Bach - BWV 525-530_Organ_Sonatas_MP3_256kbs
BWV 525-530;Johan Sebastian Bach; Organ; Sonatas; Hans Fagius
Music:Classical:MP3:Bach:Organ
Wikipedia:"A trio sonata is written for two solo melodic instruments and basso continuo, making three parts in all, hence the name trio sonata. However, because the basso continuo is usually made up of at least two instruments (typically a cello or bass viol and a keyboard instrument such as the harpsichord), performances of trio sonatas typically involve at least four musicians.Johann Sebastian Bach's trio sonatas for organ (BWV 525–530) combine all three parts on one instrument. Typically the right hand, left hand and pedals will each take a different part thus creating the same texture as in a trio.
Joseph Stevenson: It is generally accepted that Johann Sebastian Bach wrote his six Sonatas for Organ for his eldest son, Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, as the not always reliable W.F. often asserted. There is no strong reason to disbelieve it, for they appeared at about the right time and, moreover, are teaching pieces par excellence. There is a world of difference between the familiar Bach organ works in the mold of the various preludes or toccatas and fugues and the Six Sonatas. Compared to those works, these Sonatas are light, transparent in texture, never concerned with display or Baroque flamboyance. They are Trio-Sonatas, works in three voices, irrespective of how many actual players were needed. The voices in these works are independent: one in either hand, the third on the pedals. Ordinarily, each hand plays on its own manual. Thus, the Sonatas test and cultivate the student's physical and mental ability to coordinate all these separate motions of hands and feet, the interpretive ability to project each voice equally and clearly to the audience, and the musical ability to make them meaningful. All but the sixth sonata are, at least in part, derived from earlier Bach works.
Trio Sonata for organ No. 1 in E flat major, BWV 525
Blair Johnston: "Many of J.S. Bach's most beloved keyboard compositions were intended partly as instructional material. The six Trio Sonatas for Organ, BWV 525-530, may be such pieces; they are thought to have been incorporated into the lessons that Johann Sebastian gave to his son Wilhelm Friedemann. The six sonatas were composed close to the beginning of Bach's life in Leipzig. Unlike some of the others, which make use of genuine trio sonata music earlier composed for three players, the first of them, the Trio Sonata No. 1 in E flat major for organ, BWV 525, is apparently a wholly original work.
The process of condensing the by-then venerable trio sonata medium into music for a single keyboard player -- with the three original voices assigned to two manuals and the pedals -- was not accomplished in a single bold step. Bach's Three-Part Inventions of the early 1720s draw heavily on trio sonata idioms, as do several other keyboard works (the B minor Prelude in the first volume of the Well-Tempered Clavier being a key example). And we must also remember that while living in Cöthen in the early 1720s Bach had condensed the trio sonata texture for two players (e.g. the Six Sonatas for Violin and Harpsichord, BWV 1014-1019). Still, BWV 525 is something striking and new: a full-fledged chamber sonata for a single player, and probably the first of the organ trio sonatas to be composed.
Even so, there is very little else that is truly new about the music of BWV 525 -- the score might easily be played by two instruments and basso continuo, and very few listeners would be aware that it is in fact not an authentic trio sonata. The opening of the first movement is built by way of the normal upper-voices imitation, to which the bass voice adds "walking" eighth notes. The astute listener or player will certainly notice that the manner of the movement's active sixteenth notes owes as much to the Baroque concerto as to the Baroque sonata (as, indeed, does the late Italian Baroque three-movement format of BWV 525), but the fusion of sonata and concerto styles is something that we notice time and again throughout Bach's chamber sonatas.
The C minor Adagio is in a true binary form whose rhythms occasionally make quasi-siciliano shapes. The Allegro finale jumps forth in 3/4 time; the movement again falls into two halves, and at the start of the second half Bach turns the main subject of the movement -- a series of leaping eighth notes and some consequent sixteenth note runs -- upside down.
http://www.allmusic.com/work/trio-sonata-for-organ-no-1-in-e-flat-major-bwv-525-bc-j1-c31099/description
Trio Sonata for organ No. 2 in C minor, BWV 526
James Reel: "One of the two Bach trio sonatas from which Mozart drew movements to arrange for string trio, BWV 526 makes effective use of its C minor key, carrying an aural and emotional richness without suggesting pathos or high drama. The first movement, Vivace, has two upper parts often bubbling along together in thirds, with lively but never frantic support from the pedals. The Largo, with its gently flowing top voice over an accompaniment in a lower register and gentle bass progressions, would seem almost a pastorale if it progressed over a more rocking rhythm. Unexpectedly, the upper and lower parts eventually reverse their roles. The concluding, quietly determined Allegro is something of a study in fourths. The upper subject begins with an interval of a fourth, and this infects the bass line, with its obsessive, descending fourths.
http://www.allmusic.com/work/c31105
Trio Sonata for organ No. 3 in D minor, BWV 527
James Reel: "Portions of this work pop up again in Bach's Triple Concerto (for flute, violin, harpsichord, and strings) as well as in arrangements by Mozart for string trio. The opening Andante begins with a spidery eight-bar theme in the upper register with, by the standards of these trio sonatas, a rather rudimentary pedal accompaniment. Soon a second melodic line arrives in imitation of the first, thereby establishing the work's credentials as a trio sonata (two melody lines plus accompaniment). The central Adagio e dolce shifts to F major for a measured, reserved yet uncloyingly sweet movement that may have influenced Mozart's later music for glass harmonica. The final Vivace, back in D minor, again offers two upper voices in imitation, now with a more elaborate pedal accompaniment in a deft triplet rhythm."
http://www.allmusic.com/work/c31112
Trio Sonata for organ No. 4 in E minor, BWV 528
Joseph Stevenson: "The Fourth Sonata is in the form of a concerto for organ. The first movement is a Vivace preceded by a short slow introduction. It is a transcription of a sinfonia of the cantata Die Himmel erzählen die Ehre Gottes, BWV 76 (1723). This number was already a trio for oboe d'amore, viola, and bass line. It is in a ritornello form, with a lively main episode interspersed with contrasting sections. The slow movement seems to have originated as a separate piece. The concluding poco allegro section is vigorous and tests coordination by throwing in triplets that cross hands. There are various arrangements of this organ sonata as actual trio sonatas, with one or two soloists and keyboard.
http://www.allmusic.com/work/trio-sonata-for-organ-no-4-in-e-minor-bwv-528-bc-j4-c31116/description
Trio Sonata for organ No. 5 in C major, BWV 529
Blair Johnston: "It was once thought that all six of J.S. Bach's trio sonatas for organ (BWV 525-530) were composed in or about 1727; now, however, the period during which he is believed to have worked on these fascinating pieces has been expanded, and a composition date as late as 1731 has been assigned to the Trio Sonata for organ No. 5 in C major, BWV 529. It is, like the others of the set, a work in three movements in which the traditional three voices of the Baroque trio sonata are all assigned to a single keyboard player -- one upper instrument voice for each hand and the basso continuo to the feet (pedals). And so, in typical Johann Sebastian fashion, something very new is created from something very old -- and this process represents an important, if not widely known, step in the evolution of the sonata as it is now generally understood. Freshness of instrumentation and layout aside, the music of BWV 529 is representative of the Baroque chamber sonata tradition. The normal sonata-style imitative gesture is made to open the Allegro first movement; here a bit of invertible counterpoint is used, the second voice entering before it properly "should," to add a little interest to the standard technique. The main subject of the movement has two distinct elements to it: sixteenth notes that oscillate around a fixed internal pedal point and a follow-up idea in bouncy eighth notes. Precious little material is added as the movement moves forward -- what we have is essentially an ingenious 155-bar working-out of just two contrasting thoughts. The following Largo is as florid a movement as is to be found in the organ sonatas; the two highly ornamented upper voices weave in and around one another atop a steady bass line. The Allegro finale is the most typical trio-sonata movement in BWV 529; one can indeed imagine the opening bars having been penned by Arcangelo Corelli, though the following compact and elaborate working-out of this basic contrapuntal cell would have been entirely beyond the scope of the Roman master.
http://www.allmusic.com/work/trio-sonata-for-organ-no-5-in-c-major-bwv-529-bc-j5-c31122/description
Trio Sonata for organ No. 6 in G major, BWV 530
Joseph Stevenson: "It is suspected by musical scholars that some of the movements of some of these six sonatas may have been originated considerably earlier, but there seems to be agreement that the sixth and final sonata was written specifically for this set. The opening movement of the sonata, Vivace, has a rapid unison figure for the melody lines that is quite reminiscent of Vivaldi. Bach leaves his Italian models to use a Germanic binary form for the slow movement, "Lento." The finale is one of Bach's most up-to-date compositions, being composed in the new galant style that would soon supplant the counterpoint-rich Baroque style.
http://www.allmusic.com/work/trio-sonata-for-organ-no-6-in-g-major-bwv-530-bc-j6-c31128/description
