Although J.S. Bach described his six sonatas and partitas for solo violin as Libro primo (Book 1), he never followed them up with a second volume; so the Partita for solo violin No. 3 in E major, BWV 1006 (Cöthen, 1720), stands as the composer's last utterance in the unlikely medium of the unaccompanied violin. There were some solo violin works that predate Bach's efforts—Biber's Passacaglia, Westhoff's Six Partitas—but they cannot compare.

This Partita is perhaps the most exuberant and cheery of the three in the book; while it is no picnic in the park for the violinist, it offers easier going than the chaconne in the second partita with its strings of double and triple stops. The work consists of dance movements that are mostly French in origin and that diverge from those in the other two : Preludio, Loure, Gavotte en Rondeau, Menuet I and II, Bourrée, and Gigue. The Preludio, which was adapted by Bach for use in two of his cantatas, proceeds almost entirely in brilliant sixteenth notes. A Loure is a slow subspecies of French jig, usually (as is the case here) in 6/4 time; Bach's is perhaps a less heavy dance than the average loure. The Gavotte is, as the name suggests, set up as a kind of rondo, with restatements of the opening material surrounding contrasting episodes; the happy gavotte tune is played five times in all (six if one counts the repeat of the opening eight bars). The two Menuets are traditionally played da capo with the end result: Menuet I—Menuet II—Menuet I. The Bourrée is short and rapid. A gigue can be either French in style or Italian; Bach selects the quicker, snappier Italian variety to close the E major Partita.

Bach at some point transcribed the entirety of this Partita for solo lute; that version is known as BWV 1006a.

© All Music Guide

Partita No.3 for Solo Violin in E, BWV1006 (arr. guitar)

This is a straightforward transcription, with filled-in harmonies, of Bach's third partita for solo violin, BWV 1006, the most "modern" of the three partitas in Bach's choice of dance movements—the galant forms of Loure, Gavotte en Rondeaux, and Menuet. It's the lightest and most upbeat of Bach's often meditative lute suites, and includes two of his most familiar pieces: the Prelude and the Gavotte. The Prelude, which Bach also incorporated into his BWV 29 cantata, bursts in with a little fanfare motif that punctuates a long, unbroken run of sixteenth notes. It's in 3/4 time, but Bach provides such a sense of forward motion that one never feels the bar lines. Next comes a Loure, a slow offshoot of the Gigue in 6/4; this dance can often seem heavy, even mournful, but Bach produces a particularly graceful example of the form. The Gavotte en Rondeau, as the title indicates, brings back its main theme several times in rondo form. A sprightly tune in duple meter with straightforward phrasing, this is one of the most danceable of Bach's dance movements, which otherwise tend to veer into rhythmic abstraction. The brief main melody appears five times (not counting its initial repeat), separated by equally brief, thematically related episodes. Next comes a pair of Menuets in 3/4 time, the second sandwiched between two statements of the first. Bach closes this partita with two old-fashioned, or at least more traditional, dances. The Bourée, short and quick in duple meter, gives way to the concluding Gigue in 6/8; to provide maximum contrast with the earlier Loure, Bach here offers the Italian version of the gigue, full of fast, flowing triplets.

© James Reel, Rovi