Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses Graduate School 1991 J. S. Bach's Chaconne in D Minor: An Examination of Three Arrangements for Piano Solo. Jeffery Mark Pruett Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses Recommended Citation Pruett, Jeffery Mark, "J. S. Bach's Chaconne in D Minor: An Examination of Three Arrangements for Piano Solo." (1991). LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses. 5142. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses/5142 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses by an authorized administrator of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfilm master. 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Photographs included in the original manuscript have been reproduced xerographically in this copy. Higher quality 6" x 9" black and white photographic prints are available for any photographs or illustrations appearing in this copy for an additional charge. Contact UMI directly to order. UMI University Microfilms International A Beil & Howell Information C om pany 300 North Zeeb Road. Ann Arbor. Ml 48106-1346 USA 313/761-4700 800.521-0600 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Order Number 9200085 J. S. Bach’s Chaconne in D Minor: An examination of three arrangements for piano solo Pruett, Jeffery Mark, D.M.A. The Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical CoL, 1991 UMI SOON. Zeeb Rd. Ann Aibor, MI 48106 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. J. s. Bach's Chaconne in D Minor; An Examination of Three Arrangements for Piano Solo A Monograph Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Musical Arts in The School of Music by Jeffery Mark Pruett B.M., North Texas State University, 1982 M.M., North Texas State University, 1984 May 1991 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.................................iii ABSTRACT ........................................ iv Chapter 1. INTRODUCTION ........................... 1 2. J. S. BACH'S CHACONNE IN D MINOR. ARRANGED BY ERNST VON P A U E R .......... 11 3. J. S. BACH'S CHACONNE IN D MINOR— ARRANGEMENTS BY ARTHUR BRISKIER AND KARL HERMANN PILLNEY ................... 34 4. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FURTHER INVESTIGATION ................. 59 BIBLIOGRAPHY .................................. 67 APPENDIX A. PIANO ACCOMPANIMENTS FOR J. S. BACH'S CHACONNE IN D MINOR BY FELIX MENDELSSOHN AND ROBERT SCHUMANN .................... 70 B. A LIST OF ARRANGEMENTS FOR PIANO SOLO OF J. S. BACH'S CHACONNE IN D M I N O R ............................ 81 VITA ..............................................83 11 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish to express my deep gratitude to my major professor and piano teacher. Dr. Jack Guerry, for his generous and insightful direction of this research project. His profound scholarship, keen observations, and terrific wit have been a con­ stant source of support during the preparation of this monograph. I am also very grateful to the other members of my committee. Professors Jan Her- linger, Daniel Sher, Milton Hallman, Griffin Camp­ bell, and Steve Woods for their helpful sugges­ tions. Among my friends in Menomonie, Wisconsin, I must thank the following: my translators, Ingrid Rockwell and Eva Heintz; my tutor in computer lan­ guage, Dr. Ken Heintz; my proofreader. Dr. Thomas Screnock; and my colleagues at UW-Stout for their concern (and use of the word processor). Finally, I would like to thank my dear par­ ents, Kenneth and Becky Pruett, for their stead­ fast, loving support of all my endeavors throughout the years. This monograph is respectfully dedi­ cated to them. Ill Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Abstract The chaconne from the Second Partita for Solo Violin by Johann Sebastian Bach is one of the most often arranged compositions in the history of music. In the century following the first publication in 1802 of Bach^s six sonatas and partitas for solo violin, the chaconne was performed in arrangements and transcriptions almost as diverse as the com­ posers whom it inspired. From the years 1879 and 1893, respectively, came the most famous arrange­ ments— those by Johannes Brahms and Ferruccio Busoni (both for solo piano). Larry Sitsky, writing of works based on the chaconne apart from those for solo instruments, has referred to "countless" arrangements for organ, orchestra, and various instrumental ensembles.1 (Busoni himself has men­ tioned orchestral transcriptions of the chaconne which were performed in America during the early part of the twentieth c e n t u r y .2 ) This monograph consists of an examination of ^Larry Sitsky, Busoni and the Piano; the Works, the Writings, and the Recordings i '-'w York: St. Martin's Press, 1972), 307. ^Ferruccio Busoni, Letters to His Wife, trans. by Rosamond Ley (New York: Da Capo Press, 1975), 251. iv Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. three versions of Bach's Chaconne in D Minor— those by Ernst von Pauer (1867), Arthur Briskier (1954), and Karl Hermann Pillney (1968) • In addition, a brief comparison of piano accompaniments written for the chaconne by Felix Mendelssohn and Robert Schu­ mann (1847 and 1853 respectively) comprises the remainder of the study. While Pauer's arrangement dates from the second half of the nineteenth cen­ tury— the period of the Brahms and Busoni versions— only the latter two have remained in the repertoire for solo piano. I have chosen to examine Pauer's Chaconne because of its display of virtuoso keyboard technique, a quality that removes it dramatically from the original source. Briskier's and Pillney‘s arrangements are examined in light of their similar compositional genesis— both are works dating from the twentieth century and subsequently reflect a more conservative view of the interpretation of Bach's original work. The study of these arrangements reveals diverse attitudes toward the performance of Bach, as well as an insight into the art of piano transcription dur­ ing the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION The six sonatas and partitas for violin solo by J. S. Bach (BWV 1001-06) stand at the apex of the literature for unaccompanied violin. These pieces are quintessential examples of a German tradition of polyphonic works for solo violin that encompass the sonatas of Johann Jakob Walther (1605-1717), Thomas Baltzer (c. 1630-1663), Heinrich Franz Ignaz Biber (1644-1705), and Johann Paul von Westhoff (1656-1705). These works in turn form the genesis of a celebrated line of similar unaccompanied compo­ sitions that culminates with the caprices of Niccolo Paganini (1782-1840). Bach's sonatas and partitas date from his period of service for Prince Leopold at Anhalt-Cothen and are thought to have been com­ posed in 1720.1 Perhaps the most monumental movement contained within the sonatas and partitas is the chaconne that serves as the fifth and final movement of the Second Partita in D Minor (BWV 1004). It is this single movement that has most intrigued scholars, chal- Ijon F. Eiche, "Background," in The Bach Chaconne for Solo Violin; A Collection of Views, ed. Jon F. Eiche (Bloomington, IN: Frangipani Press, 1985), 19. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 lenged performers, and inspired arrangers and transcribers. Philipp Spitta, in his appraisal of Bach's work, described this chaconne as "some phenomenon of the elements, which transports [the listener] with