of
two distinct Italian styles46, within which they exhibit considerable diversity
and freedom. The final two gigues of the collection (rem arked upon by
Forkel47 as "perfect examples of original melody and harmony") stand out
from the remaining gigues in the set through their use of highly chromatic
and daring subject material, which is developed, in each case, fugally.
Though certain authors have concluded that the English Suites m ust
have been the first of Bach's suite cycles to have been composed, largely on
the basis of stylistic considerations, there is considerable external evidence

46 For a description of the tw o styles of Italian gigue, see Meredith Little and Nathalie
Jenne, Dance and the Music of /. S. Bach, (Bloomington, Indiana, 1991), pp. 159-174.
47 Forkel (1802, rpt. Bach Reader, N ew York: Norton, 1966) p. 343.
which m ay give a m ore accurate im pression of w hen and u n d er w hat

circumstances they were composed. Though the present w riter finds little
evidence of any "aw kw ard or u n id io m atic"48 passages am ong the
movements of the English Suites, it is true to say that the they are largely
w ithout the galant elements which one finds in the French Suites and in
certain m ovements of the Partitas, despite the inclusion in each suite of a
"modish" dance in alternativement, or en rondeau .
What is clear, however, is a sharp difference in style between the first

suite in A major and the five rem aining works in the set. This stylistic
distinction, and the fact that the first suite existed separately from the
rem aining suites in various copies, has som etim es been taken as an
indication that it may have been added to make up the required half dozen
suites normally contained in such a collection, perhaps in order to fill the
commission of the "Englishman of rank",49. In addition, as has often been
noted by those who consider this work separately from the other five suites,
the first suite does not fit the key sequence of the rest of the collection
(descending in diatonic order from a to d, and thereby rendering the inclusion
of another w ork w ith an A tonality superfluous to the scheme). This, of
course, assumes the deliberate use of such a key sequence: the numbering of
the suites is not agreed upon by all the copyists: Gerber, as already noted,
presents a different logic by including the E major French suite along w ith the
suites avec preludes.50
49 Durr 1985, p. 56.
50 Durr 1978, p. 15 g iv es the follow ing key sequence for the Suites avec Preludes, as grouped
by Gerber:
Suite: I
II
III
IV
V
(6)
42
If the first English Suite is to be regarded apart from its more exuberant
and Italianate colleagues, then the early date of W alther's manuscript copy of
the earlier version may indicate that, indeed, the other five suites were added
to it later, rather than the other way around. Given Bach's (and W alther's)
interest in copying the music of various French composers around 1713, then
it is logical to see the A major suite as a conscious exercise by Bach at
composing in the purely French clavecin style: that this may have been his
in te n tio n could be reflected in the exclusively French m ovem ent
designations transm itted by W alther, as well as the use of m ultiple (and
perhaps alternative) courantes, a device common in the suites of the French
clavecinists as far back as Louis Couperin and Chambonrtiferes.
Much has been m ade by various commentators of the resemblance of

BWV 806/i 's thematic material to works by Dieupart 51 and Gaspard Le Roux
52 not to mention the A-major Toccata attributed to various composers such
as H enry Purcell and M ichelangelo Rossi53. The v ario u s them atic
BW V
A
807
g
808
a
806
e
810
d
811
E
8 5 5 /i, 817
This leaves the F major suite (BWV 809) unaccounted for, and outside the tonal plan.
51 G igue to the Premiere suitte, from Six Suittes pour le Clavessin, published by Estienne
Roger, A m sterdam (undated). The allem ande of the sam e suite also contains thematic
affinities to BWV 8 0 6 / i.
52 Gaspard le Roux: Suite in A, from Pieces de Clavecin, Paris 1705.
53 This w ork w as included in V olum e 42 (pp 250-54) of the Bach-Gesellschaft edition under
the title Toccata quasi fantasia con fuga . BWV Anh. 178. The manuscript, edited for the BG
by Ernst N aum ann cam e from the collection o f W ilhelm Rust. It was originally part of the
m anuscript collection of Fritz Knuth, w h o also copied the English Suites in the early
nineteenth century (source B 5, F 3). It is no longer extant. (See Rose, 1968).
43
connections noted by D annreuther54, Jaccottet55, Schulenberg and others

(fully examined in Chapters 2 and 3) may be of some assistance in dating the
first suite (at least insofar as the works by D ieupart and Le Roux were
published in 1701 and 1705 respectively).
Any attempts at dating the remaining five works are complicated by

the lack of any surviving earlier version, unlike the case of BWV 806.
However, the present w riter believes that the copy w hich Bach m ade in
171356 of the six suites of Dieupart, and the copies by J. G. W alther of the A
major Suite of D ieupart and the A major English Suite57 are of more
significance than has usually been accredited to them in establishing not only
the origins of the generic title English Suites (a topic which is fully explored
in another chapter), but also an approximate date of compilation, if not actual
composition. Given the dating of Bach's copy of D ieupart's suites, and
Walther's copy of BWV 806a, the remaining five English Suites would appear
to have been cast in essentially the same mould, the only difference being the
addition of Italian style concerto movements as preludes, rather than the
straight quotation of a model, as occurs in BWV 806, where D ieupart's A
major gigue is clearly utilized as the basic inventio. Given the sudden
appearance of Italianate models, on which the preludes of BWV 807-811 are
based, a composition date of around 1714-1717 seems reasonable for the
54 Edward Dannreuther, Musical Ornamentation, 2 vols, (London, 1893-5).
55 Christiane Jaccottet, "L'influence de la m usique franfaise pour clavecin dans les Suites
A nglaises d e johann Sebastian Bach et, plus spgcialem ent, la premifere en La Majeur BWV
806", W olgang Birtel, C hristiph-H elm utt M ahling, eds. Aufklarung: Studien zur deutschfranzdsischen Musikgeschichte im 18. Jahrhundert - Einflusse und Wirkungen, Band 2,
Heidelberg, 1986), pp. 195-99.
56 Staats und Oniversitatsmuseum, Frankfurt-am-Main mus. m s 1538.
57 D eutsche Staatsbibliothek, Berlin mus. ms. P 801, 803.
44
rem aining five suites. The difference in style betw een BWV 806 and its
companions may be accounted for by Bach's sudden discovery of Vivaldi's
music, which begins to be reflected in the cantatas composed around 1713, in
such works as BWV 21, Ich hatte viel bekummernis, and the slightly later secular
cantata, BWV 208, Was mir behagt, ist nur die muntre Jagd.
A reasonable hypothetical explanation of the date and compositional

circumstances of the English Suites, based on the known dates of the earliest
surviving manuscripts, and Bach's known compositional interests at the tim e
would be as follows:
The increasingly well-known young Johann Sebstian Bach, living in

W eimar, and full of curiosity concerning the refined French style of
composition for the harpsichord, copies the Dieupart suites out in 1713. These
pieces are among those which his patron, Duke Johann Ernst has just
obtained during one of his frequent trips around Europe, m ade specifically in
order to obtain the latest music in m anuscript and published form. Bach
includes in the same manuscript an ornament table from the Pieces de Clavecin
of d'Anglebert, and the Premiere Livre d'Orgue of de Grigny. He then composes
a suite of his own in a similar style (BWV 806a) around the same time, using
the same key as the first of Dieupart's suites. In homage to his model, he even
quotes part of the last movement of D ieupart's work in the opening his new
prelude, though he greatly expands the scope of the piece, altering both
texture and time signature in the process. His cousin and colleague, Johann
Gottfried Walther, also living in Weimar and then at work compiling the
45
m anuscript collection which will twenty years later provide m uch of the basic
m aterial for his M usikalisches Lexicon (published 1732) at the same tim e
copies out the first Dieupart suite, and in the same collection, the suite by his
cousin which the Dieupart model inspires. This is done so that the model and
the w ork it helps to create can be com pared as exam ples of French and
German art. Then, around 1717, as a result of a commission from a visiting
English nobleman, Bach assembles the rem aining suites, the starting point
being a set of five single m ovem ents he has w ritten as a tonally ordered
collection (a, g, F, e, d), all of w hich reflect his new found interest in the
Italian concertos of Vivaldi, Marcello and Albinoni. Basing the plan of his
suites on the Dieupart model, which his English patron admires, he adds the
requisite number of dances, based on the fashionable French and, also, Italian
dance movements which have, in the last decade or so, become increasingly
popular. In place of the Ouvertures, which are a novel feature of the Dieupart
suites, he uses his Italianate movements, now called preludes, to introduce
the dances, which basically follow the order of D ieupart's suites. However, in
his newly composed suites, he attempts to marry the French and Italian styles,
som etim es w ithin one m ovem ent, in the sam e m anner as the French
composer Francois Couperin, whose work he greatly admires. To make up a
set of six suites required to fill his commission, he attaches to the beginning of
his set of suites the already completed (and copied) BWV 806a, however,
revising his early version somewhat: tidying up various features of his earlier
exercise in French suite composition, adding a few bars to the prelude in
order to improve its harmonic rhythm, and streamlining the dances. Finally,
he adds a varied version of one of the courantes to show his skill in writing
46
agr^ments in the French style, adding similar variants for the sarabandes of
some of the other suites, basically following the model of Francois Couperin's
Premiere Livre of Pieces de Clavecin. The autograph m anuscript is then
presented to his noble patron. Bach, then at work on other projects, lays the
English Suites aside, finding no particular reason to revise or rew ork them
any further.
Though, of course, the preceding account is hypothetical, it does fit the

known facts with regards to surviving m anuscript sources. It w ould also
explain the other mysterious circumstances surrounding the set of English
Suites, by which title they are known today.
The G erm an scholar and editor R udolf Steglich claim ed that a

connection existed betw een the English Suites and H andel's collection of
172058 (both of which begin with a work in A major), but this is unlikely to be
significant, given the strong evidence of an earlier initial composition date
for the English Suites, unless, of course, Bach knew the H andel suites in
m anuscript before their 1720 publication. More likely, perhaps, is that
H andel's A major suite is a product of the same tradition of "suites with
preludes" which the novel and innovatory Dieupart suites helped to create,
and which also gave rise to Bach's set.
ii. Dating the English Suites: Internal Evidence.
58}ohann Sebastian Bach: Englische Suiten, ed. R udolf Steglich (Munich: G. H enle Verlag,
1958. Preface revised, 1971), pp. 3-4.
47
establishing the dates of certain keyboard works.59 It is not always of

significance in the positive dating of Bach's compositions. However, in
certain instances it may provide clues where the musical text appears to have
been tailored to fit a particular keyboard range, especially if the adaptation
involves the treble rather than the bass end of the compass (instrum ents with
a short compass in the bass were m ade throughout the history of the
harpsichord and clavichord). The English Suites, like the first book of the
Well-Tempered Clavier do not extend in range above c '", and there is some
evidence of thematic alteration in order to keep w ithin that compass. In the

prelude to BWV 808, measure 70, the statement of the opening theme in the
relative major of B-flat appears to have been modified in such a way (a literal
re-statement would take the right hand up to d '" ) perhaps indicating that
Bach had a smaller compass at his disposal: to c"'.
Example 1.1: BWV 808/i m. 1-7; mm. 67-73
A fairly common range, judging from surviving Germ an instrum ents from
the 1710's, was GG - c'", with or without the low GG#. The following still
extant instruments reflect this compass:
59 Alfred Durr, "Tastenumfang und Chronologie in Bachs Klavierwerken", Im Mittelpunkt

Bach, Augewdhlte Aufsdtze und Vortrage, (Kassel: Barenreiter, 1988).
48
Johann Christoph Fleischer, 1710 (Berlin, Staatsbibliothek

PreuBischer Kulturbesitz)
Carl Conradt Fleischer, 1720 (Barcelona, Museu de Musica)
Michael Mietke, Schlofi Charlotteriburg, Berlin, c.170460
Michael Mietke, Hudiksvall, Sweden, 1710
Caution is necessary, however, in attributing works to a particular

period on the basis of range alone, with the assumption that larger keyboard
ranges necessarily indicate a later composition date. Large five octave twom anual harpsichords were being built in Germany before 171461. However,
most extant German harpsichords extending only to c'" appear to date from
earlier than 172362. While a smaller compass, and lack of dynamic markings
(indicating the necessity for a two-manual harpsichord) may be suggestive of
smaller, and perhaps earlier instruments, they cannot alone be regarded as
definitive. Bach, even late in his career, often used a fairly conservative
keyboard range: for example, in the second part of the Clavieriibuvg, neither
the Italian Concerto (BWV 971) nor the Overture in the French M anner
(BWV 831) rises above c"', though both works make use of two manuals and
bass notes below C.63 It can be said, however, that if the English Suites are
products of the years 1712-1719, as appears likely, then the apparent compass,
60 John Henry van der Meer, "Die Geschichte der Zupfklaviere bis 1800. Ein Oberblick",
Kielklaviere (Catalogue o f the keyboard instrum ents in the Berlin M useum (Staatliches
Institut fur M usikforschung PreuBischer Kulturbesitz, 1991) pp. 22-3.
61 By the HaraB, Silbermann and H ass workshops.
62 van der Meer 1991,p. 22.
63 See Alfred Durr: "Tastenumfang und Chronologie in Bachs Klavierwerken", Ini
M ittelpnnkt Bach, (Kassel: Barenreiter, 1988).
49
All in all, attempts at dating of the English Suites cannot be conclusive,

but the suggestion of Alfred Diirr, that they w ere almost certainly composed
by 172264 accords with the surviving evidence. The present w riter w ould add
that the other factors such as the existence of the Dieupart copy in Bach's
handwriting, and perhaps the deliberately restricted treble range may suggest
an earlier date, certainly by 1717-8 at the latest. One might be tem pted to add
that the first suite, given the existence of a copy of the work in its final form
almost certainly m ade by 1719 (Anonymus 5, Johann Schneider), was probably
in existence in its revised version by 1717. The early form of the work,
transm itted in W alther's m anuscript m ust date from considerably earlier,
p erh ap s a ro u n d 1712/13, given the existence of the B ach /D ieu p art
manuscript, dated 1713.65
c. The Editions:
The earliest published movements from one of the English Suites were
the pair of Gavottes from the G m inor suite (BWV 808) which appeared in
Berlin in 1760 under the title Musette 66. The English Suites first began to
appear in complete form in an edition published by Hoffmeister and Kuhnel,
(later C. F. Peters) Leipzig, who corresponded directly w ith Bach's champion
and first biographer, Johann Nikolaus Forkel. The works appeared under the
following title:
J.
SEB. BACH.
GRANDES SUITES dites Suites A nglaises pour le Clavecin c o m p o s e s PAR
In 1805, BWV 808 was issued as Suite 1, followed in 1812/13 by
64 Diirr 1985, p. 56.

65 Hans-Joachim Schulze, ed., Bach-Dokumente, Vol iii, (Kassel: Barenreiter), pp.
634-5.
NBA Kritische Bericht V /7 , p. 82.
50
BWV 811 as Suite 2. The next publication, by T. Trautwein in Berlin, appeared

in 1828 w ith BWV 807 listed as suite 3 (the num bering obviously picking up
from where Hoffmeister and Kxihnel had left off). BWV 809 appeared as Suite
4, BWV 806 as Suite 5 and BWV 810 as Suite 6 by 1830. The entire collection
was later issued by C. F. Peters as part of a complete edition. The HoffmeisterKiihnel publications were based largely on Schneider's and Gerber's copies (B1
and B2), but the Trautwein edition took D 2 as its primary source material.67
In 1841, Czerny's edition was first published with a forward by Friedrich
Conrad Griepenkerl, and it appeared in England published by R. Cocks and Co
in 1844. It was based on the sam e sources as the Hoffmeister-KuhnelTrautwein editions, w ith revisions taken from Penzel's copy (E l) . The same
edition was included as part of a Collection Complete pour le Piano des Oeuvres de
J. S. Bach which appeared in Paris betw een 1841 and 1849 published as
volume 4 by Launer. It was reprinted many times in the following decades of

the 19th century, but, of course contained the editorial expression marks and
fingerings which were usual for that time.
In 1863, the Bach-Gesellschaft edition of the English Suites appeared
edited by Franz Espagne. Unlike most of the volumes of the BG, it contained
no Critical Report or description of its source material. It was considered to be
deficient, since it was based only on the limited num ber of sources which had
been available to Espagne, a fact noted by Schweitzer in 1905/868 It was
superceded by volume 4 5 /i (1895) which contained a new edition by Ernst
h7 NBA Kritische Bericht V/ 7 , p. 80.

68 Albert Schweitzer, J. S. Bach, trans. by Ernest N ew m an, 2 vols. (Leipzig, 1911, repr. NY,
1966) vol i p. 325.
51
Naum ann, and which took into account all of the im portant sources, but
drew on them indiscriminately: A; Bl, 2, 3; D 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8; F 2; G 3, 5.
Between the appearance of the two Bach-Gesellschaft editions, however, the

excellent edition of Hans Bischoff appeared (Steingraber Verlag, Leipzig). This
publication, the first truly critical edition of the English Suites, was based on
the following of the sources:
B 1, 2; C 1; D 1, 2, 6, 7; F 1, 2; G 5
Bischoff's edition also took into account a score of BWV 807-11 from the
collection of Wilhelm Rust, which the N B A lists as Y 5 (it is no longer extant)
but which Bischoff listed as Source L.
Ludwig Landshoff prepared a critical edition for Peters in 1937 which,

due to ban on publications by Jewish authors imposed by the Nazis, failed to
appear. Finally, in 1950 an edition by Alfred Kreutz, based on Landshoff's
material was issued in place of the intended one by Landshoff himself (Ed
Peters 4580a/b). It drew on the following manuscript sources:
A; B 1, 2, 3; C 1; D 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8; F 1, 2, 3; G 3, 5; and it was described by

H erm ann Keller69 as the basic source for answering all textual questions
regarding the English Suites.
In 1957 Henle Verlag produced its version of the English Suites, edited
by Rudolf Steglich. Though designated as an Urtext, it provided only a very'
69 Hermann Keller, Die Klaviertoerke Bachs, (Leipzig, 1950), p. 181.
52
cursory identification of its sources, and included editorial fingerings by HansMartin Leopold. The annotations by Steglich refer to many of the manuscript
copies, but fail to indicate clearly which ones were used.70 Steglich's sketchy
and subjective annotations concerned them selves m ainly w ith editorial
suggestions for performance, metronome markings and other issues, largely
geared to performance on the m odem piano.
The Urtext of the Neue Bach-Ausgabe, edited by Alfred Diirr, appeared
in 1979, followed by the Kritische Bericht in 1981 (on which m uch of the
material in the present chapter is based). In addition to including W alther's
early version of BWV 806 as an appendix, the edition was based mainly on
the copies by Schneider and Gerber (B 1 and B 2) w ith the addition of
manuscripts from the groups C, D and E for the sake of comparison. In a few
exceptional cases, sources F and G were used for further enlightenment. The
edition also incorporated the fingerings contained in Schneider's manuscript
(B 1), and certain variants throughout the text as ossia (alternate) readings.
Diirr noted in his preface that, although the sources were in general
agreement on many points so that a more or less reliable musical text could
be arrived at, the question of restoring Bach's intentions w ith regards to
ornamentation was made extremely complicated by the numerous differences
between the various copies. Finally, the edition of the Associated Board of the
Royal Schools of Music, edited by the English musicologist, Richard Jones,
appeared in 1987. In his introduction, the editor acknowledged his substantial
debt to the work of Alfred Diirr and the NBA. In footnotes throughout the
70 There are references, however, to Krebs, Kittel and Oley (i.e Anon 5, SPK mus. ms P.
1072).
53
text, Jones indicated the particular m anuscript sources from which each
reading was derived, the primary source m aterial being the m anuscript of
Anonymus 5 (B 1 in the present study). Jones was perhaps the first editor to
gear his textual com m entary equally to harpsichord perform ance, the
suggested fingerings contained in the edition reflective of Baroque, rather
than pianistic phrasing and articulation. In the present study, the various
textual differences between the surviving m anuscripts will be explored in
Chapter 4, in the context of the individual suites.
54
Chapter 2: The Title and Origins of the English Suites:

"Six great Suites, consisting of preludes, Allemandes, courants, sarabandes,
jigs &c. They are known by the nam e of the English suites because the
composer m ade them for an Englishman of rank."
J. N. Forkel, 1802, on Bach's Life and Works.
Of all the m ysteries surrounding the English Suites, one of the most
persistent concerns the name which has been associated w ith them since at
least the second half of the eighteenth century. Why are these works,
composed by one of Germany's leading composers in a m ixture of largely
French and Italian styles w edded to a national label w ith which Bach is not
known to have been associated? Also, w hen and by whom was the now
familiar term first used? By way of absolute proof, we are not much closer to
answering these questions than were those authors who wrote on the subject
of Bach's music in the nineteenth and early tw entieth centuries. The actual
hard evidence, pointing to use of the title "English Suites" during Bach's
own time, comes down to only two real sources.
First is the description stem m ing from the m anuscript source

designated here (following the Neue Bach-Ausgabe) as C 1, dating from around
the middle of the 18th century. This m anuscript copy, in an unknown hand,
came from the estate of Johann Christian Bach. The title to the first suite in A
major reads:
Suite 1 avec Prelude pour le clavecin. A#, composê. par. Jean Sebastian
Bach. Fait pour les Anglois. pp Jean Chretian Bach.
55
The second piece of evidence is Forkel's explanation of the title,

appearing at the beginning of the present chapter, which was probably based,
as was m uch of his m aterial, on inform ation supplied by Bach's sons,
W ilhelm Friedem ann and Carl Philipp Em anual. H ow ever, it is w orth
noting that the obituary of J. S. Bach published in 1754 in Lorenz M izler's
Musikalische Bibliothek (upon which much of Forkel's biography is based)1,
though it mentions what are clearly the six English Suites, does not refer to
them by that name, but merely as six suites, distinguished from six preceding
shorter suites (clearly the French Suites)2
In addition, our first piece of evidence may be somewhat compromised

by the fact that the reference to the suites as having been "m ade for the
English" is perhaps in the handwriting of someone other than J. C. Bach3, and
it is uncertain when the description was added. Alfred Diirr believes that the
explanation given by Forkel has been unjustifiably questioned by scholars
who, instead prefer to interpret the rather shaky French of the title page as
referring to the works having been composed with some sort of reference to
an English style.4 Diirr speculates that, if the story of a commission from an
English noblem an is correct, then Bach may have m ade his aquaintance
during a visit to Carlsbad in the retinue of Prince Leopold in 1718 or 1720. Of
1 Written by C. P. E. Bach and J. S. Bach's student J. F. Agricola. See reprint in The Bach
Reader, (N ew York, 1966), p. 278.
2 Reprinted in The Bach Readei-, p. 221.
3 Neue Bach-Ausgabe Kritische Bericht V /7 (Kassel, 1981) p. 26.
4 Alfred Diirr, "The Historical Background of the C om position of Johann Sebastian Bach's
Clavier Suite", Part 1. BACH XVI (1985), p. 56.
56
course, this is not to say that the English Suites were necessarily composed to
order: much evidence points to an earlier composition date for the English
Suites than for any of Bach's other sets of keyboard suites, probably well before
1720, perhaps even earlier in the case of BWV 806 (W alther's copy dates from
around 1712). If the English Suites were dedicated to an English nobleman, as
Forkel suggests, then Bach probably compiled the set from works which he
already had to hand, as he did in case of the Brandenberg Concertos. Perhaps
this even explains the lack of an autograph score, as well as the lack of a
generic title.
The surviving manuscript copies of the English Suites dating from the
first half of the 18th century provide no clue that Bach himself ever used the
term "English Suites" to describe his six large suites with preludes. The two
earliest reliable copies, those by (most likely) Johann Schneider5 and Heinrich
Nicolaus Gerber describe them merely as suites avec preludes, as do other of the
manuscript sources from the first half of the eighteenth century6. The early
version of the A major suite, copied by Walther as early as 1712 refers to a
prelude avec les suites . However, the title "English Suites" has been firmly
associated with these works since the second half of the 18th century7, and
was used by Forkel in his 1802 biography of Bach as though the name was
already universally known: indeed, the catalogue of music from Forkel's
5 The identification of the author of manuscript source B 1 is not certain, however, Alfred
Diirr (see the Chapter T. Manuscript Sources) establishes a good case for the copyist being
Schneider, Bach's student in L eipzig, later organist of the Nikolaikirche. See also Marianne
Helms, "Zur Chronologie der Handschrift des A nonym us 5", NBA KB V /7 p. 195.
6 See the Chapter 1: Manuscript Sources for a list of the titles.
7 A number of the manuscript sources dating after 1750 contain the title, the earliest being
probably source C 1.
57
estate refers to the works as the "Englische Suiten".8 Leaving aside the
possibility of a commission from an English nobleman, which, Forkel's claim
notw ithstanding is unproven, another explanation for the title is perhaps
more likely.
As suggested earlier in this study, a good deal of circum stantial

evidence links these works to a French composer resident for forty years in
England, whose works seem to have become familiar to Bach at around the
time when he may well have been engaged in work on the English Suites, the
years 1712-14. Clues to the title (and perhaps origin) of the English Suites may
be found in Bach's interest in the music of Charles (Francois, later anglicized
as Francis) Dieupart (1667? - 1740). Dieupart's six Suittes de Clavessin were
published by Estienne Roger in Amsterdam in 1701, and four years later many
of the pieces were issued in England by the publisher John Walsh as "Select
Lessons for Harpsichord or Spinett". Bach's unusually high regard for these
works is reflected in the fact that around 1713 he copied all six of the Dieupart
suites9. Thus, we are in the ironic position of possessing a complete Bach copy
of the Dieupart suites, but no autograph score of the works of Bach's own
composition which may well have been inspired by them 10. The English
musicologist, Edward D annreuther, whose pioneering two-volume study,
Musical Ornamentation
(London, 1893-5), was the first work to stress the
importance of the relationship of Dieupart's compositions to Bach's English

8 NBA KB V /7 p. 49.
9 Staats und Universitatsbibliothek, Frankfurt am Main. mus. ms. 1538. This also contains
the Premiere livre d'orgue by d e Grigny and the table of ornaments from d'Anglebert's Pieces
d e Clavecin, 1689.
10 See Yoshitake Kobayashi, "Die N otenschrift Johann Sebastian Bachs: Dokum entation
ihrer Entwicklung", Neue Bacli-Ausgabe 1X/2 (1989) p. 38. A few pages of Bach's score of the
Dieupart suites are reproduced in facsim ile.
58
Suites, stated in a public lecture11 that the D ieupart suites were known in the
Bach household as the "English" suites, perhaps (though D annreuther did
not specifically say) due to their having been originally dedicated to the
Countess of Sandwich12.
The esteem in which Bach and his cousin Johann Gottfried VValther
held French harpsichord music in general and D ieupart's suites in particular
is fu rth er u n d erlin ed by the inform ation th at W alther and K rebs's
m anuscript collection (P 801, Deutsche Staatsbibliothek, Berlin) contains
works by various French composers such as D'Andrieu, D'A nglebert and
Clrembault and the first suite in A major of Dieupart, copied by W alther
him self13. Of the six suites by Dieupart, this one has been the subject of much
scholarly speculation since the late nineteenth century, beginning with the
w ritings of D annreuther, w ho was convinced th at a clear them atic
relationship existed between its gigue and the prelude of the first English
suite14.
11 According to Paul Brunold, in his introduction to the 1934 edition of the Dieupart Suites
(Paris: L'oiseau-Lyre), the date of this w as April 30, 1892 at the Royal Institution in
London.
12 J. A. Fuller M aitland, The Keyboard Suites of J. S. Bach, (London, 1928), p. 30.
13 David Schulenberg, The Keyboard Music of J. S. Bach, (N ew York, 1992) fn 15, p. 415, citing
D avid Fuller asserts that Walther's manuscript d oes not contain the gigu e to the A major
suite, the very m ovem ent on w hich the prelude to BWV 806 is supposed to be based.
H ow ever, the gigue is contained in P 801 (Zietz, 1969, p. 51), though it lacks the title and is
identified only by its tim e signature of 6 /8 . This is confirmed by Fuller and Gustafson, p. 121.
14 Dannreuther (and Fuller M aitland, for that matter) w as apparently unaw are o f the fact
that Bach copied all six suites, and refers (p. 137) only to the Berlin copy (BB mus. ms. 8551)
of the sixth suite in f m inor as having been written out by Bach. Dannreuther also referred
to "strong evidence that Bach knew and valued the other suites" w ithout actually
specifying w hat it w as. A description and history o f the Frankfurt ms. 1538 appears in BachDokumente (ed. Schulze) III, pp634-5. Spitta (I, p202) referred to Bach's copy of Dieupart as
having been in the possession of A loys Fuchs in Vienna, but it had clearly dropped out of
sight by the time Spitta wrote his pioneering w ork on Bach. He w as also uncertain o f the
com plete contents of ms 1538, referring only to the Berlin copy of the F m inor suite.
59
Leaving aside for the m oment the question of any possible them atic
borrowing from D ieupart by Bach, there are other aspects of the French
composer's suites which appear to indicate an affinity between them and the
English Suites. First is the presence in the Dieupart set of fully w ritten out
introductory preludes (or, rather overtures in the French style), something
which was unprecedented among French keyboard suites u p to that time (the
French unm easured prelude, derived from the style brise of lute compositions
by composers such as Denis Gaultier, represents a totally different style of
semi-composed, sem i-im provised prelude). In addition, the stylistic unity
created by the close thematic and motivic resemblances among movements of
the same suite15 represented a significant and new direction for the keyboard
suite. It is yet another feature of D ieupart's works in this form which may
well have been noted and developed further by J. S. Bach when he came to
write his own set.
M oreover, the sta n d a rd iz e d o rd e r of m ovem ents
(O verture,
Allemande, Courante, Sarabande, G avotte/m inuet/pacsepied, Gigue) found

in the Dieupart suites represents a clear departure from the form at of the
standard seventeenth century French keyboard suite, which often consisted of
m ovem ents assem bled in a very free fashion. Indeed, am ong the
compositions of Louis C ouperin or Chambonniferes we find not so much
integrated suites, as sets of pieces grouped by key, from which the performer is
expected to "compile" a suite appropriate for performance.
15 For exam ple, the allem ande, courante and g ig u e of the first suite bear a very close
m otivic relationship to each other.
60
It is worthy of note that the consistent form at found in the suites of

D ieupart is also one of the features of Bach's English Suites which
distinguishes them not only from suite collections by other 18th century
composers, but also from most of Bach's ow n other suite collections. Also
w orth consideration, as David Schulenberg has noted,16is the contrapuntal
nature of certain of the dances throughout D ieupart's suites: especially the
allem andes of suites 1, 2 and 6, which include fairly extensive use of
imitation. Remarkable, and probably reflecting the taste of Dieupart's adopted
country, England, rather than the native French tradition, is the inclusion of
Italianate dance movements, especially the gigues, which are, by and large,
Corellian in nature, and notated in compound time, rather than in typically
French common time (as are Bach's own gigues in the French style, for
example those contained in the first and third French suites, BWV 812 and
814).
D ieupart's suites were originally issued with a title page designation

which allowed for the possibility of ensemble performance. This possibility
was noted by Walther, for, in his manuscript copy of the A major suite, the
title reads:
Ouverture pour le Clavessin avec u n Dessus separe et 1 Basse de Viole

ou Th6orbe ad libitum compose par Monsieur Dieupart.
61
The thematic connections between the prelude of the A major English

suite and the gigue of D ieupart's suite in the same key have been noted by
scholars, beginning with Dannreuther, who also claimed that a num ber of
other thematic relationships existed betw een the D ieupart suites and the
English Suites. However, the resemblance between the thematic material, the
style of imitation and the order and pitch of the voice entries between the
gigue of Dieupart and BWV 806/i is obviously far more than coincidence.
Certain other movements also contain ideas which find an echo in Bach's
English Suites. D ieupart's A m ajor allem ande, for example, distinctly
resembles the harm onic p attern of the gigue from the same suite, and,
consequently of Bach's prelude to BWV 806 as well. The relationship of the
movements within D ieupart's suites is another feature of them which was
unique for its time, and which probably caught Bach's attention. Though the
motivic associations between the movements stop short of the principle of
"variation", the thematic and harmonic similarities are sufficient to bind the
suites together, creating a stylistic unity which is rare for its time.
Though one might hesitate to go as far as D annreuther in describing

Bach's prelude as a "transformation and expansion" of Dieupart's gigue, it is
clear that the thematic idea contained in the first five bars of Dieupart's piece
and the details of im itation are adopted pretty m uch intact. The overall
harmonic rhythm of the first half of Dieupart's gigue is transferred virtually
complete, though the precise placement of certain of the harmonic changes is
somewhat altered. In addition, D ieupart's original 6 /8 meter becomes 12/8
time in Bach's piece. The progression from the opening tonic key to the
62
dominant which occurs in the first binary section of Dieupart's piece provides
Bach with the basic material from which his measures 3 - 9 are compiled. The
essentially two-part writing w ith its imitative dialogue is expanded by Bach
into a piece of complex four part imitative counterpoint. Though one need
not go as far as Dannreuther, who, in order to explain the transformation of
D ieupart's thematic material, asserted that Bach "com piled" the them e for
BWV 806/i by combining D ieupart's first and third bars, Bach's piece clearly
paraphrases the first thirteen bars of D ieupart's gigue before going its own
w ay.17
The definitive identification of a single source of thematic inspiration

for BWV 806/i is complicated, however, by the existence of two other works,
both in A major, which contain them atic links to the first English Suite
similar to those found in the gigue by Dieupart. The first is another gigue, this
time by the French composer, Gaspard Le Roux and the second is a section of
an anonymous Toccata which has at various times been ascribed to Henry
Purcell and Michelangelo Rossi.18 This work was included in Volume 42 of
the Bach-Gesellschaft edition under the title: Toccata quasi Fantasia con Fuga ,
edited by Ernst Paumann, (BWV Anh. 178) the m anuscript having come
from the collection of Wilhelm Rust19.
Gaspard Le Roux is one of the French composers whose harpsichord

works were copied by J. G. W alther in the manuscript know n as m us ms. P
17 See Example 3.1, Chapter 3.
18 See Example 3.4, Chapter 3.
19 A discussion of this toccata, along with argum ents in favor of Bach's authorship may be
found in the article by Gloria Rose, "Purcell, Rossi and J. S Bach: Problems of Authorship",
Acta Masicologica 40 pp. 203-219.
63
801 (Berlin Museum). Le Roux's gigue is from his Pieces de Clavecin, published
in Paris in 1705. David Fuller20 asserts that its claim to having been the
thematic model for BWV 806/ i is stronger than that of the gigue by Dieupart,
echoing an observation first made by the French writer Andr6 Pirro in 190721.
Though one may argue that the initial pitches of Le Roux's piece more closely
approxim ate those of Bach, his gigue does not contain the sam e harm onic
plan beyond the m iddle of measure 3. But, as we have seen, the first binary
section of Dieupart's work is utilized virtually complete.
There is no surviving evidence that Bach copied the works of Le Roux,

and those movements included in ms. P 801 by Walther do not include the A
m ajor gigue. It is also w orthy of note that W alther's m anuscripts do,
however, include both the A major suite of D ieupart22 and the A m ajor
English suite of Bach in w hat is perhaps its earliest version. And, of course, in
terms of relating Bach's six suites avec preludes to some type of English model
or inspiration, the claim of D ieupart as that m odel possesses a certain
plausibility due to his residence and reputation in England. The same cannot
be said of Le Roux.
The anonymous Toccata in A major, a work which has been attributed

to various composers - Purcell, Rossi, and even J. S. Bach himself - has been
associated by various writers with Bach, even if not all of them have assum ed
his au thorship of the w ork. H erm ann Keller
pointed out a specific
20 D avid Fuller, "Dieupart", The Nero Grove Dictionary o f Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley
Sadie (London, 1980), vol 5, pp. 472-3.
21 Andr6 Pirro, L'Esthetique de Jean-Sebastien Bach, (Paris 1907), pp. 430-1.
22 Including, contrary to Schulenberg's assertion to the contrary, the gigue, though it is not
listed by title.
64
connection between this piece and the prelude to BWV 806.23 It is true that
the section beginning at measure 60 (in the old Purcell society edition, edited
by William Barclay-Squire) contains essentially the same them e as Bach's
prelude. What is more, the imitative contrapuntal texture, in four voices, at
times comes very close to certain passages in BWV 806/i.24
The manuscript sources for this toccata in the British Museum25, both
from the early eighteenth century, attribute the w ork to Purcell. The
m anuscript from w hich the Bach-Gesellschaft edition was derived was
contained in the collection of the nineteenth-century organist, Fritz Knuth,
who also copied the English Suites and other works of Bach (see Chapter 1,
Manuscript sources, F. 3). It is not any longer clear (since the m anuscript is no
longer extant) whether the score from Knuth's collection which contained the
A major toccata was written out by Knuth or by someone else. However, the
fact that the m anuscript also contained works by Bach26 points to a German
origin. Stylistically, the toccata is strongly suggestive of the early eighteenth
century and the complexity of the counterpoint indicates the work of a North
German composer.
Despite a num ber of parallels suggested by one w riter27 betw een

various figurations in the piece and corresponding passages in works by Bach,
23Hermann Keller, Die Klavienverke Bachs (Leipzig, 1950), p i 81. Keller does not anyw here
refer to the w orks of Dieupart or Le Roux as possible m odels for BWV 8 0 6 /i.
24 Example 3.2, Chapter 3.
25 A dd. Ms. 31446 and 34695, the latter copied from the former.
26 The contents of the manuscript are described in Ernst Naum ann's critical commentary to
BG XXXVI (1890) pp xx-xxii. The w orks by Bach included BWV 912, 915, 894, 900 and
doubtful works 918, 961 and 948.
27 Rose 1968.
65
the attempts to attribute the work to the young J. S. Bach have been been long
rejected by m ost writers, on stylistic grounds,28 The question was raised,
however, by Gloria Rose in her 1968 essay concerning this work, and it has to
be admitted that the examples which she quotes, relating the work to, above
all, Bach's mamialiter toccatas, are convincing. And, in light of the more recent
acceptance of many other previously doubtful works as genuine examples of
the young Bach's output29, her case seems m ore acceptable than it would
have to those writers who rejected out of hand any possible connection
between Bach and the anonymous A major toccata many years ago. Perhaps
even more plausible, however, is the alternative explanation put forward by
Rose: that Bach knew and adm ired the piece, perhaps a work of an older
m ember of the Bach family, Johann Christoph Bach (1642-1703). Despite
Gloria Rose's examples, which quite convincingly establish a link between the
A major toccata and the themes and figurations contained in Bach's own
manualiter toccatas, she appears to have overlooked any affinity' between the
contrapuntal section beginning at measure 60 and the beginning of the A

major English Suite.
J. A. Fuller Maitland, believing the work to have been composed by

Purcell, m entioned it, though not specifically connecting it to the A m ajor
English suite, in the following terms:
28 Rose 1968.
29 For exam ple, such early works as the suite in A major (BWV 832) w hose m ovem ents
includes an Air pour les Trompettes and other pieces which do not easily accord w ith our
traditional view of Bach, the mature composer.
66
The only piece of documentary evidence which we possess that any

English music of the time was known in Germany is the fact that a famous
organ toccata by Purcell [i.e the toccata in A] existed in m anuscript in
Germany w ithout the composer's name, and was actually included in the
edition of the Bach-Gesellschaft as a doubtful work of Bach himself.30
The evidence linking Bach's English Suites with either a commission

from an English connoiseur (if Forkel's story is to be accepted), or, w ith a
specifically English style of composition is far from conclusive. However, the
circum stantial evidence seems to w eigh m ost heavily in su p p o rt of
associating the six Suittes de Clavessin by Francis Dieupart with the six Suites
avec Preludes of J. S. Bach. If Dannreuther's assertion that the Dieupart suites
were known in the Bach household as the "English" suites has a basis in
fact31, then it may well be that the title as it was transferred to Bach's own
collection was in acknowledgement of D ieupart's set having provided the
inspiration. This link may have been reinforced by a direct (but not too
obvious) quotation from the first of Dieupart's suites, as well as by casting the
new set in essentially the same format as the models.
The earliest surviving manuscript sources, none of which refers to the

"English Suites," suggest that if the title was used in relation to Bach's set of
suites with preludes, then it was only used informally, w ithin the Bach
household, and m erely to distinguish the suites from others of Bach's
composition. By the time J. C. Bach had his manuscript copied around 1753,
30 Fuller Maitland 1928, p. 29.
31 Fuller Maitland 1928, p. 30.
67
the name had perhaps simply stuck among members of Bach's family and
immediate circle, though it was not actually intended as an official title. In
fact, the very wording (in quaint French) of the title page to BWV 806 in the
younger Bach's m anuscript copy sounds m ore like a description of the
contents rather than a formal title. Perhaps (since it occurs only on the title
page of the first suite) it only refers to that work, rather than to the set of six.
Of course, there is no good reason why the English Suites m ight not have
been commissioned by an English admirer of Bach's, who knew Dieupart's set
of suites with overtures and requested a similar set from Bach, which the
composer duly compiled from both pre-existing and newly composed works.
However, mere speculation will not provide a definitive answ er to that
question.
68
Chapter 3: The English Suites. BWV 806-811: Performance

The Dance:
With the exception of the preludes, all the movements of the English
Suites are literally based on Baroque dance types, in each case, French, though
certain Italianate elem ents have often been com bined w ith them. The
obvious interest in dance lies, for the musician, primarily in its relevance to
issues of musical performance: tempo, articulation, phrasing and gesture.
Fortunately, an excellent work, by Meredith Little and Nathalie Jenne, Dance
and the Music o f /. S. Bach, relates all of Bach's dances, keyboard and otherwise,
to the dance types which gave rise to them,1and sets straight many of the
misconceptions which have plagued performers of Bach's dance suites. The
following pages make frequent reference to this work.
Tempo. Articulation and Style:
Though it is tempting for performing musicians and scholar to believe

that possessing detailed knowledge of certain dance steps will prove a reliable
guide to tempo in an almost m etronom ic sense2, it is safer to assume that, as
in the case of more abstractly derived musical performance, tem po varied
w idely from one perform er to another. Dance phrases consist of a
combination of steps and springs grouped together in units (a step is a
m ovem ent which shifts the weight from one foot to another, a spring is a
1 M eredith Little and N athalie Jenne, Dance and the Music of /. S. Bach (Bloomington:
Indiana University Press, 1991).
2 For exam ple, Robert D onington, perhaps because of his association w ith the Dolm etsch
fam ily, w hose matriarch, Mabel D olm etsch w as an authority on Baroque Dance, tends to
this opinion on occasion. See D onington, Baroque Music: Style and Performance, (N ew York:
Norton, 1982), pp. 148ff.
69
rising followed by a landing involving both feet). A step-unit, therefore,

groups two, three or four steps together, corresponding to a musical measure.
These are nearly always preceded by a plie, or bending of the knees, which
divides the step-units from each other, and which normally precedes the
downbeat of a particular measure. The downbeat is m arked either by an eleve
(rise) or a springing motion. These basic gestures combine to form the dance
phrases and are fully discussed by Little and Jenne3. Suffice it to say here that
the choreography of the dance is built up from these units, which determine
to a large extent the rhythmic and affective qualities of the dance. It goes
without saying, also, that the step-units can be adjusted for either duple or
triple time, or for a faster or slower tempo, depending on the skill or the
artistic purpose of the dancer.
Faster tempi did not always indicate a higher level of skill or expertise:
it takes more experience, for example, to perform the step-units by means of
physical articulation (plie, or bending the knees) slowly, than at a faster tempo.
Especially in the case of French court dances, a range of tempos is not only
possible, but m andatory in the expression of a dancer's proper individual
affect: therefore, tem pos vary from perform er to perform er exactly as in
musical perform ance.4 Thus, tem po, cannot be exactly determ ined, but
should be thought of as one element of a wide range of performance areas
which lead to the expression of the perform er's own ideas of the general
affective qualities of the dance. Most of the treatises on dance refer more to
the "character" or "affect" of a dance type than to a specific tempo. Though
70
this does, of course, include a discussion of tempo, many other elements are
assumed as well in the pursuit of a particular affective quality. This "affective
quality" is referred to by w riters such as Friedrich William M arpurg5 and
Johann Philipp Kirnberger6 as the foundation of m usical expression.
Articulation and rhythm are dependent on the phrase lengths described by a
particular dance type, m ost of which consist of phrases of a quite distinct
m anner and duration. The nature of characteristic Baroque dance phrases
was not described precisely until after 1750, when M arpurg and Kirnberger,
both students of J. S. Bach, explained the fundam entals of dance rhythms.
Little and Jenne cite the French writer Michel L'Affilard7 as an authority who
relates vocal arias to dance types, and indicated vocal phrasing which
corresponds exactly with the dance phrases.
The Dance Types found in the English Suites:

The Allemande:
The allemandes contained in Bach's English Suites are written in an

imitative and contrapuntal style. The time-signature is 4/4, and the pulse,
given the prevailing sixteenth-note values, is a slow four beats to the bar. By
the time of composition of the English Suites, the Allemande had lost its
function as a dance and was merely a stylised and elaborated version of it.
Even in the suites of Froberger, to which Bach's allemandes clearly owe a
5 F. W. Marpurg, Der Critisclie Musicus an der Spree, (Berlin, 1749).
6 J. P. Kirnberger: Die Kunsi des reinen Satzes in der Mnsik, (Berlin 1771).
7 Michel L'Affilard: Principes tres-faciles pour bien apprendre la musiipie, qui conduirent
prompteinent ceux qui ont du m turel pour le chant jusqu'au point de chanter toute sorte de
musique proprement, & d livreouvert, (Paris, 1694, revised and enlarged fifth ed., 1705,
reprinted to 1747).
71
debt, the Allemande was almost more in the nature of a prelude than a dance,
sometimes given a descriptive title of its own. Froberger's Tombeaus (for
example, to the suites XX in D major and XXX in A m inor) serve a dual
function: both as prelude and allemande. Among the suites of Dieupart,
whose link to Bach has been firmly established, the introductory Overtures
are followed in each case by an allem ande. Bach, perhaps im itating the
example of Dieupart, followed each of the preludes in his English Suites with
an allemande. Later, in the Ouverture nach Franzdsischer Art (BWV 831), as well
as in the four Ouvertiiren for orchestra (BWV 1066 - 9), the allem ande is
omitted, the overture having served both its and the allem ande's function as
a sort of entree to the dance movements proper. The imitative counterpoint
found in the allemandes to Dieupart's Suittes de Clavessin of 1701 may well be
one feature which attracted Bach to them as models for his own set of suites.
This device, though largely lacking in the allemande to BWV 806, is present
in varying degrees in all the rest, and, indeed, in many of Bach's subsequent
compositions w ritten in that form. (The later "galant" French Suites, BWV
812 - 17 are, by and large, exceptions).
Courante:
The courantes in Bach's English Suites are all composed in the French
rather than the Italian style (called corrente), though in some instances Bach
combines elements of both types (BWV 806, Double I; BWV 807; BWV 811).
The Courante was the most popular of all dances in the seventeenth century
French keyboard suite and the most opulent in style. The French courante is
characterised by its slow tempo, and also by a meter of 3/2, w ith hemiolas
72
present (alternating 3 /2 and 6/4) in the final measures of each binary section.
T hough the ru n n in g eighth-note figuration pro v id es m ovem ent, the
underlying 3 /2 m eter makes the C ourante the slowest of all the French
dances in triple time. The application of notes inegales is perhaps required for
most of these pieces (the exceptions are discussed below) and the upbeat
figures and cadences require clear articulation. Descriptions of it from the
eighteenth century range from "serious and solemn"8 to "noble and grand"9
and "majestic"10 and "earnest"11.
Sarabande:
From its origins in Spain and the New World, the sarabande passed
through seventeenth century Italy, and became one of the classic French court
dances of the early eighteenth century. The choreographies for the sarabande
describe a dance which is "calm, serious* and sometimes tender, but ordered,
balanced and sustained". Other descriptions of it from Bach's time refer to it
as "grave, ceremonious"12, "melancholy", but all attest to its basic seriousness.
Written in a slow three beats to the bar (usually 3/4, but occasionally 3/2), the
phrases are usually four or eight bars long, both halves balancing one another
usually exactly (a convention which is not observed in any of the sarabandes
contained in the English Suites). Four of the sarabandes in the English Suites
present considerably elaborated versions of the basic sarabande rhythm .
Among the six, the sarabandes to BWV 807, 808 and 811 all are coupled with
8 Dupont, Masson, Walther: Little and Jenne 1991, p. 114.

9 P. Rameau, Compan: Little and Jenne 1991.
1 0 Quantz: Little and Jenne 1991.
11 Turk: Little and Jenne 1991.
73
written-out variants. In the case of BWV 807, these take the form of agrements
for the treble line (only the treble line is printed in several copies). In BWV
808 the elaboration is extended to both outer parts. The sarabande to BWV 811
is followed by a through-composed double: a similar technique is employed in
the first suite, where two doubles are attached to the second courante.
BourrSe:
The bourree is a French dance in duple meter. It was, in comparison to

other dances of the period, fast. T hat Bach's exam ples were also to be
perform ed quickly is show n by the use of the French time-signature, 2, a
reference to the half-note as the pulse, when the prevailing note values are
quarters and eighths. A distinction is clearly implied, however, in the Lexicon
by Christoph and Stolzel of 173713 between the aristocratic French court dance
which was described as a "slow dance" which had long been in use, and the
n ew er
(non-courtly) exam ples of the 1720's and 1730's. The m ain
characteristic of the dance, other than its inherent liveliness, is its regular
(usually eight-bar) phrase lengths and the short up-beats which preface each
binary section.
Gavotte:
Bach included gavottes in the third and sixth suites, in each case in
pairs to be perform ed in alternativement. The gavotte, a French court dance
dating from as far back as the sixteenth century14, was said to be capable of
expressing a wide range of emotions or affects ranging from tender, graceful to
74
brisk and lively. The m etrical structure of the gavotte and bourree are
identical, that is duple time with an upbeat, in the case of the gavotte, often
involving a half-bar rather than a single note unaccented upbeat. Perhaps due
to their similarity of phrasing and meter (often only the tempo distinguishes
one from another, the gavotte being a more moderately paced dance) Bach
often uses them as alternatives to each other (among the English Suites,
BWV 808 and 811 contain pairs of gavottes, BWV 806 and 807 bounces in
alternativement). However, in the fifth and sixth French Suites (BWV 816-7)
the Overture nach Franzdsische Art (BWV 831), and the third orchestral Overture
(BWV 1068), both forms appear together. In the case of BWV 1068, the
bourree sounds rather like a swifter variant of the gavotte. The craze for the
gavotte in France in the 1720's and 1730's, especially those which utilize
"pastoral" effects, as do some of those of Bach in the English Suites, suggests
that these may have been some of the latest dances to be added to the English
Suites. In fact, Bach's inclusion of gavottes in alternativement is one of the few
features which point to the 1720's rather than the 1710's as the likely
composition dates, if not for the English Suites as a whole, then at least for
the "modish" movements such as the gavottes.
The remaining "modish" or m odern dances contained in the English

Suites are the Minuet (BWV 809) and its faster cousin, the Passepied (BWV
810). Both of these dances had a long history. The minuet went through many
changes to its tempo and affect, having been described in conflicting terms by
many writers throughout the ages. Brossard15 (1703), for example, wrote of
15 Sebastian de Brossard, Dictioitaire de Musique, (Paris, 1703), Little and Jenne 1991, p. 63.
75
the gay and very fast nature of the m inuet, and of its origins in Poitou.
Rousseau, however, writing around the middle of the century corrected him,
referring instead to the "noble and elegant sim plicity" and m oderate
m ovem ent of the m inuet16. Perhaps this merely shows that, like all dance
types, it was capable of different interpretation in different times and places,
and according to the passions of the particular executant. The passepied,
examples of which may be found in treatises dating as far back as Praetorius'
Terpsichore (1612) and M ersenne's Harmonic Universelle (1636), is one of those
dances which occur relatively infrequently in the keyboard suites of Baroque

composers. In fact, a further link between Dieupart, and Bach's set of English
Suites is the occurrence in both sets of passepieds. Though passepieds and
minuets have often been lum ped together because of their similarities, the
passepied is faster, more vigorous and contains accents in places where one
would not expect to find them in a minuet. Passepieds are often notated in
3 /8 time (implying one stressed beat per bar), underlining their brisk tempo
and lively character. Moreover, as in the case of French courantes, passepieds
often contain hemiolas in the final measures of each binary' section.
Gigue:
The gigues in the English Suites are classified by Little and Jenne into
two types identified as Giga I and Giga II. Giga I denotes the well-known gigue
in compound time, 9/8, 12/8 or 12/16 (BWV 807, 808, 809, 811) where the
smallest note values appearing in the piece are the same as the basic threeway subdivision of the dotted note (that is, eighth notes in a 12/8 signature as
16 Brossard, Dictionaire, Little and Jenne 1991, p. 83.
76
in BWV 807, 808 and 811) and Giga II, where the units are further subdivided
into sm aller note values (for example, w here sixteenth notes are the
prevailing note values in a 6 /8 signature, as in BWV 806). Both of these
forms are separate from the genuine French gigue in sim ple time (French
Suite 1 in d, BWV 812 provides an example of this style). However, examples
of Giga II occur only rarely in the works of German composers (Froberger,
Pachelbel, Buxtehude and Bach provide some of the only examples). Instead,
the Giga II was predominantly a French attempt to apply Italian fluidity to the
native French gigue. Jollity, long, irregular phrases, imitative texture, and
relatively few internal cadences are features common to all three forms of the
gigue. Of the three distinct types, it is the Giga II which is furthest from any
choreographic origins, and by Bach's tim e it was an instrum ental dance
without any relationship to a physical model. It is perhaps the instrum ental
nature of the gigue, independent of any choreographed dance steps, which
endeared it to Bach as a vehicle for some of his boldest contrapuntal exercises,
the gigues to BWV 810 and 811 being singled out by Johann Nikolaus Forkel
in his 1802 biography of Bach as "perfect m asterpieces of harm ony and
melody".
Prelude avec les Suites. BWV 806a

Suite avec Prelude in A major. BWV 806:
The first English Suite stands far apart from the rem aining five in
terms of both its style and conception. The m anuscript sources indicate that
this work may have have been the first of the six to have been composed, and
77
that it preceded the Italianate influence provided by Bach's first acquaintance

w ith the concertos of Vivaldi and Marcello around 1713-14. Of the six, it
certainly owes more to the French keyboard suites of the late seventeenth and
early eighteenth centuries than do its fellows. And, of course, it is the only
one to survive in what appears to be a distinctly early version, transm itted in
the m anuscript collection com piled by Bach's cousin, Johann G ottfried
Walther, most likely during the early 1710's17.
The origins of the suites avec preludes, outlined in chapters 1 and 2, take
us most likely to the years 1713 and 1714, which were in many ways crucial to
Bach's com positional developm ent. It was Bach's experience w ith the
concerto compositions of Italian com posers which, according to Forkel,
caused him to refine and focus his compositional style, creating a structure
which had not been previously present18. However, Bach's interest in the
music of French harpsichord composers, especially the six suites of Charles
Dieupart, is clearly the dom inant influence present in the first English Suite,
and the work is largely w ithout the Italianate elements which permeate m any
of the movements of BWV 807-11. BWV 806 is also the only one of the six
works to deviate from the basic unvarying m ovem ent p lan w hich is
common to all six suites, by the insertion of an extra Courante. In fact, the
provision of the
second Courante w ith two doubles (one is om itted in
W alther's version) clearly follows the French m odel, w here varied and
17 Berlin, D eutsche Staatsbibliothek, Mus. ms. Bach. P. 803.

18 Johann N ikolaus Forkel, "On Bach's Life and Works," translated by A. C. F. Kollman,
The Bach Reader, (N ew York, 1966), p. 317.
78
m ultiple courantes were often included, for example, among the works of
Francois Couperin.19
Prelude:
This piece has been the subject of more attention than any other single
m ovem ent contained in the English Suites, for it contains material which is
probably derived from a pre-existing work: the gigue to the A m ajor Suite
from the 1701 collection of six suites by Charles Dieupart. Of all the preludes
belonging to the English Suites, this one is the shortest and contrapuntally
th e m ost concentrated, the only piece of purely abstract Germ anic
counterpoint to be found among all the movements in the English Suites.
The prelude, in 12/8 time, opens with a two measure flourish consisting of
answering groups of three sixteenth notes rising through three octaves, A a". The 6/8 two voice gigue of Dieupart is transformed into a piece of three
and four-part counterpoint, the simple tonic-tonic exchanges between voices
of the model expanded in scope and complexity into a piece of elaborate
imitative polyphony far beyond the dimensions of the original gigue. The
third voice grows out of the sustained tenor e" in m. 4. The first half of the
original gigue is transferred to Bach's piece virtually intact, as a comparative
analysis of their harm onic rhythm clearly shows. It was chiefly in the
cadential approaches that Bach broadened the harm onic flow somewhat,
expanding D ieupart's original design. Thus, a French gigue becomes a
German three-part invention, with an added fourth voice at certain crucial
points in the piece.
19 For exam ple, Couperin's Premier Ordre, which appeared in 1713 contains a pair of
courantes, the first of which is written out in tw o versions, the alteration m ade only to the
upper parts.
79
Example 3.1:
BWV 806/i mm. 1 - 9:
S
'- I
piî
yt-
Dieupart, Suites de Clavecin, 1701, 1/vii mm. 1 -14
80
By comparing the early version of BWV 806 (BWV 806a) with the later one,
Bach's revisions (the insertion of extra measures at m. 10 and m. 17), though
relatively slight, can be seen to alter the harm onic flow of the piece by
delaying the modulation back to the tonic (m.10) and extending the excursion
into the relative minor (f#) by a bar (m. 17). The second instance also involves
different voice leading, with the original statement in f# minor taken up an
octave, and then im itated in the m anner of the opening measures, at the
lower octave.
Example 3.2: BWV 806a/i, mm. 9-20
t-nunfn
rn
81
Example 3.3: BWV 806/i, mm. 9-22
W alther's version contains many deviations from the ornam entation

contained in the later versions transmitted by Schneider, Gerber and others:
W alther's version is considerably simpler, the doppel-cadence w ith m ordent
replaced in each case w ith simple m ordents. W hereas Schulenberg20 favors
the interpretation of the piece in the style of a gigue, because of its derivation
(the possibility of Dieupart or Le Roux as m odels are both entertained), it
might be more convincingly argued that Bach's expansion of the design, the
alteration of the original time signature and the denser texture of BWV 806/i,
all contribute to the transform ation of the piece into a broader pastorale,
rather than a gigue, an interpretation reinforced by the complex doppel-cadence
ornam ents contained in a num ber of m anuscript copies. The opening
sixteenth-note flourish, after w hich the music settles into its prevailing
eighth-notes grouped into triplets, suggests a contrast between the essentially
Schulenberg 1992, p. 237.
82
toccata-like opening passage and the gentler rhythmic units which follow. In
fact, the prelude to BWV 806 resembles m ost closely the pastorale-like A
major prelude from WTC 2, also in 12/8 time, to which it is similar in both
affect and texture. That the key is also A major suggests that this tonality
implied a certain type of m ovement to Bach: broadly flowing, gentle and
pastorale-like in quality.
The imitation of the opening (soprano, then alto answering an octave

lower) incorporates the opening idea of D ieupart's gigue. However, the
straightforward two-part counterpoint of the model is soon expanded into a
more intricate texture. The second half of D ieupart's gigue (beginning in the
dom inant, as is usual for the second half of a binary piece) becomes a
dom inant statem ent of the subject m aterial in Bach's through-com posed
piece, halfway through m. 11. The contrapuntal technique of inversion is
utilized from m. 18. The piece ends in four parts over a three measure tonic
pedal. The A major piece by Gaspard Le Roux and the anonymous Toccata in
A once ascribed to Purcell, and included in the Bach-Gesellschaft edition as
BWV Anh. 178, both contain thematic similarities to the Prelude from BWV
806. One section in p articu la r of the Toccata closely resem bles the
counterpoint of BWV 806/i:
Example 3.4: BWV Anh. 178, mm. 60-70
83
r-v K
J. f a L -
m fc= ckf i'i
w*
Jf
r i*
^ '3 i '
g-ZL-i1?1'
'
__
ii
*1
A
J.
,h
JS
70 )
'
However, the connection of either of these pieces to Bach is, on the basis of
any provable connection between them and the surviving Bach m anuscript
sources, tenuous.
A llem ande:
The predominantly four-part texture, similar to that in WTCII/xix, is

built up from layers of sustained harmonies. The allemande is non-imitative
in style, with a relatively static harmonic rhythm, although in its second half,
more remote and adventurous m odulations occur, the tonality making a
brief excursion as far afield as C# minor in m. 22.As is customary in binaryform movements, the two cadential bars of the first half (mm. 15-16) are re
used at the end of the movem ent in the tonic key, their rhythmic units
transferred verbatim . The tem po may be thought of as virtually a
84
continuation of that of the prelude and the gentle, sustained quality of the
piece suggests a light registration, perhaps a single 8' register.
Courante I:
The opening echoes the descending eighth-note figure of the prelude.

The piece consists of two ten-measure strains, extended from standard eightbar phrases by the insertion of deceptive cadences beginning in the
penultimate bars of each section. As occurs often with French courantes, the
prevailing 3/2 rhythm alters to an implied 6 /4 in the final bar of each section.
The conjunct motion in eighth-notes of the treble and bass parts suggests the
possible application of notes inegales. The horizontal strokes contained in m. 1
and elsewhere denote a slide upw ard of a third (from the lower to the upper
note of the pair). Elsewhere Bach uses the so called accent and mordent, or
accent and trill (for example, the first three measures), a French derived
ornament (Bach copied the ornam ent table of d'Anglebert in 1713 along with
the six Dieupart suites). In details of articulation and slurring, the N B A
edition by Alfred Diirr follows source B 1, the copy probably by Johann
Schneider.21
Courante II avec deux Doubles:
A comparison of the second courante, with its two w ritten out variants
or doubles, and the earlier version copied by W alther clearly shows the
revisions which Bach made to this piece, presumably at the time of the final
compilation of the set of six suites. Walther, in his earlier version, BWV 806a,
85
gives the varied version of the courante first (which Bach later styled double
2), and then includes what later became the initial version of courante 2 with
the title: Courante precedent avec la Basse Simple. In his revised version, Bach
included a further double, embellished in the Italian rather than the French
style: the result being a transform ation of the original line by the use of
smaller note-values, rather the simple addition of ornaments to the line. This
no doubt reflects his interest in contem porary Italian music, beginning
around 1713, and represents a further example of the ideal of les Gouts Reunis,
in which the English Suites abound. In the final version of BWV 806,
therefore, there is a total of four courantes. W hether the perform er was
expected to perform all of them or merely to make a selection is not clear, but
m ultiple courantes occur in m any of the suites of French composers,
including, as already noted, Francois Couperin, with whom Bach may or may
not have been in correspondence.22 The term double, often, in the works of
22 Charles Bouvet, Les Couperins, (Paris: Libraire D elagrave, 1919), p. 70.

"La Mere du brilliant chanteur d e l'Op6ra-Comique, de Paris, A lexandre Taskin,
alliee a u \ Couperin par sa mfere, soeur d' Elisabeth-Anloinette Blanchet, Spouse d'ArmandLouis Couperin [3], affirmait qu'une correspondance se serait Stablie entre Jean-Sdbastien
Bach et Francois Couperin, correspondance laquelle le Maitre des Maitres proclamait et.ses
em prunts m usicaux et ses louanges au maitre fran$ais; m ais elle affirmait aussi, hlas, que la
lettre ou les lettres en question, adress^s h son parent, avaient 6t6 em ployees & des usages
dom estiques: on s'en serait servi pour fermer d e pots de confitures. [41
[3]"Elle tait done la nifece d'A rm and-Louis Couperin et d'Elisabeth A ntoinette Blanchet, par
consequent la cousine de leurs enfents: Antoinette-Victoire Couperin, Pierre-Louis Couperin,
Gervais-Francois Couperin, et la petie cousine de C eleste Couperin, fille de Gervais-Franôis.
[4]"Ces renseignem ents nous ont ete fournis par Mme. Arlette Taskin, fille d'Alexandre
Taskin.
The m other of Alexandre Taskin, the brilliant singer of Paris's Opera Com ique, w h o was
related to the Couperins by w ay of her m other, a sister of Elisabeth-Antoinette Blanchet
(Arm and-Louis Couperin's w ife)[3], claim ed that a correspondence existed between J. S. Bach
and Francois Couperin, in w hich the great master [Bach] acknow ledged his debt to the
French composer; but she also stated that, unfortunately, the letter(s) in question, addressed
to her relative, w ere used as lid s for pots of jam.[4l
|3l She w as, therefore, the niece of A rm and-Louis Couperin and Elisabeth-Antoinette
Blanchet, cousin of their children.
86
French composers interchangeable w ith the description of an ornam ented

version as les agrements, specifically refers here to a type of ornam entation
composed in running eighth notes, and affecting all parts, rather than just the
top line (as in the sarabandes from BWV 807 and 808). In French
nomenclature, the terms were often interchangeable. A similar treatm ent is
accorded the sarabande of BWV 811, the resulting variant being a thorough
transformation of the original texture and voice leading. The use of cadential
hemiolas, which is a hallm ark of the French style courante, abounds in
C ourante II, notably in m easures 2, 4, 5, 10, 12, 16 and 20-23. Here, the
predominantly quarter-note groupings weaken the effect of three beats to the
bar dictated by the 3 /2 time signature, allowing also a 6 /4 interpretation of
these measures. The French courante, described by various authors as serious,
solemn, majestic, noble and grand is the slowest and most complex of all the
the dances in three beats. Any reference to the Courante as "fast" describes the
figuration rather than to the actual pulse23. The conjunct eighth-note motion
of the treble and bass parts in Courante II and the second of the two doubles
perhaps invite the application of notes inegales. The prevailing Italianate
sixteenth-note tiratas of the first double w ould preclude such a treatment. In
performance the internal cadences should also be prominently articulated (for
example from mm. 4 - 5 ; mm. 8 - 9 of Courante I), since it is these cadences
w hich provide the harm onic and rhythm ic stability, against an often
ambiguous underlying rhythm. In fact it can be said that the meter of Bach's
courantes often follows harmonic rather than strictly rhythmical logic.
[41 This information w as supplied by Mme Arlette Taskin, Alexandra's daughter.

87
Sarabande:
This is an example (as is the first double of the preceding Courante) of

Bach's adorning
the essentially sim ple fram ew ork of a French dance
m ovement w ith Italianate ornam entation. The revised version, BWV 806,
elaborates further on w hat is already (in BWV 806a) a heavily ornam ented
version of the sarabande: Measures 20 and 24 are the prime examples of this
treatment, transforming simple sixteenth-note passages into impressive and
brilliant flourishes in the bass rather than the treble part. Unlike the prelude,
the later version of the Sarabande contains no inserted bars or other changes
to the essential structure, Bach contenting himself w ith elaborating the
ornamentation and the written-out figurations. The flourish in the bass at m.
24 also exists in the following variant contained in several of the copies24:
Example 3.5: BWV 806/vii, m. 24
a) W alther
b)Anon 5
c)Agricola/Kirnberger (ossia)
24Sources B4 and D l. See Chapter 1 "Manuscript Sources".
88
The rhythmic "motto" of the first two measures provides the inspiration for
m uch of the m ovem ent, and is utilized consistently throughout. The
standard second beat syncopation is delayed until the second measure.
Though no separate agrements (as are present in the case of BWV 807-8) are
supplied, the repeats are presumably intended to be varied at the discretion of
the performer: in this case, Italian-style ornamentation, involving division of
the existing groupings into smaller note values, seems to be in order. The
brilliance of the ornamentation suggests a full registration: perhaps 8', 8', 4' on
a three-choir instrument.
Bourrees I and II:
In the early version BWV 806a, only the first of the current pair of
Bourrees is included. A comparison of the text of the early version with the
later revisions indicates that Bach considerably altered and am ended the
articulation signs, in the process refining the ornam entation as well. In
particular, the paired- note slurs of the early version, which are used virtually
throughout, are replaced by the later combination of slurred pairs followed by
a four-note phrase-mark.
Example 3.6: BWV 806/viii, mm. 1-4
W alther:
Schneider:
gTTj
1
,:
19 3 5 * 5 ^ = 1 =
----------------
I------- ------------------- 1
"# * < 7 ^ . \-0------------------- 0 .0
89
The theme of Bourree I, first announced in the soprano, is imitated at the

lower octave, the imitation being suspended after the first four-bar phrase is
announced. From the point of view of articulation, most interesting are the
tied pairs of repeated quarter-notes beginning in the bass at m. 30, which are
fully notated in Bach's final version, and which indicate a sort of keyboard
imitation of a string technique known tremolo15. O n the harpsichord, this
implies that the note will be held as long as possible before being re-sounded,
thereby giving a certain "inequality" to the bass line, an effect which is
intensified when combined with the pairs of slurred eighths in the soprano.
Bourree II, in the tonic minor key, transfers the running eighths to the
bass part in its first half, similar in its effect to the technique used in the
Forlana of the first orchestral Ouverture, BWV 1066. The dark effect of the
m inor tonality is emphasised by the low tessitura of the soprano, which
never rises above d". The lack of articulation marks throughout, in contrast
to Bourree I, along with the conjunct m otion of the running eighth-notes
(the 'sigh' motif of the Bourree I is absent here) implies a smooth and even
execution for those passages, probably using notes egales. The two-part textures
of the bounces invite the use of two single 8' registers on separate manuals of
a two-manual harpsichord, or, instead, single manual performance for each
bourree, with a different color for each piece. Though the parts never cross,
they come close in measure 8, where the note e' is shared by both treble and
bass. Bach's final version of this pair of dances contains the direction to the
25 Schulenberg 1992, p. 241 refers to this as "bow vibrato".
90
perform er that Bourree I is to be perform ed in alternativement, that is, both

before and after the second dance.
Gigue:
The gigue, written in the style designated by Little and Jenne as Giga
II26, echoes the descending figure w hich announces the prelude and first
courante. The opening ascending fourth (inverted to a descending fifth in the
second section) and the style of imitation at the lower octave unites it clearly
with the first bourree. The rhythmic ambiguities inherent in the cadences (for
example in mm. 3-4), w hich frequently in te rru p t the sm oothly flowing
sixteenth-note motion, give this gigue an atmosphere of rhythmic complexity
which is som ewhat rem iniscent of the courantes. The quasi petites reprises
which conclude each section (measures 12 and 36) contain the only dynamic
m arkings in the entire set of six suites. In the early version, the piano
markings were placed under the third rather than the second sixteenth-note
of each of the measures involved. However, the placement of these under the
second note of the measure accords more closely with the phrase structure. It
may be assum ed, though it is now here specifically indicated, that the
direction applies to both hands. In W alther's m anuscript the final chords of
each section were amplified by the addition of inner parts:
Example 3.7: BWV 806/x, a) mm. 13-16; b) mm. 37-40
2h Little and Jenne 1991, p. 170.
91
n r n n s v
3I .
=J
I /W
Suite avec Prelude in a, BWV 807:
The second English Suite, along w ith the third in g, has become the
most popular of the set in the twentieth century. This has been no doubt due
to its magnificent prelude and the fiery and passionate nature of its dance
movements, underlined by its A m inor tonality. The second English Suite
begins the sequence of five suites, the preludes of which at least were clearly
planned from the start as a cycle. The order of keys: a, g, F, e, d, did not occur
by accident, and the Italianate elements common to both the preludes and the
dance movements, when compared to the first suite in A (which breaks the
sequence of keys outlined above), in d icate a considerable shift in
compositional technique. Many elements which find their parallels in the
"reform" church cantatas of the same period are present here: the da capo
structure of the preludes (borrowed from Italian opera), the increasing use of
Italianate forms of the dance, and the increasingly elaborate Italianate
ornam entation of certain of the movements, especially the Sarabandes. The
essential seriousness of the English Suites is further underlined by the fact
that, of the remaining five works, four are written in minor keys, the F major
suite occupying a mid-point of sunny and less profound repose.
92
Prelude:
The prelude to BWV 807 is essentially a tw o-part invention, w ith

initial imitation at the lower octave, followed by a restatement of the theme a
further octave below. The overall form of the piece is derived from the Italian
concerto, with alternating ritom ellos and solo passages, though the spare
texture often suggests an Italianate sonata for solo violin rather than a proper
concerto movement. The first section contains a long and dram atic pedal
point on the dom inant (mm. 31-46), before the theme is restated in the
soprano, this time amplified by the addition of some inner parts, and
rounding off the section in the tonic key. Then comes a clearly defined
episode (m. 55), which makes possible the use of a second contrasting m anual,
the interruption by the first theme at m. 59 in the dom inant suggesting a
retu rn to the prim ary louder (lower) keyboard. David Schulenberg has
pointed out the textual inaccuracy of the first Bach-Gesellschaft edition27 (re
printed by Dover, and in wide use) which misinterpreted the commas used to
indicate appogiaturas at mm. 55-57 as slurs between the final beat of the bar
and the first beat of the subsequent one:28
Example 3.8: BWV 807/i, mm. 55-57 a) BG 13 b) BG 45, NBA
The expressive added harmony at m. 55 is sparse, simply underlining the

soprano, but has the effect of introducing built-in dynamic changes into the
27 Correctly printed, however, in BG 45.
93
predominantly two-part texture. The more sonorous effect provided by the

added m iddle part at m. 55, as well as the more conjunct m otion of the
thematic material, w ith the addition of expressive appogiaturas, implies a
more legato touch than that used to delineate the rather the wider intervals
of the angular and spartan opening subject.
The major structural sections of the piece are as follows:
mm. 1 - 55/i mm. 55/ii - 59/i
95/i
Rit.
solo
Key: a
Key: a
mm. 95 - 110
solo
Keys: e, d, C
mm. 59/ii - 62/i
mm. 62/ii - 87 mm. 87 -
rit.
Key: e
solo
Key: e
rit.
Key: e
mm. 110 -164

rit.
Key: a
The style brise effect (ingeniously built up from a single line of notes) at
mm. 70-77, incorporates the m ain theme of the solo episodes (this time
appearing in the bass) and is repeated a fifth lower at m. 99, sonorously
carrying the section through to its end. Though the texture is essentially twopart, it seems clear that certain bass notes are meant to be held down in order
fully to realize the implied contrapuntal lines. For example, in the sections at
mm. 70-77 and mm. 98-107 the performer might well hold the bass notes for
longer than their w ritten value, thereby taking advantage of the extra
resonance of the longer tenor and bass strings of the harpsichord, especially
on German harpsichords of the period where, with very long bass strings,
often the damping is less immediate in that region of the compass than in
other harpsichords. The textures and thematic material, not to m ention the
key of a minor, suggest an overall lively performance with a moderately fast
tempo.
94
Allemande:
Unlike the allemande to BWV 806, the first dance m ovem ent of the
second suite is imitative in nature, the style brise figurations upon which the
first allemande is constructed, largely abandoned in favor of real thematic
interchange between the parts. The prevailing four-part texture of the piece
often thins down to three and two voices, providing, as in the prelude, builtin dynamic contrast on the harpsichord. The thematic m aterial of the first
section is freely inverted in the second. The comm on-tim e signature w ith
prevailing sixteenth-note motion suggests a slow tempo, perhaps counted in
eight rather than four. The allemande is the one dance movement which had
become largely stylized by the 1710's in Germany, often functioning as a sort
of prelude (though, the English Suites, of course, also contain separate
preludes). The added counterpoint in Bach's allemandes indicates further the
serious and expressive nature of the dance. On the harpsichord, performance
with a single 8' register probably will provide the clarity and expressiveness
necessary to this particular example. The sixteenth notes in conjunct motion
provide a legato contrast to the occasional shortly articulated gesture provided
by the dotted eighth and sixteenth notes grouped together.
Courante:
This example of the most widely used of French dances actually mixes
both French and Italian elements, preserving the rhythm of the French form
of the courante but adding an Italianate continuous bass, though the
experiment is not carried as far as in the courante to BWV 811. There is a
suggestion of imitation between the parts at m. 1 and 2. The exact length of

the appogiatura at m. 4 is problematic, w ith either very short or very long
duration necessary in order to avoid harsh dissonance.
Example 3.9: BWV 807/iii, m. 4
The running nature of the bass smooths over the cadences at m. 4 and m. 9,
the piece coming to rest only at the double bar. The four-note slurs contained
in Schneider's and Gerber's copies (for example m l, soprano), along w ith the
conjunct motion suggest the application of notes inegales, as well as their
introduction in analagous passages (such as m. 2, bass, and in analagous
passages).
Sarabande:
The sarabande is characterised by its 3 /4 time signature, a grave and

dignified affect, and also by the use of syncopations, with the second rather
than the first beat stressed, though in m any examples this last feature is
lacking. In the sarabande BWV 807, syncopated figures occur in m. 2, 8, 12, 14,
20 (the effect softened by appogiaturas) 22,24 and 28. The sarabandes to BWV
807, 808 and 811 are all notated in two distinct versions, BWV 807, being one
of those with a set of agrements or ornaments which apply only to the treble. It
with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
96
was standard French practice to provide agrements for the treble part only (in
any case, French keyboard suite movements were often supplied in a format
which m ade it possible to perform them either solo or in ensemble), and
several of the manuscript sources (Bl, D, E) contain only the soprano to the
present sarabande in its varied form. It has usually been assumed that the bass
of the unornam ented version of the sarabande should be transferred to the
ornamented version intact, but this leads to unpleasant dissonances from m.
25, and has led the Viennese harpsichordist Isolde Ahlgrimm to advance the
following solution to the problem29:
It is possible to perform the agrements as repeats to the main sarabande, but, as

Schulenberg notes30, each dance is provided w ith its own repeat signs, which
suggests that the versions may be meant to be played through completely and
separately. The appogiaturas in the ornam ented version at m. 21 and m. 23
are presumbly intended to be played before the accented tied notes which they
precede, although other interpretations are possible.
Bourrees 1 and 2:
29 Private com m unication to the author, 1988.

97
The brise figuration of the bass in bounce 1 conceals a tonic pedal point
for the first three m easures, the effect im itated in the dom inant in the
analagous bars of the B section. The two p a rt texture sounds fuller in
perform ance when the perform er connects
the notes of the pedal-point,
holding down also the rising and falling figure in the implied m iddle part
(left hand). T hough m ost surviving copies of Bourr6e 1 contain no
articulation or phrasing marks, the paired eighth-notes in the left hand (for
example, at mm. 1-7) might permit a gentle suggestion of notes inegales.
Bourre 2, in the parallel major key, contains drone figures in the bass
at mm. 2-3, and elsewhere, evoking the French musette or bagpipe. This
suggests an artificially pastoral atmosphere, the upbeat figures to m. 1 and m.
9 requiring detached articulation in order to accent the drone figure in the
following measures, the bass of which should be resounded as necessary. A
repeat of Bourree 1 brings this sequence to a close.
Gigue:
This is a thoroughly Italianate work (Little and Jenne Giga II) in 6/8
time, and composed in two basically non-imitative parts. Rhythmically, the
piece is reminisent of a tarantella. Its debt to the Italian style is underlined by
the frequent passages in parallel thirds and tenths, the m om entum being
maintained from beginning to end. The piece bears a resemblence to certain
gigues from the violin sonatas of Corelli, (certain of H andel's gigues are also
in this mould, for example, those contained in the F# minor Suite from the
first collection of 1720, and the G major Suite from the collection of 1733) and
98
indeed, Bach's gigue could well have been composed as the final movement
of a sonata for two different melody instrum ents. This is underlined by the
"accompanying" function of the bass in the first three m easures (one could
easily apply continuo chords to it, for example). The tempo is a brisk two to a
bar, with first and second time endings w ritten out in full for each of the
binary sections. A third and final ending indicates that the piece is to be
played through once again from beginning to end in its entirety.
Suite avec Prelude in g, BWV 808:
The g m inor English Suite is, along w ith the second in a minor, the
best-known of the set. It was also the first to be published in its entirety,
appearing in 1805 in the edition issued by Hoffmeister and Kuhnel as Suite 1.
In many ways it is the most approachable of all the English Suites, containing
a superb and obviously Vivaldian concerto m ovem ent as its prelude and a
sequence of most attractive dance movements.
Prelude:
The opening prelude clearly owes its existence directly to Bach's

increasing involvement with Italian concertos, especially those of Vivaldi. Of
all the English Suite preludes, only the third combines the distinction
between solo and ritomello sections with orchestral-style chords marking out
the ritom ello sections clearly from the solos. The major structural elements
are listed below:
99
1 -33
Rit. Key:g
mm. 33 - 67
solo
Keys: g, d, c, Bb
mm. 67 - 99
Rit.
Key: Bb
109 -124
Rit.
Key: d
mm. 125 -180

mm. 180 - 213
solo
Rit. da capo
Keys: d, a, c, f, Eb, g Key: g
mm. 99 -108
solo
Keys: Bb, c, g, d
The ritom ello subject opens with an integral "orchestral" crescendo, achieved
by ad ding successive notes to the descending left hand chords, the
hom ophony giving the suggestion (but no m ore than that)
of im itation
between the parts making up the descending chords.

Example 3.11: BWV 808/i, mm. 1 - 7
i.
Prelude
Like m any concerto ritornelli, the present one consists of a com plete
harmonic statement, beginning and ending in the tonic key. The first solo
episode introduces a contrasting theme which is developed in imitation, and
then combined with the first part of the ritom ello subject for the first time at
m. 35. The second ritomello statement at m. 67 introduces the first tune in
the relative major key. Presumably because of the keyboard range of the
harpsichord for which the suite was composed, the ritomello is "edited" at m.
72 in order to keep it within the treble upper limit of c'", perhaps providing a
clue to the dating of the piece.
100
Example: 3.12 BWV 808/i, mm. 67-73
Apart from this m inor alteration, the ritom ello is stated in its entirety. A
further statement of the ritomello theme interrupts the solo at m. 109, taking
the piece down to the nether regions of the keyboard, settling briefly on AA
(the lowest note in the English Suites). A brief excursion into c m inor at m.
137 combines a solo episode with thematic material from the ritomello, its
orchestral guise underlined by the full chords of the opening. The piece
ventures as far afield as F minor ( and, briefly, A flat major) before working its
way around the circle of fifths back to a tonic statement of the ritomello at m.
180, the original descending thirds motive replaced by ascending sixths.
Indeed, Bach's use of the circle of fifths to effect modulations from one key
center to the next is one of the m ost obviously Vivaldian features of this
movement. The level of invention is, however, purely Bach's own.
101
In performance, the piece is a good candidate for the use of the plein jeu
(full harpsichord). The overlapping of ritomello and solo sections ("elisions"
in Schulenberg's terminology) render attem pts to divide the work between
different manuals (representing the contrast between solo and tutti sections)
unusually difficult. However, the built-in textural and dynamic contrasts
make two-manual alternation superfluous, the divisions between tutti and
solo rem aining obvious even w hen dressed in the same color. The tem po
should be an energetic Allegro. The manuscript copy referred to here as Bl,
most likely by Bach's student Johann Schneider,31 contains this piece notated
in 6 /8 time, with the bars all divided into their 3/8 component parts by m eans
of smaller barlines. This is the only movement in any of the English Suite for
which even a fragm ent of autograph m aterial survives: seven m easures
before the da capo in Schneider's manuscript, the hand of Bach himself is
apparent. Perhaps significantly, the odd dual barring in 6 /8 and 3 /8
throughout the piece is abandoned in favor of straight 3/8 notation.
Example 3.13: BWV 808/i, Staatsbibliothek Preufiischer Kulturbesitz Bach
Mus. ms. P I072.
102
A llem ande:
The allemande to BWV 808 is unusual in that its thematic material is
passed imitatively from bass to soprano, the initial statement occurring in the
lower part. The middle part of this essentially 3-part piece does not join in the
conversation until a statement of the theme in m8 moves the tonal center to
the dominant. The second half of the piece returns the thematic statements
back to the usual order, soprano then bass. Measures 10-11 contain one of the
most obvious examples of undisguised parallel octaves to occur in a piece by
Bach, softened only by the approach by downw ard step in sixteenth notes in
the upper part.
The copies by Schneider and Gerber (the second copied from the first) contain
a few fingering indications at m. 15,16,18 and 19.
Example 3.14: BWV 808/ii, mm. 15,16; 18, 19.
103
These are, of course, much too sparse to indicate very much, but they are
included in the NBA edition for their documentary value.
C ourante32:
This contains the hemiolas common to this dance, the 3 /2 rhythm

prom ised in the time signature only establishing itself aurally at m. 3, at
which point the bass consists of straight quarter-notes. The cadences of both
sections contain the usual hemiolas. The sudden chord on the weak second
beat at m. 9 produces a syncopated effect which creates a feeling of common
time for the next three bars, an effect underlined by the bass entry at m. 11. In
fact the rhythmic ambiguities of the piece are underlined by the phrasing,
which occurs only in the second half, where the eighth-note groupings at
mm. 21 and 22 make clear the triple nature of the time signature.
Sarabande/Les agrements de la meme Sarabande:
One of the most impressive of Bach's sarabandes, this one opens over a
tonic pedal which lasts for almost the entire first half of the piece. The second
half contains the following enharmonically notated progressions over the
raised sixth of the key of g minor:
Example 3.15: BWV 808/iv, mm. 16-20
i
I
32"Corrente" in source C2.
104
The accent on the second beat, usual in sarabandes, is softened by the

anticipations in m. 1 and 3, and again at m. 5 and 6. After this majestic piece
comes another version of the same, as occurs w ith the sarabande to the
second suite. However this time, despite a title similar to the corresponding
m ovem ent of the preceding suite, the elaborations are m ore extensive,
extending to both outer parts, the bass from m. 13 becoming increasingly
complex. The sarabandes of suites 2, 3 and 6 can be seen as a series of textbook
examples of Bach's increasingly elaborate approach to the ornam entation of
sarabandes. Perhaps, in this light, the plain and unadorned exam ples
contained in suites 4 and 5 may be seen to have been deliberately left for the
performer (or student) to elaborate according to the models provided33. As is
the case w ith m ost of Bach's sarabandes, the ornam entation exhibits a
combination of French and Italian influences, with added shorthand signs
largely based on the d'Anglebert ornament table which Bach copied, blended
with elaborated and fully notated roulades and tiratas in ever smaller note
groupings. No doubt it was this aspect of Bach's compositional approach that
led to the m uch later criticism (by Scheibe, among others) that he wrote
everything out in full, leaving little up to the discretion of the performer.
Gavottes 1 and 2:
Gavotte 1 shows Bach at his m ost French. Rhythmic ambiguity is

evident from the first incomplete bar, where the use of the tonic note in both
hands, the left hand on the G at the bottom line of the bass staff, creates an
accent which causes the opening to sound like the first beat of a complete bar,
33 A ppendix B provides agrements for both of these pieces.
105
rather than the usual half-bar upbeat to the first complete measure that one
would expect to find in a gavotte. The appogiatura notated on the first beat of
m. 1 only partially offsets the apparently deliberate ambiguity created. The
repeated bass notes at mm. 18-23 re-create the flavor of the French tambourin,
an effect which is increased by the ever diminishing note values in which the
repeated g's of the left hand are notated.
Example 3.16: BWV 808/vi, mm. 18-23
An articulated silence in the right hand between the upbeat and the
first complete bar is necessary in order to clarify the rhythm. The effect should
be to produce an accent on the right hand bb which then establishes the
standard rhythm of the gavotte. The paired slurring, contained in the most
reliable copies at m. 7, in all likelihood indicates inequality of the paired
notes. Groups of notes in conjunct motion are often grouped in four by a slur:
perhaps this is meant to denote equality of notes and should be applied where
appropriate elsewhere (for example, m. 10, bass).
The second gavotte, in the tonic major, is described in some of the early
m anuscript sources by the title ou la Musette. Bach's two otherwise m ost
106
reliable copyists for the English Suites (Schneider and Gerber, who copied
from him) both show their poor grasp of the French language by their
misspelling of Musette (a courtly and refined bagpipe, used in French music
to evoke pastoral images) as Murette and Muretta. The possibility exists that
the misspelling stems from Bach himself! The drone effects of the musette
are captured by the use of a long pedal note which is to be resounded as
necessary throughout the performance. As with the first gavotte, the opening
unaccented upbeat rhythm is hard to grasp: the barring indicates its presence,
but the ear does not detect it w ithout resounding the lower g on the first beat
of m. 1. The slurring contained in the upbeat and m. 1 of gavotte II would, if
taken literally, throw the accents away from the usual strong beats 1 an 3 onto
the weak ones. Perhaps this slurring is m eant to be extended to the many
pairs of eighth notes throughout the piece. Presumably then, the groups of
four eighth notes in conjunct motion (m. 3, 10,11) are to be played using notes
egales, taking their cues from analagous groupings in the first gavotte (m. 17,
for example).
Gigue;
The gigue, Giga I in the classification of Little and Jenne since it uses
the note values of the pulse rhythm w ithout further subdivision, is a
thoroughly Italianate piece in fugal style, the answer to the subject being tonal
rather than real in nature. The third part which enters as would normally be
expected in a fugal exposition (bass entry in the tonic, m. 6), mysteriously
disappears after the first 13 measures, to re-appear briefly in the second half
before disappearing for good at m. 29. (This type of "feigned" fugal entry,
107
another Italianate feature of this gigue, also occurs in the gigue to BWV 809).
The second half provides an inversion of the theme which enters first in the
uncompleted middle part. With the exception of the imitative exposition and
rudim entary third part, the gigue inhabits m uch the same w orld as that
contained in BWV 807, relentless in its energy and relative lack of internal
cadences or other points of repose. In performance, a plein jeu registration (8',
8', 4' on a three-choir instrument) would be appropriate.
Suite avec Prelude in F. BWV 809:
This work represents the m id-point in the original sequence of five

works, and is also the only one of the original set to be composed in a major
key, occupying a middle position in the key sequence diatonically descending
from a to d which is an unmistakable feature of the cycle. The F major work is
less intense than the others and somewhat smaller in scope (though large by
the usual standards of its time). The counterpoint is less learned than that
found in the others (including the A major suite). The opening prelude, often
in two parts often inhabits the same world as some of Bach's harpsichord
concertos, and the key of F (the usual key for horns in Bach's time) leads to
the inclusion of a genuine hunting gigue, its subject based on the natural
harmonics obtainable on the valveless horn of the Baroque era.
Prelude:
The following groups of manuscript sources bear the tempo direction

variously spelled "vitement" , "vistement", "Vitement": B, D, E, G. Though
this indicates a lively affect, the thematic material is undram atic and does not
108
suggest an air of haste. In addition, source group D contains the following

articulation marks under notes of the first measure:
Example 3.17: BWV 809/i, m. 1
The meaning of these is unknown, but perhaps, given the conjunct nature of
the notes of the subject and the predominantly French style of the work, they
direct the player to play notes egales. (Bach's use of dots in the French-style
sixteenth variation of the Goldberg Variations, BWV 988, mm. 8-9, probably
has the same explanation). The prelude is another concerto-like movement
in da capo form, with clear distinctions betw een the ritomello and the solo
sections, as would occur in a real concerto, though elements of both sections
are combined later in the m ovem ent. Though the opening ritom ello is
composed in only two parts, consisting of a theme im itated at the lower
octave as in tw o-part invention, the texture is later thickened with fuller
chords:
Example 3.18: BWV 809/i, mm. 15-16.
109
The first "solo" section features broken chord figuration reminiscent of the
harpsichord part in Brandenburg Concerto V.
Example 3.19: BWV 809/i, mm. 20-23
The contrast betw een this and the ritom ello them e suggests the use of
alternate m anuals of the harpsichord; unlike the prelude to BWV 808, the
phrase structure in the F major piece makes this possible. At m. 28 a further
"countersubject" is introduced, similar to the subject from the B flat minor
prelude from the WTC I.
Example 3.20: BWV 809/i, mm. 28-30
This is used also in its inverted form at m. 65 and later. The prelude to BWV
809 contains a high level of contrapuntal complexity, and represents a
successful com bination of styles d eriv ed equally from the Italian
instrum ental concerto and German fugal tradition. Once again, the form of
the prelude is derived essentially from the Italian concerto, and displays the
following sections:
110
1-20
rit.
F
mm. 20-27
solo
F -C
mm. 27-34
rit.
C
mm. 34-38
solo
C ,g,d
mm. 38-45
rit.
d
mm. 45-51
solo
d -a
51-55 mm. 56-59

rit.
solo
a
a -d
mm. 60-69
rit.
d,g,B b
mm. 70-77
solo
Bb- F
mm. 77-84
rit.
F
mm. 84-88
solo
F
89-108
rit. (da capo)
F
A llem ande:
The allemande juxtaposes groups of sixteenth notes in a common time

signature with sixteenth-note triplets, combining them at m. 7. The theme of
the opening bars in the soprano is inverted in the bass at the double bar, with
the triplet figure appearing in both hands simultaneously at m. 21. Though
the m ovem ent is not strictly imitative between the parts, certain motivic
effects are presented in question and answer form at various parts of the
piece. The soprano of the second bar is utilized in the bass at m. 3, and the
triplet figures present at mm. 7 - 9 in the soprano are answered in the bass.
The juxtaposition of a straight sixteenth-note grouping against triplets raises
the question of whether to apply rhythmic alteration to the straight notes, or
simply to play them as written. Regarding this, the player must decide, but the
continuous use of sixteenth-notes in groups of four th ro u g h o u t the
allemande certainly makes it likely that Bach intended the triplets to stand
out clearly from them wherever they coincide: therefore, performance of the
sixteenths as w ritten is probably to be preferred throughout. The basically
three-part texture implies that the piece is to be played on a single manual:
Ill
the distribution of the m iddle part between both hands would prevent twomanual performance, in contrast to those dances composed in two parts.
C ourante:
The courante is imitative: the right hand tune at bar 2 is taken over by
the left hand a twelth lower in the next bar. The classic hemiola of the French
courante appears in the penultim ate bars of each section (m. 7 and m. 19),
preparing the listener for the implied change of time signature in the final
bars of each section, from the prevailing 3 /2 to 6/4.
Example 3.21: BWV 809/iii, a) mm. 7-8; b) mm. 19-20
The dotted q u a rte r/e ig h th note groupings contrast effectively w ith the
running eighth-notes throughout, their impact enhanced in performance by
application of notes inegales to the eighths in conjunct m otion, and a
corresponding sharpening of the eighth notes contained in the dotted quarter
groupings. On a German style harpsichord, two 8' registers (coupled) would
perhaps be most useful in providing sufficient sonority while retaining clarity

in the part writing.
Sarabande:
Though relatively straightforward, almost galant, in style, and without
the agrements present in BWV 807 and BWV 808, the Sarabande of the F
major suite is a profound and impressive work. The characteristic rhythm of
the dance is observed, as the accents fall on the second beats at many places
throughout the w ork's 24 bars. The first and second halves are unequal in
length, the second section doubling the proportions of the first. In m anuscript
sources B, F and G, the following textual variation appears at ml9:
Example 3.22: BWV 809/iv, m. 19
BG 45
b) NBA
The performer m ust consider the question of whether to ornam ent the
repeats (the w ritten agrements from BWV 807/8 provide the models), or to
include an ornamented version of the sarabande as a separate work to follow
the main version. Though no articulation marks appear in the most reliable
copies of the work, clearly the accents falling on the second beats m ust be
emphasised, the desirability of this effect is implied by the written out thirtysecond notes preceding the accented notes in m easures 1, 5 and elsewhere.
113
These dim inutions produce the effect of a short upbeat. There is the
possibility of applying notes inegales to passages in eighth notes m oving in
conjunct motion, such as the soprano in m easures 3, 7 and 19. Maximum
resonance seems appropriate to the grand and monumental character of this
work: full harpsichord is appropriate here.
Menuet I and II:
That these menuets were intended to form a major dance sequence is

underlined by the fact that Bach provided both of them w ith first and second
time endings: when all repeats are played they make a substantial pair of
dances. They are also among the most galant in style of any of the m ovem ents
in the English Suites, the style brise in the opening of the left hand part of
Menuet II melding into genuine three-part writing, thus contrasting with the
two-part texture of the first dance. The syncopations, which are often a feature
of the menuet, also fall into different m easures in the respective dances: in
Menuet I appearing in measures 1 (and sometimes 3) of the four-bar phrase,
in the second dance being displaced to the second measure. The contrast in
texture and affect between the two menuets is emphasised by their contrasting
keys: the second dance is written in the relative minor. In performance the
tempo should be moderately fast: the French- style time signature indicating
only one stress to a bar. Single 8' registers could perhaps be used, the second
Menuet appearing on the contrasting upper manual. The possibility exists in
the first M enuet of dividing the hands betw een different manuals, perhaps
alternating their positions in the repeats. The addition of a third p art in
Menuet II renders this impractical, as the middle part cannot be taken entirely
114
by one hand or the other. The slurring which appears in many of the copies at
various measures in M enuet I should be applied to all analagous passages
throughout. This consists chiefly of slurs placed over all six eighth notes of a
bar, or paired slurring such as appears in m. 10. This m enuet is an obvious
candidate for notes inegales, especially in those passages of conjunctly moving
eighth notes: in this case the slurs at mm. 7 - 8 and elsewhere can be seen as
exceptions to the rule. Though it is not specifically indicated, the broken
chord figures at mm. 1 - 3 of M enuet II should probably be played equally.
Menuet I is, of course, to be performed in alternativement.
Gigue:
This is a genuine giga da caccia. The F major tonality inspires Bach to
write one of his most approachable and characteristic im itative gigues, the
arpeggiando hunting theme of the right hand im itated at the lower octave
halfway through the same measure. There is a brief excursion into three parts
at the upbeat to measure 6, the extra voice disappearing again two bars later.
Notable are the hunting calls, which occur at mm. 12-13, and then again as a
sort of pedal point at mm. 30-31 (bass), mm. 33-4 (soprano) and mm. 41-2
(bass), this theme recalls the posthom aria from the early Capriccio (BWV
992). The second half announces the theme in its usual inverted form: both
in terms of its intervals and its position on the keyboard. In performance, the
full harpsichord is surely mandatory, as well as a vigorous four beats to a bar
and accents on all of the syncopated figures which are, in any case, usually
underlined by the addition of mordents. This gigue is of the type classified by
Little and Jenne as Giga I, in which the pulse value and the smallest note
values are identical.
115
Suite avec Prelude in E minor. BWV 810:
The last two English Suites are among Bach's very greatest works for
keyboard. Richard Jones, the editor for the Associated Board of the Royal
Schools of Music believes, reasonably, that they m ust have been the last to
have been composed.34 The preludes are m ore elaborate and extended than
those in the first four suites, the contrapuntal elements reach their highest
level of learning and complexity, and the dance m ovem ents often approach
and sometimes transcend the limits of the forms in which they are outwardly
cast. The keys, E minor and D m inor underline the seriousness of the works,
and complete the descending sequence of keys established at the outset by
BWV 807.
Prelude:
This is the first genuinely fugal prelude to appear among the English
Suites. The symmetrical them e is divided into two balanced sections, the
second a direct reply to the first:
Example 3.23: BWV 810/i, mm. 1-4
34 J. S. Bach, Six English Suites, Richard Jones, ed. (London, 1987), Introduction (p.4).
116
The subject is followed by a tonal answer in the alto. The final part in this
essentially three-voice structure enters in the bass at m. 7. Structurally, the
m ovem ent once again borrow s from the instrum ental concerto, w ith
contrasting sections corresponding to the ritomello and solo sections usual to
that form. As is the case w ith all of the other preludes other than the first, the
work is concluded with a da capo statement of the first ritomello section. The
form of this work, however, differs from the clearcut layout of the third and
fourth preludes, w here the divisions betw een solo and tutti sections are
distinct, and the sections clearly alternate w ith one another. There are really
only two "solo" sections in this prelude, where episodic material different in
thematic content and texture from that in the ritom ellos is introduced. The
third ritomello section of this prelude merges into the da capo repeat of the
opening music. The following diagram shows the structure and major key
areas:
1-40
ritom ello
e
mm. 40-52 mm. 52-82 mm. 82-92 mm. 92-117-156

solo
ritom ello
solo
ritom ello
e, G
G, b
b, e, a
a, e
While the use of the contrasting upper m anual may seem initially
attractive to the perform er, the situation is complicated by the continuous
nature of the final ritomello which leads directly into the recapitulation at m.
117. It is perhaps advisable to consider this prelude in the same light as BWV
808, where the overlapping nature of ritom ello and solo sections makes the
use of contrasting m anuals difficult and superfluous. The fifth prelude is, in
fact, as much indebted to other Italian forms such as the da capo aria as it is to
the concerto, and the difference in texture and figuration between the solo
117
and tutti sections makes the musical contrast perfectly clear w ithout the
addition of external aids, such as changes of manual. In any case, the first solo
them e can be seen equally well as a fugal rather than a concerto-derived
episode in this tightly controlled contrapuntal piece.
A llem ande:
Like the imitative allemande to BWV 807, the fifth allemande is also
uncom prom ising in its voice leading and the angularity of its lines. The
imitation in BWV 810 is, however, far more extended and uncompromising
than the A m inor allemande. The m aterial in the right hand at mm. 3-4 is
inverted in the second half at mm. 14-15, producing along the way some
extraordinary dissonances. The hands cross over each other at mm. 5-6,
indicating the desirability of playing the piece on two manuals (one 8' register
used on each in order to achieve proper balance). The mainly two-part texture
thickens in the last three bars of each section with the addition of a third
voice as the major cadences are approached, leading to an intensification of
expression and dynamic.
C ourante:
This stormy and dramatic piece affixes written-out accents to the chords
which are upbeats to some of the major internal cadences (m. 1, 6, 7 and 8),
the accent being displaced in the penultimate bar of the first section to prepare
for the change of meter at the final bar. These accents are continued in the
second half of the piece at m. 24, 25 and 26. Cleverly conceived imitation
occurs where m. 1 in the right hand becomes m. 3 in the left. The tied notes in
m. 1 and 3 introduce syncopation betw een the eleventh and twelth eighthnotes of these bars. Though a case may be made for playing the sequences of
conjunct eighth notes inegale, the Italianate nature of this running figuration,
not to mention the tempo - perhaps somewhat faster than the average French
style courante given the general affect - probably should preclude it. The
dram a inherent in the piece makes it a good candidate for performance on
full harpsichord. The upbeats should reinforce the accents which begin the
following bars; often, this accent is reinforced by the inclusion of a full
arpeggiated chord (mm. 1-2, right hand). The ornaments in the right hand
which begin bars 7 and 8 are of the short German accentus type rather than
stan d ard appogiaturas, their im portance highlighted by the preceding
accented upbeats, and therefore should be short and performed on the beat.
Sarabande:
As in BWV 810, Bach here provides a plain and unadorned sarabande,

which contains few of the features normally associated with the dance: the
second beat accents are concealed both by the note values and the largely
homophonic texture. The D group of sources includes dots above the right
hand eighth notes in m. 1, probably indicating, as do the vertical strokes in
BWV 809/i, the application of notes egales. W hether they also indicate
unaccented separation (as suggested by Schulenberg) is unknown. Possibly,
since they were a later addition to the principal eighteenth century source in
which they appear (Dl, Am. Bibl. 489), they indicate the use of the clavichord
(which is more likely later than earlier in the century, when nearly all the
principal sources indicate use of the harpsichord as ideal).
119
Passepieds 1 and II:
The first in this pair of dances is in rondeau form. In the manuscript

sources the piece was not written out in full, but rather with da capo dal segno
indications. The piece is also to be played in alternativement with the second
passepied - this time in the tonic major key. The copy by Bach's pupil, Johann
Schneider (B 1), uses the same notation as for the prelude to BWV 808, with
full barring only after every six eighth-notes, but smaller divisions indicating
a time signature of 3/8.
Example 3.24: BWV 810/v, mm. 1-6, SPK Bach. mus. ms. P. 1072
. p - . , ,
m r
* S ?*?= M
s* .
The second passepied contains a long tonic pedal in its first half, once
again emphasising the pastoral associations of the passepied. W hether all of
Passepied 1, or only the theme en rondeau should then be repeated depends on
the performer: with a complete repeat of the piece and all its couplets the set
takes on a rather substantial character. In performance, one should perhaps
opt for light registration, lower 8' (perhaps with 4' added), contrasting with
upper 8' in the second passepied seems right. The upbeats should, of course,
due to the wide intervallic leap, be short.
120
Gigue:
Singled out by Bach's biographer, Johann Nikolaus Forkel, for special

praise, the gigue (Giga II) is fugal in nature, containing, for the m ost part,
three voices (the third part dropping out temporarily, as occurs in BWV 808
and 809, for example at mm. 22-26). Though it is m arked now here in the
sources, the following articulation for the subject is implied by the "sigh"
motive preceded by a wide leap from a tonic note, which serves as a sort of
pedal.
Example 3.25: BWV 810/vii, mm. 1-5
In the second half, both the theme and the order of voice entries are inverted.
An original touch is the appearance of the off-beat chords in the left hand at
mm. 44-46, a similar effect is also introduced into the right hand in the second
half at mm. 92-95. In perform ance, a full harpsichord registration will
produce perhaps the most telling effect: on a two manual instrument this will
include 8', 8', 4' with the coupler engaged.
121
Suite avec Prelude in D minor. BWV 811:
This m onum ental w ork is one of the m ost elaborate and extensive
suites which Bach - or any other com poser - ever w rote, exceeding in
dimensions even the E m inor Partita from the Clavieriibung, Part I (BWV
830). It was the second of the English Suites to be published after Bach's death,
and first appeared in 1812/13 in the edition of A. Kiihnel. It is clear that it was
planned by Bach as the longest and most involved of all the suites avec preludes,
with a dark and hypnotic quality pervading all of its movements. In the outer
m ovem ents, the p relude and gigue, Bach exhausts the possibilities of
invertible counterpoint, one of the prim ary concerns which occupies the
composer at various points throughout the English Suites.
Prelude:
The opening movement of the sixth suite is so vast that it requires a

special introduction of its own, which itself lasts thirty-seven measures. The
resulting overall structure is a sort of combined prelude and fugue, the two
parts linked by an bar marked adagio in all early copies. The following tempo
designation, allegro, appears in Schneider's and Gerber's copies, but not in
many of the later sources. However, the dimensions of the piece, and the
continuous sixteenth-note figuration, indicate that the fugue proper requires
fairly energetic movement. The prelude opens with broken-chord figuration
over a tonic pedal-point (mm. 1-5), repeated verbatim in the dom inant at
mm. 19-22. The long bass notes will probably require re-sounding at some
point, perhaps, for example at m. 3. and m. 21. The subject stated at m. 38
122
forms the basis of a predominantly three-part fugue. The use of the subject in
both its real and inverted forms (the latter for the first time at m. 50, alto), as
well as the unusually thorough exploitation of sequential figuration such as
that occurring at mm. 53-56, provides the material for the opening section,
which, given its epic proportions (48 measures) and closed harmonic scheme,
constitutes an entire piece in itself. The following episode, beginning with a
compelling repeated note figure, appears at m. 86:
Example 3.26: BWV 811/i, mm. 86-87
This material is used in the same m anner as the opening subject, in both its
real and in v erted form s. The repeated notes of this figure assume
considerable importance throughout the movement, producing the following
extraordinary pedal-points at m. 113 and m. 115:
Example 3.27: BW^V 811/i, mm. 113-16
123
These measures create a sort of axis of symmetry, dividing the B section into
two halves. The concerto-like distinctions between solo and tutti sections,
which are clear-cut in some of the other preludes, are blurred by the fugal
framework, and the movement does not neatly divide up between different
manuals of the harpsichord. Though the contrasting theme which occurs first
at m. 86 may be thought of as a solo, the sections containing that theme and
its variants, and the various perm utations of the thematic material from the
opening "tutti" often run seamlessly from one to another, rendering the use
of two contrasting m anuals at odds w ith the form al logic on which the
m ovem ent is based. After exhaustive treatm ent given to the them atic
material, a short statement of the second subject at m. 143 in the subdom inant
key of g m inor leads back to a literal restatem ent of the opening fugal
exposition, concluding Bach's single longest movement for keyboard.
A llem ande:
This piece is based on the same figuration which appears in the g

minor prelude from the first book of Das Wohltemperierte Clavier. It begins over
a long tonic pedal, and the upper parts contain surprising melodic cross
relations at m. 1, 5 and 6. The piece exhibits the same curious intensity as the
e minor allemande, the bass at m. 13 exploiting the dissonant interval of a
tritone between the third and fourth beats (e' - B b'), while the false relation
effect noted in the opening measures is heightened by the close proximity of
b natural and b flat to one another.
124
C ourante:
In this complex and som ew hat experim ental courante, Bach has
w edded an almost continuous bass in eighth-notes to the normal rhythm of
the French form of the dance. This has been seen by one author as a conscious
combination of both French and Italian styles, although the bass to this
courante is no m ore continuous (or necessarily Italian) than the second
double of Courante II from the A major Suite35. The effect of the "walking"
bass, however, is to sm ooth over the various internal cadences which
normally determine to a large extent the rhythm and phrase structure of the
french courante. The succession of trills with w ritten-out term inations in the
right hand at mm. 13 - 15 produces further rhythmic ambiguities, weakening
the influence of the 3 /2 time signature, and creating a phrase structure where
the resolutions occur across the barlines.
Sarabande and Double:
This dram atic piece is one of Bach's greatest achievements in this

particular form, w ith strong em phasis on the second beat of the bar
characteristic of the sarabande evident from the first m easure. The phrase
structure recalls the sarabande to the G minor Suite, with identical num bers
of bars in the respective sections of each dance, the second section being in
each case exactly twice as long as the first. The chromatic qualities of the
Sarabande to BWV 809 are also parallelled here, although Bach does not go so
125
far in the present w ork as to introduce sim ultaneous use of enharmonic

equivalents, as occurs in the former.
Nevertheless, the present sarabande achieves an extraordinary degree

of harmonic intensity in its twenty four bars, w ith cross-relations occurring in
many places throughout (especially from m. 19 to the end). After the
unadorned initial statem ent of the sarabande comes Bach's m ost exquisite
and refined transform ation of the piece. In an extraordinary contrast of
texture and general affect, the uncomprom ising angularity of the original is
clothed in the softening garb of the French style brise, the second beat accents
still detectable despite the delicacy of the re-working. The substantial effect
which Bach expected from this pair of dances is underlined by the provision
of w ritten-out first and second endings for the double. The complete re
working of the sarabande dictates the order and m ethod of performance:
clearly, each sarabande was intended to be played as a separate entity: there is
no question of applying the varied version as a repeat to the m ain sarabande.
The dram atic intensity is partially relieved at the end of the double by
introduction of a tierce de picardy on the final chord. In performance, the main
sarabande, with its rhythmical strength and bold harmonic progressions, may
be realized using full harpsichord. The double will sound most effective using
the lower 8' register on a two-manual instrument. The broken chords require
an overlapping legato touch and clear projection of the phrase structure,
which is provided by use of the longer set of 8' strings. Careful observation of
the rests at mm. 21-22 will heighten rather than detract from the aural effect
of the cross-relations contained in those bars.
126
Gavottes I and II:
A further link betw een this suite and the third in G m inor is the
inclusion in each of a pair of gavottes, the second of the pair on each occasion
employing similar pastoral effects. The Italian walking-bass idea (observed by
David Schulenberg in works by Corelli, as well as in connection w ith the
courante of the present suite)36 occurs in Gavotte I, where the half-bar upbeat
traditionally associated with the dance type is even less aurally discernable
than the corresponding passage in BWV 808. The vertical strokes appearing
in the penultim ate bar of Gavotte I may indicate detachment as well as an
accent.
Gavotte II ingeniously conceals its pastoral drone in a style brise bass,

which contains a tonic pedal: to reinforce the delicate effect of the movement
it changes both key (to the tonic major) and tessitura, w ith both hands
occupying the treble range of the instrument, the drone occurring on d'. A
perfect legato touch in the left hand, with notes being released only in order
to resound them, is crucial to producing the proper pastoral resonance. An
interesting feature, rare in Bach, but common in the music of the generation
before, is the w ritten out right-hand trill over disjunct notes (f#' and a')
occurring at m. 15. Bach's use of such an effect may be another useful clue to
dating of the English Suites to the comparatively early part of the first half of
the eighteenth century. One finds this device frequently in the w orks of
Bohm and Pachelbel (for example in Pachelbel's Hexachordum Apollonis of
127
1699), but not so much by Bach's time, though it appears in early harpsichord
works such as the D major Toccata (BWV 912). A repetition of Gavotte I
rounds off this sequence of galanterien.
Gigue:
In this, the single most extraordinary m ovem ent of all those to be

found am ong the six suites avec preludes, Bach exceeds even his own
achievement in the invertible counterpoint of the massive prelude to the
sixth suite. The fugal gigue (Giga I) combines an energetic and chromatic
subject w ith difficult-to-execute trills (often occurring d u rin g the
sim ultaneous holding of an inner part) and a relentless drive, which
continues right through to the final cadences of each section.
Example 3.28: BWV 811/vii, mm. 1-2
The long trills at mm. 11-12, 20-22 and 23-24 occur under extended pedalpoints, over which occur remarkable chromatic figuration.
Example 3.29, BWV 811/vii, mm. 19-24.
128
The second section concentrates on the inverted form of both the subject and
counter-subject.
Example 3.30: BWV 811/vii mm. 25-26
The suggestion, first made by Alfred Kreutz37, that the inversion should also
apply to the ornaments themselves, producing at measure 30, for example a
pince continu between a and g #, has been taken up by the editor of th NBA
edition, Alfred Diirr, so that all of the ornaments are inverted in the second
half. This interpretation is confirmed by the following m anuscript sources: B
1, B 2, C, D, E, but these ornam ent signs are absent from later manuscripts
such as, for example, the Lichnowsky copies from the 1780's (G).38 Such literal
interpretation of the idea of inversion leads to considerable harm onic tension
in various places, notably at mm. 44-46, where the a' -g#' oscillation creates
dissonances with the complexities taking place in the other parts.
37 Johnnit Sebastian Bach, Sechs Englischen Suiten, Alfred Kreutz, ed. (Leipzig, 1950).
38 NBA Kritische Bericht V /7 1981, p. 180.
129
Example 3.31: BWV 811/vii, mm. 44-46.

H
J. 1 1. 1 ? t m m J F
- rT. ! - u ---J
2----------------------------- ^
.j ' . s
?|J>
?
A
K
J'
et a
?b* ? *
f a t a
? i.* "
? i. '-13
t ii fb p r ,
* f *
Bach reserves his best trick for last, when, in the final two m easures he
combines the subject with its inversion over a tonic pedal in the bass.
Example 3.32: BWV 811/vii, mm. 55-56.
Though the contrapuntal technique of them atic inversion is often

encountered in Bach's keyboard gigues (apart from the remaining English
Suites, the G major French Suite, BWV 816, provides a good example), the
"m irror-w riting" is taken to an u n p re c e d e n te d level in BWV 811,
foreshadowing the use of this technique in late works such as Die Kunst der
Fuge, BWV 1080. Schulenberg (1992) points out that the relationship between
the two halves of this gigue do not constitute an exact m irroring of the the
130
first section by the second.39 Nevertheless, certain of the contrapuntal

techniques explored in the English Suites were taken up to be used in later
com positions. The English Suites overall represent an unprecedented
m arriage of both French and Italian dance types w ith highly developed
contrapuntal expertise.
In perform ance, the ascending scalar m ovem ent of the subject

(descending in the inversion of the second half) should, perhaps, be
highlighted by overlapping these notes slightly. The tempo, a swift four in the
bar, should take account of the performer's ability to project the longer hidden
melodic lines, such as the ascending interval of a fifth between the first beats
of m. 1 and m. 2. An expressive effect will be achieved by an accelerando
interpretation of the trills at, m. 6, m. 8 and in analagous places throughout
both halves of the piece: those appearing in m iddle parts are a test of the
perform er's skill, since the counter-subject figure which first appears in the
soprano at m. 3 often coincide in the same hand (m. 6, m. 13). An accelerando
applied to the trills gives much the same effect as the mezzo di voce of Italian
vocal and string technique: an undulation in the dynam ics, creating a
crescendo in the line. The underlying pulse m ust, of course, be strictly
m aintained during these m easures. The eighth notes w hich form the
counter-subject at m. 3, highlighted by the rests which separate them, should
be played short and accented, in order to be heard clearly against the complex
opening subject. The dram atic nature of this movement, with its urgent and
relentless 12/8 meter will be, perhaps, best served by use of full harpsichord,
131
this burst of sonority providing a fittingly sonorous conclusion to the most

extraordinary member of an extraordinary cycle of suites.
132
Chapter 4: Performance and Reception History:
As has been stated in earlier chapters, the English Suites were singled
out by Johann Nikolaus Forkel for special praise, the gigues of BWV 810 and
811 being regarded especially highly. Forkel's vague and unreferenced
explanation of the title, most likely derived, as w as m uch of his material,
from correspondence with Wilhelm Friedemann and Carl Phillip Emmanual
Bach, helped to create the mystery surrounding the composition and original
title of the six Suites avec Preludes which continues to the present day. What is
clear, however, is that m anuscript copies of the English Suites circulated
widely in the second half of the eighteenth century, a situation evident from
the number and diversity of the surviving copies.
The importance of the suites in the beginnings of the Bach "revival"

(or, more properly, survival) is underlined by their inclusion among those
works of Bach of which Beethoven's patron, Prince Lichnowsky, had copies
made in the 1780's1. The English Suites also figured prominently among the
works of Bach contained in the libraries of Baron Gottfried van Swieten and
Princess Anna Amalia, sister of Frederick the Great, and a great enthusiast for
Bach's music. There is no evidence surviving from the latter half of the
eighteenth century indicating th at the English Suites w ere publicly
performed, but this is merely a reflection of the m anner in which Bach's
music continued to be known: in manuscript, and among a fairly small group
of devotees com prised principally of Bach's pupils and their pupils. It
1 Chapter 1, Manuscript Sources, G.
133
certainly seems likely that their m ain use w as in teaching. In any case,
manuscript copies continued to be made right up to the early decades of the
nineteenth century.
The year 1760 saw the first printing of m ovements from the English
Suites when the pair of Gavottes from BWV 808 was published by Friedrich
Wilhelm Birnstiel in Berlin under the title Musette. The suites in complete
form appeared over the extended period of twenty-two years, between 1805,
when BWV 808 was issued by Hoffmeister and Kuhnel as Suite 1, and 1830,
when BWV 806 appeared as Suite 6.
The edition of the English Suites by Carl Czerny, the well-known

composer and piano student of Beethoven, who had already published a very
influential and highly edited version of Das Wohltemperierte Klavier, appeared
in Germany, France and England alm ost sim ultaneously in 1841, and
continued to be reprinted throughout the nineteenth and well into the
twentieth century. It achieved especially wide circulation due to its being
included as Volume 4 of the Collection Complete pour le Piano des oeuvres de J. S
Bach published in Paris in the mid-1840's.
There are no documented performances of the English Suites by the

great pianists of the late nineteenth century. Those pianists who did include
works by Bach on their program s tended to concentrate on virtuosic
transcriptions of organ works, or individualistic works such as the Chromatic
Fantasie and Fugue, BWV 903. This situation continued well into the
134
tw entieth century and w as lam ented by A lbert Schweitzer in his 1905

biography of Bach in the following paragraph concerning the state of
"present-day esteem of Bach":
(Bach) is clearly influencing domestic music ............ As regards our

public music the conditions are not so satisfactory. To expect to hear the
com plete Bach in our concert room s w ould be to experience m any
disappointments. O ur pianoforte virtuosi give us transcriptions of the organ
works rather than original piano compositions, - on w hat grounds is not
clear. Why must it always be the A minor prelude and fugue that is given to
the public? Even in Liszt's arrangements they are merely makeshifts on the
piano. Where can we hear, except rarely, performances of the suites, the W ellTempered Clavichord, the Italian Concerto, the Chromatic Fantasia, the piano
concerto in A minor [?], the C major concerto for twro pianos?^
Bach's first biographers of the m id-nineteenth century were silent

regarding the English Suites3. In his biography of Bach (1870-83), Philipp
Spitta, though he devoted a scant tw o pages to the English Suites,
nevertheless praised them highly, but he assumed, apparently solely on the
basis of stylistic comparison, that the French Suites were certainly older, an
assertion which later research has invalidated4. Regarding the English Suites,
Spitta refers to their "strong, grave, and masculine character", adding that
2 Albert Schw eitzer, J. S. Bach, 2 vols, trans. Ernest N ew m an (Leipzig: 1911, repr. N ew York,
1966), I, p. 262.
3 C. L. H ilgenfeldt, Johann Sebastian Bachs Leben, Wirken und Werke, (Leipzig, 1850); C. H.
Bitter, Johann Sebastian Bach, 2 vols., (Berlin, 1865).
4 Alfred Durr, 'T h e Historical Background of the Com position of Johann Sebastian Bach's
Clavier Suite", BACH XVI, (Ohio, 1985), pp. 53-68.
135
Bach "never composed sarabandes of such breadth and beauty, or gigues of

such wild boldness".5 M uch of the pioneering work on establishing the
origins and compositional history of the English Suites was done in England
by the scholar E dw ard D annreuther, whose tw o-volum e w ork, Musical
Ornamentation (1893-95), w as the first to m ake the im portant connection
between the English Suites and the suites of Dieupart, and this topic was also
the subject of a num ber of lectures given at London's Royal Institution in
April 1892 by both Dannreuther6 and another English scholar, William Henry
Husk.7
The English composer and Bach enthusiast, Sir H ubert Parry, writing
in 1909, referred to the English Suites (their composition dates, as revealed by
the surviving m an u scrip ts and already basically know n to Spitta,
notwithstanding) as Bach's final statements in suite form and the "essential
demonstration of the Teutonic ideal". Parry continued:
They certainly represent his highest pitch of mastery. The immense

scope of all the preludes (except the first in A major, founded on D ieupart's
gigue) and the wide range of resource which they display, the weight, variety
and unvarying high level of material of the allemandes and courantes, the
suprem e dignity, pathos and w arm th of colour and expression of the
5 P hilipp Spitta, Johann Sebastian Bach, 3 vols, trans. by Bell and Fuller-Maitland (London:
1889, repr. N ew York, 1952) 111, p. 153.
6 See: Charles Dieupart, Six Suites pour Clavecin, ed. Paul Brunold, (Paris, 1934),
Introduction.
7 Curiously, the fifth edition of G rove's Dictionary lists H usk as the author of a talk on
exactly the sam e subject, and on the sam e date as Dannreuther's: 30 April, 1892. H owever,
the sam e publication states under the entry for Husk that he died in 1887, which w ould
appear to make his delivery of the paper on Bach and Dieupart five years later som ew hat
u n lik ely.
136
sarabandes, the sparkling vivacity of the b o u rs e s and the gavottes, and the
superb texture of the gigues combine to make this series of suites stand
entirely alone as representing the very highest examples of the type in
existence.8
The French writer, Andr6 Pirro, devoted most of his discussion of the
English Suites to their relationship to the works of French composers, opting
for Le Roux rather than Dieupart as the likely inspiration9. The English Suites
had to wait until the early years of the tw entieth century for anything
approaching a perform ance revival. Most unusually for the time, the
American pianist and harpsichordist, Arthur Whiting, who had studied early
keyboard instrum ents with A rnold Dolmetsch, perform ed the G m inor
English Suite in a combined piano-harpsichord recital at Mendelssohn Hall
in New York on 11 December, 190710, an event reviewed in the New York
Times. The Bach suite was perform ed, along with works by Rameau and
Scarlatti, on a Dolmetsch-Chickering harpsichord.
The Polish virtuoso pianist and harpsichordist, W anda Landowska,

began to include movements of the English Suites in her programs in the
early 1900's: among her earliest documented performances are the Passepieds
from BWV 810, recorded for the Welte-Mignon reproducing piano in 1905
(also recorded on the harpsichord for His Master's Voice in 1928). In 1923,
Landowska recorded the Gavottes from BWV 808 in Camden, New Jersey for
8 Sir Hubert Parry, Bach (London, 1909), pp. 463-4.

9 Andre Pirro, L'Ethetique de jean Sebastian Bach, (Paris, 1907).
10 Larry Palmer, Harpsichord in America (Bloomington, 1989), p. 32.
137
Victor. Most importantly, Landowska's complete recording of BWV 807, made
in 1935 in Paris on the harpsichord,11 was issued as a supplem ent to Edwin

Fischer's recording of The Well-Tempered Clavier.
In London, Harold Samuel (1879 - 1937), a former student of Edward

Dannreuther, began an important series of piano recitals devoted exclusively
to the music of Bach. Samuel first surprised London's musical public by
including the Goldberg
Variations in his debut recital in Steinway Hall
immediately upon his graduation from the Royal College of London at the
turn of the century. Later in his career, beginning with a concert in Wigmore
Hall in 1919, the entire program of which was devoted to the music of Bach,
Samuel embarked on a remarkable series of "Bach Weeks". In this bi-ennial
series, a different selection of Bach's keyboard music was presented on each of
six consecutive days of the week, the first taking place in 1921, and continuing
throughout the rem ainder of the decade. Among the repertoire presented in
this important series of concerts were two of the English Suites, BWV 807 and
808. The A m inor suite was also recorded for the Columbia Graphophone
Company, the bourrees being recorded in 1923, the other m ovem ents
following in 1926.12By 1928, the English Suites were highly praised by one of
Arnold Dolmetsch's old adversaries, J. A. Fuller Maitland. In his little book,
Bach's Keyboard Suites, Fuller Maitland described the English Suites in terms
of the highest praise while disputing Parry's erroneous dating of the works,
11 His Master' Voice DB 3236-9.

12 These m ovem ents w ere recorded electrically. D enis Hall, notes to recording Harold
Samuel plays Bach (Pearl re-issue: GEMM 147).
138
noting the existence of Gerber's manuscript copy made between 1724-27, w hen
Gerber was a student at Leipzig University.
T hat the m ovem ents from the English Suites m ost frequently
represented in p rin t and perform ance w ere the "galant" Gavottes and
Passepieds, despite the increasing frequency w ith w hich complete editions
appeared in the second half of the nineteenth century, represented a
continuation of the tradition w hich was established in 1760, w hen the
Gavottes from BWV 808 became the first m ovem ents to be published. The
popularity of the galanterien no doubt also reflected a nineteenth-century view
which considered the "courtly" music of eighteenth-century composers as the
m ost approachable. This influence was still strong throughout the first three
decades of the tw entieth century, as is evidenced by the concentration on
these same movements in Landowska's and Samuel's earlier recordings. The
bourrees to BWV 807, for example, were originally recorded by Sam uel
sim ply as a "fill-up" to his perform ance of the Chrom atic Fantasy and
Fugue13.
Among pianists of the later tw entieth century, performances of the

English Suites have become relatively common. W alter Gieseking, Wilhelm
Kempff, Sviatoslav Richter, Glenn Gould and Andras Schiff are among those
pianists w ho have included the English Suites in their program s, both in
concert and for recordings. Among younger generation pianists, M artha
13 Columbia D 785, Recorded October 1923.
139
Argerich, Angela H ew itt and Ivo Pogorelich have also perform ed and
recorded some of the English suites.
W ith the increasing interest in historical perform ance in the second

_ half of the tw entieth century, perform ances of the English Suites on the
harpsichord have also become m uch more frequent. The introduction of the
long-playing record, coinciding with the Bach bi-centennary commemoration
in 1950, resulted in a num ber of recordings of the keyboard music of Bach,
including the English Suites. These have since become so num erous that a
complete list of them is beyond the scope of the present work. However artists
such as Fernando Valenti, H elm ut W alcha, Isolde A hlgrim m , Ralph
Kirkptrick, Gustav Leonhardt, Christianne Jaccottet, Huguette Dreyfus, Alan
Curtis, and Colin Tilney have all made complete recordings of the English
Suites since the early 1950's. Both Ahlgrimm and Leonhardt have recorded
the com plete cycle twice.
Especially interesting am ong the com plete
recordings are those of Leonhardt and Curtis, since each reflects the changing
approach to the use of historical instruments. Gustav Leonhardt first recorded
the English Suites on a harpsichord built Martin Skowroneck in 1962, based
on an instrum ent m ade by J. D. Dulcken in 174514. W hen Leonhardt re
recorded the works in 1984, an antique two-manual harpsichord by Nicholas
Lefebvre of Rouen, m ade in 1755, was used in order to stress their French
characteristics.15 Alan Curtis was the first harpsichordist to record the works
on an original German harpsichord of Bach's era. In this case the instrum ent
14 Pro-Arte PAL-3004
15 EMI Reflexe EX 27 0243 3
140
featured was the 1728 tw o-m anual instrum ent by the H am burg maker,
Christian Zell16.
As yet, there has been no recording of the English Suites on a Saxon

style harpsichord, either a Mietke or a Harafi. Perhaps such performances and
recordings will represent the next step in the performance history of the
English Suites. In view7of the evidence provided by the manuscript sources, a
composition date for the English Suites of 1710-19 seems m ost likely. The
su rv iv in g
in stru m e n ts
of H arafi, b u ilt
rig h t
in
B ach's
vicin ity
(GroGbreitenbach, Thuringia), have been certainly dated to sometime close to

1714, the year of the m aker's death. This, in addition to their extraordinary
musical qualities, w ould appear to make them excellent candidates for the
performance of wrorks by Thuringia's most famous musician.
16 Teldec 8.35776 242 724-2
141
Chapter 5: The Suites of Bach: A Comparison.
Bach's works in suite form range from early pieces, which date from as
far back as the Miihlhausen years, right through to the im portant late suite
compositions of the Clavieriibung, Parts 1 and 2: the six Partitas (BWV 825-30)
and the Ouverture nach Franzdsischer Art, BWV 831. In addition to suites for
keyboard, Bach produced six works for solo cello, three Partitas for solo violin,
a Partita for solo flute, and four Ouverturen for orchestra, w ritten for
performance by the Leipzig Collegium Musicum w hich Bach directed in the
1730's. Bach's earliest suites date from before the W eimar years, and have
survived mainly through the efforts of indefatigable music collectors like
Bach's student, Johann Peter Kellner1. The terms suite, partita and ouverture
were often used as alternatives to each other, and certain of the suites of Bach
appear in more than one m anuscript under different but equivalent titles. In
the earliest copy, for example, the A major English Suite is called Prelude avec
les suites, whereas the most common title for the English Suites throughout
the surviving manuscripts is Suite avec Prelude.
Of the major collections of suites, the set of six Suites a violoncello senza
basso outwardly resemble the English Suites most closely, containing almost
exactly the same sequence of movements. This fact, and the unvarying order
of movements (only different galanterien occur throughout the set, as also
happens among the English Suites), led the German scholar, Karl Geiringer,
to assume a similar date of composition for the two sets, between 1720 and
1 For a discussion of Bach's early suite com positions, see David Schulenberg, The Ket/board
Music of
/. S. Bach, (N ew York, 1992), pp. 29-42.
142
1724,2 though the more extensive use of Italianate figurations throughout the
suites for cello, specifically in the allemandes, and especially the one in the
sixth suite, perhaps suggests a later date for those works than for the English
Suites, which rem ain predominantly French in their influence.
The three Partitas for solo violin (BWV 1002, 1004, 1006), which
alternate with three sonatas to make up a set of six works, are largely Italian
in style, though French dance types are also represented. The title of the first
Partita may be taken as literally reflective of the original m eaning of the
Italian word partie, which referred to a set of variations. Variants or "doubles"
of each of the Italianate movements, Allemanda, Corrente, Sarabande and Tempo
di Borea are included, a practice which is echoed in certain movements of the
English Suites nos. 1, 2, 3, and 6. The same commixture of French and Italian
concepts as we find in the English Suites is also present in the Partitas for solo
violin where the French term double is used to describe movements which
are essentially elaborations in the Italian style, employing dim inution of the
prevailing note-values, rather than superimosing melodic em bellishm ents,
or re-constituting a melodic line in style brise, as occurs in the double to the
sarabande in BWV 811. Only the third Partita for solo violin in E major
comes under the category of Suites avec Preludes, possessing a lively and
virtuosic concertante-style prelude, which Bach re-used in full orchestral
dress, with obbligato organ, three trum pets and timpani, in the ceremonial
key of D major, as the introductory sinfonia to Cantata 29, Wir danken dir,
Gott, wir danken dir.
2 Karl Geiringer, Johann Sebastian Bach, (Oxford, 1966), p. 304.
143
The six French Suites (BWV 812-17) have enjoyed a parallel existence
to the English Suites, perhaps on account of a mysterious name which has, as
in the case of their larger companions, attached itself to them. Unlike the
English Suites, five of the French Suites survive in autograph, in the
Clavierbuchlein for Anna Magdalena Bach of 1722-25, though the fifth suite was
not copied into the book until around 1724, by which time Bach had m oved
from Cothen to Leipzig. In addition, the French Suites survive in two further
distinct versions, the first basically following the autograph, and written out
by Bach's son-in-law, Altnikol, the variants contained in the later one
perhaps indicative of revisions which Bach m ade to these pieces throughout
his career.3 As has been noted, the English Suites, which, with the exception
of BWV 806, also exist in num erous manuscript copies, show no evidence of
having been revised or re-worked later in Bach's career. Interesting among
the various sources containing the French and English Suites is the grouping,
by Heinrich Nikolaus Gerber, of fifteen of Bach's English and French Suites
into two volumes4, one containing suites with preludes, the other containing
those without. The sixth French Suite is included in the volume of suites
with preludes, with the E major prelude from WTC I added at the
beginning. 5
3 Schulenberg (1992, 256), gives a com plete account of the situation regarding revisions to the
French Suites
4 Alfred Diirr, "Heinrich N ik olau s Gerber als Schuler Bachs", Bach Jahrbuch, 64. Jahrgang
(1978), pp. 7-18.
5 For a fuller discussion of Gerber's numbering of the suites, see Chapter 1: "Manuscript
Sources".
144
The French Suites, in addition to lacking introductory preludes, are

distinguished from the English Suites by the sm aller scope of their
movements, by their more varied format and the simpler, more galant, and
tuneful style of many of the dances. Moreover, the French Suites contain a
greater num ber of movements which are either distinctly French or Italian,
with fewer attempts to combine national styles within a single piece, as occurs
from time to time in the English Suites. In this sense they are perhaps less
experimental and daring: the allem andes lack the sometimes angular and
uncomprom ising contrapuntal im itation found among those in the larger
set, and the courantes are clearly in either the French or Italian style (though
they are all labelled courante, rather than corrente). The sarabandes lack the
agrements or doubles contained in the English Suites. Reflecting their more
diverse and essentially galant nature, the French Suites contain dance (and
occasional non-dance) types which are not encountered in the English Suites,
titles such as loure, anglaise, polonaise and air appearing throughout the set.
The six Partitas, BWV 825-30, were the first works to be published by the
composer, appearing between the years 1726 and 1731, as the first part of the
Clavieriibung. Like the English Suites, the Partitas all contain introductory
preludes, all given different titles in the later set: Praeludium, Sinfonia, Fantasia,
Ouverture, Praeambulum, Toccata. The structure of the preludes makes an
interesting comparison w ith those of the English Suites, which are also
written in a diversity of styles, despite the unvarying nomenclature. Thus,
the Praeludium to BWV 825 is written in three-voice counterpoint, recalling
both the affekt and scope of the corresponding prelude to BWV 806; the
145
Sinfonia to BWV 826 comprises three distinct sections: slow-slow-fast, like
BWV 811; the Fantasia to BWV 827 is, in reality, an extended two-part
invention (Bach's three-part Sinfonias, BWV 787-801, were also originally
called Fantasias in the Clavierbuchlein fu r Wilhelm Friedemann); BWV 828, in the
ceremonial key of D major, opens with an Overture in the French style, and
the sixth Partita, like the corresponding English Suite, the largest and darkest
of the set, is preceded by a movement originally called Prelude, but renamed
Toccata for the publication of 1731. None of the introductory movements
found in the Partitas attem pts to suggest the orchestral concerto, as do a

num ber of the preludes in the English Suites. The nearest thing to an
imitation of orchestral music to be found in the Partitas occurs in the fourth
w ork, w here the opening overture reflects the spirit of w riting also
encountered in Bach's genuinely "orchestral" overtures, specifically those
composed, as is BWV 828, in the key of D major, BWV 1068 and 1069.
As in the first English Suite, the opening work in the set of six Partitas
is generally lighter in style and of smaller dim ensions than the five later
suites. As is the case w ith the last five English Suites, the Partitas are
compiled according to a set key sequence, in this case radiating out in both
directions from the center of Bb:
G, a, Bb, c, d, e.
5, 3,1, 2,4,6
The six Partitas, reflecting their later compositional date, utilize a wider
keyboard range than the English Suites, the standard compass of the later
1720's: GG - d '". The Partitas explore more fully the galant elements which
146
begin to appear in the French Suites, especially the last two works of the set.
In the Partitas, the dance types, which are all closely related to their models in
the English Suites, often become almost unrecognizable: movements such as
the allem andes from BWV 827, 828 and 830 appear to transcend the
boundaries of the form w hich they are supposed to represent. It is also
significant that in Bach's orchestral overtures and in his last published
keyboard suite, the Ouverture nach Franzdsischer Art, BWV 831, the allemande is
finally dispensed with, perhaps indicating its final disappearance from
general practical use. Perhaps the m ost striking parallel betw een the two
major sets of Bach's keyboard suites is the inclusion at the very end of gigues
which, though very different in m eter and style from each other,
nevertheless fulfill much the same function, providing in each case a strange
but compelling conclusion to the set. The use of invertible counterpoint in
the second half is yet another feature shared by these two gigues.
It may be concluded that, of all Bach's collections of suites, it is the

English Suites which represent Bach's most significant attem pt to w ed the
French style of suite com position to distinctly G erm an "learned"
counterpoint. The Partitas, on the other hand, intended from the start for
publication and therefore perhaps more reflective of the "popular" jstyle of
the 1720's and 1730's, are examples of Bach's ability to create works which
synthesise various national styles to such an extent that they no longer
obviously ow e m uch to any one trad itio n . M oreover, th o u g h the
contrapuntal ingenuity of the Partitas is not inferior to that found in the
English Suites, Bach's use of fugal devices throughout the set is less obviously
147
form al and the resu lts are n o t so uncom prom isingly w orked out.
Comparison of the two suite collections provides a clear picture of Bach's
changing priorities over the ten years or so which probably separate their
composition. The P artitas on the w hole contain m ore overtly melodic
writing, less geared to contrapuntal artifice, and with less strict adherence to
the formalities imposed by the dance models. O n occasion, their contrapuntal
complexity is the salient feature, as is certainly the case in BWV 830 (toccata
and gigue). But, even in this highly developed and contrapuntally ingenious
suite, the galant style is also much in evidence, for, alternating with the large
movements are such pieces as the Tempo di Gavotta (which is a transcription
of w hat was originally intended as a m ovem ent for the sixth violin and
harpsichord sonata, BWV 1019)6, and the very slight and non-dance-like Air.
Perhaps in the sheer variety of movements lies the clue to the title of
the Partitas: though not w ritten to dem onstrate the technique of variation,
the movements contained therein are more diverse, both in style and overall
format, than those found in any other of Bach's collections of suites. Bach's
original title page for the 1731 collected printing actually emphasises both the
diversity of movements and the importance of the galanterien. As a whole, the
Partitas are perhaps a less formidable, more popular set of suites than the
English Suites. It is easy to see how, before a relatively reliable m ethod for
dating the English Suites existed, they could have been mistaken for, in the
words of Sir H ubert Parry: "Bach's last word in that form and the essential
demonstration of the Teutonic ideal".7
7 Sir Hubert Parry, Bach, (London, 1909) pp. 463-4.
148
Chapter 6: Conclusion:
The English Suites are remarkable compositional achievements, even

w hen considered among the output of a composer noted for so many works
of genius. We have already devoted several pages to comparing the English
Suites w ith the other compositions by Bach in suite form. Considering that
the English Suites may well be Bach's first im portant set of works cast in that
mould, what is rem arkable about them is that they exhibit many features
which one associates with Bach's later music: the coherence of form, the well
organized contrapuntal textures, and the conciseness and economy w ith
which often very complex ideas are projected, even in a very long m ovement
such as BWV 811/i.
It was this m aturity of conception which caused w riters on Bach's

music of the nineteenth and earlier twentieth centuries to ascribe the English
Suites to the period of Bach's maturity: the later Cothen years. Given that, in
all likelihood, the set w as compiled by around 1717, the English Suites
represent a prime and early example of Bach's ability to take existing forms
and transform them into something of a quite different order, transcending
the prototypes. Certain historical facts point to Bach's use of the six Suites by
Charles Dieupart as the m odels for his English Suites. However, the level of
invention and compositional m aturity of the English Suites takes on a new
perspective when they are viewed in direct comparison with similar works by
Bach's contemporaries: there is nothing among the works of any other French
149
or G erm an com posers of the sam e period w hich display anything

approaching the same level of inspiration.
Moreover, Bach's English Suites represent a remarkable example of

Bach's ability to assimilate the essential features of different national styles,
and, in the process, to create something which is greater than the sum of its
parts. The first English Suite provides us with a clear view of Bach's approach,
before his crucial discovery of Italian music in 1713, to composing in the style
of those French composers whose works he so m uch adm ired - and was so
involved with copying. His ability to write idiomatically for the harpsichord,
adding to a basically French style the logic, contrapuntal complexity, and
extended inventios which he had absorbed through the N orth German school
of B uxtehude, Bohm and Pachelbel, sets him ap art from any of his
contemporaries.
The five rem aining, and presum ably later, English Suites provide
examples of the fusion of various national styles: Italian, French and
indigenous German, which Bach m astered throughout the remaining years
of the 1710's and beyond. Though the preludes are perhaps the most striking
examples of Bach's ability to combine features of different national genres the Italian concerto and da capo aria, for example - the French dance rhythms,
style brise, the German fugue, extended imitation, tw o-part invention, and the
device of invertible counterpoint (BWV 811/gigue) are among the other

elements which pervade the other movements of the English Suites, often in
combination with each other.
150
In view of the many riches contained in the English Suites, it is

difficult to understand why they have been so overlooked by w riters on
Bach's music. It seems certain that, among members of Bach's imm ediate
circle, they were m uch admired and extensively used for teaching purposes.
The most important surviving copies were produced by Bach's pupils during
their periods of study w ith him.1 In the case of the earliest surviving
manuscript copy, most probably by Bach's pupil, Johann Schneider, Bach was
sufficiently interested and involved to oversee some of the work himself, and
to insert a few bars of his own as an example. The m ention of the English
Suites in the Nekrolog of 1754 indicates that the works rem ained im portant to
Bach and his circle throughout his career. The lack of a surviving autograph
(perhaps one still existed in 1754) seems to be the chief factor in the difference
between the amount of space given over by scholars to these works and the
discussion which has been devoted to Bach's remaining collections of dance
music, for which autograph material exists. Johann Nikolaus Forkel's praise
of the English Suites perhaps reflects the reputation which they enjoyed
am ong Bach's im m ediate circle. U nfortunately, we have no definite
documentation regarding the opinion of the English Suites held by Bach's
sons, who provided Forkel with much of his information.
The situation regarding the surviving m anuscripts provides fuel for

speculation about the old legend concerning the title: that they w ere
composed for an English nobleman. Did Bach fill a commission, as Forkel
1 Alfred Mann, "Bach and Handel as Teachers of Thorough Bass", Bach Handel Scarlatti
Tercentenary Essays, ed. Peter W illiam s.Cam bridge University Press (1985), p. 253.
151
claims, with these works, assembleding them from a combination of pre

existing and newly composed material? Many other questions also remain.
Why do five of the six suites form a definite key-sequence (as also occurs in
the two-part Inventions and Sinfonias) and why does the remaining one not
belong to it? Does the survival of the A major suite in an earlier version alone among all the English Suites - point, in addition to its considerably
different style, to a separate and earlier composition date for this work? Does
the hypothesis of a commission being the reason for Bach's compilation of
the English Suites into a set explain the lack of an autograph score among
Bach's own manuscripts (the autograph having presumably served, if there is
any truth to the legend, as a presentation score). Does the same hypothesis
also explain the almost total lack of surviving evidence of revisions made to
the pieces after their initial composition, a situation unique am ong Bach's
three major collections of keyboard suites ? These questions, all of which
have been explored in the course of the present study, rem ain w ithout
definitive answers at its conclusion. However, the English Suites provide a
prime example of a situation where existing circumstantial evidence may
well provide the answers to many of the questions surrounding their origins
and com positional history. In this regard, it is rem arkable how Bach's
connection with Dieupart has gone largely unexplored by authors who have
devoted attention to Bach's keyboard music. Many scholarly works have
failed to tie all of these clues together and none has yet been able to arrive at a
general hypothesis regarding the compositional history of the English Suites.
152
It is to be hoped that the increase in our knowledge of the instruments

w hich were available to Bach will result in the further investigation by
performers of the instruments which Bach m ust have known and perform ed
on, in the belief that these instruments reflect the intentions of the composer.
In p articular, the identification of in stru m en ts by M ietke, the only
harpsichord m aker who can definitely be associated w ith Bach, in Schlofi
Charlottenberg and, more recently, in Sweden, gives us a good idea of a
particular (and peculiar) type of short-scaled, Italianate instrum ent which had
a vogue in Berlin in the early decades of the eighteenth century, with which
Bach was almost certainly familiar. The fall of the Berlin Wall in the late
1980's has completely altered the dynam ics of the research into German
harpsichords of the Saxon school, m any of w hich languished for years
undiscovered in East G erm any. The harpsichord revival, w hich has
increasingly gathered m om entum since 1950, was largely a W estern
phenomenon. Now the instrum ents once merely dismissed by scholars are
belatedly receiving the attention which their intrinsic musical qualities, and
the stature of the composers who wrote for them, demand. One remarkable
outcom e of this developm ent is the rehabilitation of the once-despised
"Bach" harpsichord no. 316 in Berlin, which has rem ained in disgrace since
1924, to a position of importance in our understanding of the diversity of the
instruments produced in the German states in the early 1700's.
W hatever the outcom e of this developm ent, the English Suites of

Johann Sebastian Bach will continue to inspire the adm iration of those
performers and scholars who have the technique and taste to appreciate their
153
intrinsic qualities. They are bold, daring, cosmopolitan, and m ature works
from a relatively early period in the career of one of m usic's outstanding
composers, the study of which continues to yield unexpected treasures.
154
Appendix - The "Bach" Harpsichord.

With the increasing interest in the use of original sonorities for the
performance of Bach's music, which has taken place over the last hundred
years or so, the question of which harpsichords may have been used by the
composer has been examined a num ber of times. The starting point for an
investigation into Bach's own instruments begins with the inventory which
was draw n up upon the composer's death in 1750. Section 6 of the household
inventory contains the list of musical instrum ents1. The following keyboard
instrum ents, and their value in the stan d ard contem porary currency,
Reichsthalers, are listed:
1 veneered Clavecin, which if possible is to remain in the family.
80 th
1 Clavesin
50 th
1 ditto
50 th
1 ditto (smaller)
20 th
1 Lautenwerck
30 th
1 Spinettgen
3 th
Enquiry has usually centered on the first item, the most valuable and
presum ably largest of the instrum ents. If this harpsichord was, in fact,
veneered then it would have been exceptional: m ost Saxon harpsichords
were m ade of plain solid pine, rath er than elaborately veneered, and
instrum ents of the Hamburg school of harpsichord making from this period
were usually painted. The list of instrum ents from Bach's estate does not
1 "Specificatio of the Estate left by the late Mr. Johann Sebastian Bach formerly Cantor at
the Thom as-schule in Leipzig, Departed in God, July 28, 1750", reprinted in The Bach Reader,
(N ew York, 1966), pp. 193-198.
155
inform us about harpsichords that Bach may have used during the various
stages of his career, or of the com poser's changing requirem ents during
different periods. Certain general features of Bach's keyboard requirem ents
are well-known, both from evidence contained in his harpsichord music, and
comments transm itted through his students. Few of Bach's harpsichord
works, for example, actually require a two-manual instrument, and those that
do are contained mainly in the relatively late Clavierubung: the Italian Concerto,
BWV 971, French Overture, BWV 831 and Goldberg Variations, BWV 988, being
the chief examples. A nother factor in establishing Bach's expectations
regarding keyboard instruments is the question of keyboard range: as has been
shown regarding the English Suites, the range required is A A - c'", and the
prelude to the third suite provides clear evidence that this range was
deliberately kept within2. It has also been shown that, in general, German
instrum ents which extended to c'" rather than d '" tend to date from no later
than 1720, while the GG - d '" range becomes common from the mid-1720's3,
which is reflected in Bach's use of this more extended range (the six Partitas,
which Bach began to publish in 1726 require this range, w hereas Das
Wohltemperierte Klavier I, compiled in 1722 rem ains w ithin a m ere four
octaves, C - c"'.4
Of the various instrum ents which have been associated w ith Bach
throughout the twentieth century, none can be proven definitively to have
had any connection w ith him. W hen Frank H ubbard p ro d u ced his
2 See the discussion of BWV 8 0 8 /i in Chapter 3, Performance.

4 For a thorough exam ination of the question of keyboard range as a gu id e to dating Bach's
keyboard works see: Alfred Durr, "Tastenumfang und Chronologie in Bachs Klavierwerken",
lm M ittelpunkt Bach: Ausgewdhlte Aufsiitze und Vortrdge, (Kassel, 1988), pp. 220-231.
156
pioneering work, Three Centuries of Harpsichord Making in the early 1960's, he

was dismissive of German harpsichords:
The com m anding position of Germ an composers in the history of

music forces us to take German harpsichords seriously. If it were not for this
fact we should dismiss them as well made but not well thought out. Those of
the Saxon school seem to be inferior imitations of the Flemish as altered by
the French, and their peculiar characteristics, such as the decor and scaling are
not admirable. The Hass instruments, superb technical achievements, strike
us as the grotesque result of the barbarous imposition of tonal concepts
appropriate to the organ on the unresisting but equally unresponding
harpsichord.5
However, with the increase in interest which instrum ent makers have
begun to express in German harpsichords, a considerable am ount of evidence
has been gathered, attesting to their high quality in general, and specifically
strengthening the claims that a num ber of these instruments may have been
associated with Bach at some time or other. What follows is a summary of the
latest research regarding some of the instrum ents w hich fall into this
category.
5 Frank Hubbard, Three Centuries of Harpsichord Making, (Cambridge, MA, 1965), p. 191.
157
Harpsichord by (?)Tohann Heinrich Harafi (no 316, Staatliche Sammlung fur

Musikforschuns. Berlin)
Throughout the early years of the century, this instrum ent was
definitively put forward as the instrum ent of J. S. Bach. In an article in 1924,
Georg Kinsky repudiated its claim to authenticity, both in term s of its
relationship to Bach, and the originality of its disposition, which was highly
u n u su al6. Kinsky's arguments were later supported by Friedrich Ernst7, and
instrument 316 was stripped of its claim to having been Bach's instrument, it
seemed, for all time. However, recent research has partially restored the
instrum ent's claim to authenticity.8 It has been show n that its unusual
disposition (upper manual 8', 4'; lower manual 8', 16'), if not original, was at
least arrived at some time early in the instrum ent's history, before 1714, in
which year its presum ed maker, Johann Heinrich Harafi, died. Its original
disposition would m ost likely have been lower manual: 16', 8', 4'; upper
manual 8'; m anual coupler. The instrum ent has also been show n to be so
similar to a surviving harpsichord by the Thuringian harpsichord maker,
Johann Heinrich Harafi (1665 - 1714), that it may be also safely ascribed to that
m aker9. It was perhaps at one time the property of W. F. Bach, even (given its
date, around 1704) derived from Johann Sebastian himself. The case of the
instrum ent is not veneered: like Harafi's other surviving instrum ent, the
6 G eorg Kinsky, "Zur Echtsheitsfrage des Berliner Bachfliigels," Bach-Jahrbuch 21 (1924),

pp.128-138.
7 Friedrich Ernst, Der Fliigel Johann Sebastian Bachs, Frankfurt, 1955.
8 Dieter Krickeberg , Horst Rase, "Beitrage zur Kenntnis d es mittel- und norddeutschen
Cembalobaus um 1700", Studia Organologica: Festschrift fu r John Henry van der Meer
(W issenschaftliche Beibande zum A nzeiger des Germanischen N ationalm useum s, Tutzing,
1987)
9 Hubert Henkel, "Der Cem balo der Bach-Zeit im sachsisch-thiiringischen und im Berliner
Raum", Bericht iiber die Wissenschaftliche Konferenz zum III. internationalen Bach-Fest der
DDR, (Leipzig 1975), pp. 361-374.
158
harpsichord is constructed from plain pine, though the nam eboard is

veneered. Therefore, it seems not to accord exactly with the description of the
most expensive "fourniert" harpsichord contained in Bach's inventory. It is
difficult to equate such a large instrum ent w ith any of the three other
instrum ents listed in the inventory, though its association w ith Bach's
collection of instruments may be now considered plausible, rather than out of
the question.
The instrum ent first came to light when Wilhelm Rust, one of the
editors for the Bach-Gesellschaft, described it in I86010, but Rust referred to it
only as being generally representative of a harpsichord, and did not connect
the instrument specifically with J. S. Bach. Rust, however recorded the claim
by its then owner, Graf von Voss of Berlin, that W. F. Bach had visited and
played on it. It was, the claim of a later owner, the Dutch instrument dealer,
Paul de Wit, that the harpsichord was directly connected with Bach, which led
the German musicologist, Philip Spitta, to arrange sale of the instrum ent to
the Berlin Hochschule fu r Musik, for the staggering sum of 10, 000 marks, after
de W it's collection was sold in 189011. During the earlier years of the
twentieth-century harpsichord revival, many German harpsichord makers
copied the unusual disposition of this instrum ent, thereby perpetuating a
peculiar feature of w hat was a unique harpsichord. The instrum ent is
described in detail in the catalogue of the Berlin Museum.12
10 Bach-Gesellsclinft Gesamtausgabe, Vol 9 (1860).

11 Raymond Russell, The Harpsichord and Clavichord, (London, 1972), pp. 107-8.
12 Kielklaviere, Catalogue of Keyboard Instruments of the Staatliches histitut fiir
Musikforschung Preujlischer Kulturbesitz, (Berlin, 1991), pp. 98-103.
159
Harpsichords by Michael Mietke (? -1719) (Schlofi Charlottenberg. Berlin

Michael Mietke was a celebrated harpsichord m aker in Berlin, and was
appointed as harpsichord m aker to the Royal court, probably in 1697. In
March, 1719, Bach travelled to Berlin in order to collect a new harpsichord for
the court at Cothen from Mietke, who is referred to by both J. G. W alther13
and E. L. Gerber.14 That the harpsichord in question was expensive is proven
by the figure of 130 thalers which Bach was paid in order to cover the cost of
collecting the instrum ent and the purchase price (note that the m ost
expensive instrument remaining in Bach's collection at his death was valued
thirty years later at only 80 thalers).15Sheridan Germann, in a brilliant and
thought-provoking article has linked the visit by Bach to Berlin in 1719 with
the two (unsigned, but almost certainly) Mietke harpsichords which survive
in Schlofi Charlottenberg, one a single and one a double-manual instrument,
each with three sets of strings: 8', 8' 4 '16. Germann has also linked these
instruments with Bach's composition of the fifth Brandenberg Concerto. Both
harpsichords contain features which provide a useful guide to Bach's own
preferences regarding harpsichords. One obvious one is the narrow octave
span (6 5/32'') and the short keys, for which Bach is known to have expressed
a preference17. In addition, both instruments, which appear to date from the
early eighteenth century18, though now altered, originally had compasses of
53 or 54 notes: (FF)/GG/AA - c " \ This accords, once again, w ith the known
13 J. G. Walther, Musikalisches Lexicon, (Leipzig, 1732), p. 405
14 E. L. Gerber, Neties historisch-biographisches Lexicon der Tonkunstler..... 2 vols, (1812-14), III,
col. 427.
15 Bach-Dokumente, ed. Schulze, (Kassel), II, pp. 73-74
16 Sheridan Germann, 'T h e M ietkes, the M argrave and Bach", ed. P. W illiams: Bach,
Handel, Scarlatti Tercentenary Essays (Cambridge, 1985), pp. 119-148.
17 J. F. Agricola, Bach Reader, (N ew York, 1966), p. 258.
18 Sheridan Germann, (1985), p. 131, dates one of the tw o instruments before 1705.
160
keyboard ranges of many German harpsichords made up to around 1720. Also

clear from Sheridan G erm ann's research is that Mietke m ade instrum ents
w ith a 16' register, raising the very real possibility that instrum ents of this
type were more common than was once thought, and, indeed, that Bach may
have owned one.19 Both of the harpsichords by Mietke are short-scaled in the
treble, indicating that they were originally m eant to be strung in brass
throughout their compass, rather than in a combination of brass and iron, as
is common in instrum ents of the French, Flemish, and Hamburg schools of
harpsichord making. The tonal characteristics of these instruments, which we
may deduce from the many m odem copies which have been made, include a
rather rapid decay in the sound, especially in the treble and damping which is
less immediate in the bass region than is the case with instrum ents of French
or Flemish builders. The very long bass strings lend a certain nobility and
clarity to the tenor region of the compass, making these instrum ents very
suitable for the clear projection of contrapuntal lines which Bach's music,
above all, dem ands. Both instrum ents are lacquered and decorated in
chinoiserie by the famous
French artist, G erard Dagly. The white, single
manual instrument was specially built for Sophie Charlotte, Queen of Prussia
and m other of Frederick William I. The recent appearance of a harpsichord,
in the collection of the Halsinglands Museum in Hudiksvall, Sweden, signed
by Mietke and dated 1710 has corroborated Sheridan Germ ann's attribution of
the SchloB Charlottenberg harpsichords to Mietke, so similar are all three of
them to each other. The H udiksvall instrum ent, w hich like the single
manual Charlottenberg instrument, also has a keyboard range G G /A A - c'", is
19 Germann 1985, pp. 138-139.
161
so well preserved that traces of original stringing and plectra rem ain.20 The
instrum ent is intended for brass stringing and its scaling suggests a pitch
standard of around A=409 hz. The fact that two of the surviving harpsichords
by Mietke are single-m anual instrum ents, w ith two registers at 8' pitch,
suggests that singles may have been m ore com m on in Germ any than
doubles; certainly, w ith the exception of the gigue to BWV 806 there is
nothing in the English Suites, for example, which cannot be played on them.
Tohann Heinrich Harafi, Grofibreitenbach (Thuringia):
Only one instrum ent definitely by Harafi survives, now located in the
instrum ent collection of Schlofi Sondershausen, Thuringia. This is a twom anual instrum ent with the disposition: 8', 8', 4', coupler, and a five octave
compass, FF - f'". It is of enormous proportions, being 9' 1"(2.5 m) long.21 The
case of this harpsichord is built from plain pine wood and is undecorated,
w ith o ut any so u n d b o ard rose or o th e r em bellishm ent. U nlike the
instrum ents by Mietke, the harpsichord by Harafi is scaled in the treble for
iron rather than brass, the scantlings basically following the practices of the
Hamburg school of harpsichord making, giving the tone greater presence and
a slower rate of decay than the instrum ents of Mietke. This characteristic is
accentuated by the massive bridges and the enormous num ber of soundboard
ribs present (thirteen in all, com pared to six on the stan d ard French
instrum ent of the time). The tone of the instrum ent is trem endously
powerful and sonorous, in contrast to the Mietkes, which tend (judging from
20 A ndreas Kilstrom, 'T he H udiksvall Mietke", Harpsichord and Fortepiano, Vol I (London,
Oct 1994), pp. 15-19
21 M entioned by Kinsky (1924, 136).
162
the copies which have been produced) to be somewhat delicate in sound, due,
in part, to the brass stringing, short treble scale and tall thin bridges. The
Harafi certainly seems to be an ideal instrument for the performance of Bach's
harpsichord concertos, and its brilliant sound is equally well suited to the
grandeur and impressive scale of the English Suites. Its date, between 1710
and 1714 (when the builder died) makes it roughly contemporary with the
English Suites, though its keyboard range is greater than is required for the
performance of many of Bach's works written before the Cothen years.
Internal evidence in the English Suites suggests that at least some of

the movements were composed with a two-manual instrum ent in mind (the
dynamic markings in the Gigue of BWV 806, and the part crossing in the
Allemande of BWV 810 suggest this) with a range of either FF or GG - c'" (the
low est note required is AA, but instrum ents w ider than four octaves
extended rarely to A A, more usually at least, down to GG). Apart from the
instrum ents considered above, it is quite possible that Bach was acquainted
with the harpsichords of other German makers: Gottfried Silbermann (for
whose pianos Bach acted as agent in his later years), Johann Christoph
Fleischer and Christian Zell. Another maker of keyboard instruments with
whom Bach was associated was Zacharias Hildebrandt (1680-1755) 22 who, in
addition to contructing a gut-strung harpsichord, or Lautenwerk, for Bach in
Leipzig, around 1740, also m ade harpsichords with the disposition found on
the Berlin "Bach" harpsichord listed above 23 That the clavichord was widely
22 Johann Friedrich Agricola, quoted in The Bach Reader, (N ew York, 1966), p. 259.
23 John Henry van der Meer, "Die Geschichte der Zupfklaviere bis 1800, ein Oberblick"
Kielklaviere, Berlin 1991, p. 25.
163
played throughout Germany is also well documented, and it is likely that the
English Suites were often practised, if not perform ed, on that instrum ent.24
However, the evidence of both the manuscript sources and the music itself
points to the harpsichord as the ideal performance medium for these works.
24 Schulenberg 1992, p. 250 cites evidence that the English Suites may have been performed
this w ay later in the eighteenth century.
164
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170
Peter Watchorn - Vita
Peter W atchorn is Australian and comes from a family of musicians.

He moved to the United States in 1987, having already won the Erwin Bodky
Memorial Prize for early music performance from the Cambridge Society for
Early Music in 1985. In addition to his work at Boston University, he studied
harpsichord perform ance in Australia w ith Nancy Salas and in Vienna with
Isolde Ahlgrimm, whose biography he has recently completed for DoblingerVerlag. Among his most recent performance projects have been the six sonatas
for violin and harpsichord of J. S. Bach (in Vienna w ith Peter Matzka), the six
English Suites and English Virginal music.
Peter W atchorn is on the tutorial staff of M ather House at Harvard

University and also the faculty of the Baroque Performance Institute at
Oberlin Conservatory. He is also known as a harpsichord builder, and is
currently engaged upon research into the work of the A ntw erp dynasty of
harpsichord builders, Moermans.

A Performer's Guide To The English Suites

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A Bell & Howell Information Company

A PERFORMER'S GUIDE TO THE ENGLISH SUITES

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the

UMI Number: 9533140

UMI Microform 9533140

A PERFORMER'S GUIDE TO THE ENGLISH SUITES OF J. S. BACH

Major Professor: John Daverio, Associate Professor of Music

Chapter 1. The Genesis of the English Suites

b. Establishing the Composition Dates of the English Suites

Chapter 2. The Title and Origins of the English Suites

Chapter 3. The English Suites, BWV 806-11: Performance

Chapter 4. Performance and Reception History

Chapter 5. The Suites of Bach: A Comparison

Appendix: The Bach Harpsichord

A Performer's Guide to the Six English Suites

The great collection of six large harpsichord suites with introductory

The research of many scholars, beginning w ith the w ork of Ludwig

My aim here is threefold. First, I will present w hat is know n

1 See Chapter 1, Manuscript Sources.

Clearly the starting point of such a discussion m ust be an accurate text.

The num erous m anuscript copies, while containing small

differences agree on many details of articulation and phrasing - a fact that

The present study, therefore, is designed not only to present an

works has attempted to do this in any detail.

The am ount of space devoted to the English Suites by w riters about

disappointingly m eager. D avid Schulenberg's

magisterial work The Keyboard Music of J. S. Bach (Schirmer: N. Y, 1992) is the

Schulenberg's view contrasts w ith the opinions of w riters from the

The clavier suite[

] had become broadly stylized even by Bach's time -

Paul Badura-Skoda, in Interpreting Bach at the Keyboard, divides his

10 Herman Keller, Die Klavierwerke Bachs (Leipzig, C. F. Peters, 1950).

Thus, a comprehensive overall survey of the English Suites has still

challenging to perform . Though Bach changed the em phasis in his later

trem endous variety: no tw o preludes, for

The dances, despite their outwardly consistent titles, present, as do the

and unadorned simplicity (presumably the perform er is expected to supply

14 Schulenberg 1992, p. 234.

The English Suites were included among the earliest publications of

1926, for example, while W anda Landowska's harpsichord recording of BWV

While the revival of interest in historically appropriate performance

exceptions of Alfred Diirr and David Schulenberg, have been

reluctant to discuss them, apparently solely because there is no "definitive"

19 Diirr 1985, pp. 53-68.

There is one final point to be m ade in this introduction, regarding a

It is the combination of various known facts which suggests that the

Dannreuther was quick to claim direct links between D ieupart's suites

23 See Chapter 3, Exam ple 3.1.

An autograph copy by J. S. Bach, of the entire Suite No. VI in F minor

The only primary evidence available to Dannreuther that Bach "knew

I have, therefore, formulated a hypothesis that accords with and takes

Chapter 1: Genesis of the English Suites.

Staatsbibliothek Preuftischer Kulturbesitz as mus. ms. P. 1072 (listed by the Neue

autograph. Exhaustive research has been done by the editors of the N B A in

A. Berlin Deutsche Staatsbibliothek mus. ms. P 803.

The third volume of a collection of manuscripts from the Bach circle in

2 N eue Bach-Ausgabe, Kritische Bericht V /7 , (Barenreiter: Kassel, 1981).

B 1. Staatsbibliothek PreuBischer Kulturbesitz mus. ms. P 1072.

6 Hermann Zietz: Quellenkritische Untersuchungen an den Bach-Handschriften P 801, P 802 and

m aterial (suite 3, BWV 808, Prelude, mm 181-7), clearly indicating Bach's

to have been produced by two different writers, whom he described as

B 2. Universitats-und Landesbibliothek Halle 12C 14-17.