The Partita No. 3 in E major for solo violin, BWV 1006.1 (formerly 1006), is the last work in Johann Sebastian Bach’s set of Sonatas and Partitas. It takes about 15–18 minutes to perform and consists of the following movements:
- Preludio
- Loure
- Gavotte en Rondeau
- Menuets (I and II)
- Bourrée
- Gigue
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 transcribed the Partita as a suite, catalogued as BWV 1006.2 (formerly 1006a). The music critic Wilhelm Tappert claimed in 1900 that this arrangement was for lute solo, but present research indicates that it was for an unspecified instrument. The Preludio consists almost entirely of semiquavers (i.e. sixteenth noes). The Preludio was also transcribed by Bach for use in two cantatas:
- The sinfonia which opens the second part of the 1729 cantata Herr Gott, Beherrscher aller Dinge, BWV 120a.
- The opening sinfonia, scored for obbligato organ, oboes, trumpets and strings, of the 1731 cantata Wir danken dir, Gott, wir danken dir, BWV 29, in D major.
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.
The “Gavotte en Rondeau” is included on the Voyager Golden Record and often heard in TV or radio programs. In 1933 Sergei Rachmaninoff transcribed for piano (and subsequently recorded) the Preludio, Gavotte, and Giga from this partita (as TN iii/1). An arrangement of the Preludio for jazz trio by Jacques Loussier appeared on his Reflections of Bach album of 1987 and was used as the theme of the BBC Radio 4 music quiz show Counterpoint. Eugéne Ysaÿe’s Violin Sonata No. 2 in A Minor also quotes the Preludio in the first movement.
