Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, vol. 153, part 1, 2020, pp. 24–29. ISSN 0035-9173/20/010024-06

The magic of solo

David Hush Email: [email protected]

Abstract J.S. Bach’s solo violin works are widely regarded as representing one of the most sublime levels of musical thought in the entire Western canon. 2020 marks the 300th anniversary of these influential works. Interspersed with live performances of two complete works for the violin, we outline the his- torical reasons that the unaccompanied violin recital today is more the exception than the rule, and explore ways composers who preceded Bach influenced his music, and how Bach, in turn, influenced later composers.

Introduction1 in the entire Western canon. When a violin- f I were to hazard a guess about how many ist makes a recording of these works, it is Ipeople in this room have ever attended an ordeal by fire, because he or she knows a solo piano recital, I would be reasonably that they will be compared to the greatest confident in saying no fewer than seventy- violinists in the history of recorded sound. five per cent. If asked to make a similar guess It is telling that the three premier violinists about how many of us here tonight have ever of the last century — Heifetz, Arthur Gru- attended a solo violin recital — and by this I miaux and Nathan Milstein — all recorded mean a complete recital of unaccompanied these pieces. violin, without piano — I would say no more The crucial point is that after the time of than ten per cent. Bach, the solo violin genre went out of fash- Why is the solo violin recital today so ion. This continues to be a source of major much more the exception than the rule? The regret among violinists. Imagine how much cornerstone of the solo violin repertory are richer the world would be if there were an the six solo violin sonatas and partitas that entire cycle of solo violin pieces courtesy Bach wrote in 1720 when he was in Köthen. of Mozart. During this time Bach was director of music So when we come to the classical era, to Leopold, Prince of Anhalt-Köthen. In Mozart, Beethoven and Brahms all wrote this period, that begins in 1717 and ends in for the violin, but only with accompaniment, 1723, Bach concentrated primarily on cham- either keyboard in the case of sonatas, or ber music. The Brandenburg Concertos date orchestra in the context of concertos. It is from this time. not until the romantic era that the genre of The six pieces for solo violin represent one unaccompanied violin returns. The major of the most sublime levels of musical thought figure from this period is Paganini. The solo violin caprices of Paganini in many ways constitute the composer violin- 1 This talk and these performances (including the ist’s answer to the Transcendental Études of world premiere of David Hush’s Violin Partita) Franz Liszt. Each collection of pieces was occurred at the Sydney Mechanics’ School of Arts, on 27 February 2020. written by a composer who was an una-

24 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Hush — The magic of solo violin bashed virtuoso of his day, and both collec- While the solo violin partitas are pro- tions are designed to show off the technical foundly different from the sonatas, one vital prowess of their respective instruments. In trait shared by all six pieces is the technique the twentieth century, we see composers of of implied harmony. Regardless of whether major stature writing for unaccompanied Bach asks the violinist to play a four-note violin. Ysaÿe, Bartók and Hindemith are chord or a single melody, he is always using cases in point. the violin to project a multi-voiced texture. I am pleased to report that as I speak, the It is telling that on the cover page of Bach’s solo violin genre is alive and well. Com- original manuscript he appended the words posers all over the globe are writing for it. senza basso accompagnato to the title. This is While the number of solo violin pieces will Italian for “without bass accompaniment.” always be eclipsed by the range of pieces In Bach’s day there was a time-honoured written for the piano, it is heartening to tradition of compositions for a single observe that many composers are writing melodic line and a bass or basso continuo. for this idiom and are showing no signs of The harpsichordist would play the notated slowing down. bass part with his left hand complemented It is somewhat misleading to speak of by chords in the right hand. The figured bass Bach’s six works for solo violin as a single would indicate how the chords in the right collection, for in reality they comprise two hand are voiced. A case in point is Bach’s cycles, namely, three sonatas and three Sonata for Flute and Continuo in E minor, partitas. The three sonatas all adhere to the BWV 1034. same formal design. In the first movement, But with the solo violin works, Bach went while the music is strictly notated, it has out of his way to emphasise a point that the aura of an improvisation. The second was far from merely rhetorical — namely, movement always consists of a fugue. The that his compositions for unaccompanied third movement is slow and more relaxed violin were fully-fledged pieces in their than the formidable fugue that preceded own right requiring no fleshing-out of the it. The final movement always consists of a harmony on a keyboard. In short, his solo fast movement. violin works are self-sufficient: a veritable While the three sonatas all adhere to the law unto themselves. same formal design, I do not for a minute While the Viennese music theorist Hein- wish to suggest they sound alike. On the rich Schenker has offered valuable insights contrary, it is a testament of Bach’s supreme into Bach’s writing for solo violin, it was genius that, similarities in formal design not until 1999 that the first book on the notwithstanding, he contrived to invent subject appeared: Bach’s Works for Solo Violin: quite different works. Style, Structure, Performance, by Joel Lester. The three solo violin partitas consist of a As a respected theorist and accomplished succession of dance movements. The dances violinist, Lester was ideally placed to write on which the partitas are based come from this book. It offers a goldmine of informa- all over Europe. For example, while the tion about Bach’s technique of implied har- sarabande hails from Spain, the gigue is of mony. One thing is certain. In applying this Irish origin. No two partitas offer exactly technique, Bach drew upon the solo violin the same succession of movement types. compositions of his predecessors. In short, he did not invent the technique. Rather, he

25 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Hush — The magic of solo violin absorbed it and applied it with stupendous example of this tonight in the third move- results. In a similar way, he absorbed the ment of Bach’s First Sonata. basic principles underlying the instrumental Music from Bach’s era is renowned for the concertos of the Italian school epitomised use of melodic sequences. To give an exam- by Antonio Vivaldi and drew on these prin- ple: a violinist will play a motive. We then ciples with amazing results. hear the same motive repeated at a higher Johann Paul von Westhoff was a violinist pitch level. After that, the motive may be and composer born in in 1656. He repeated a second time at a higher pitch wrote six partitas for solo violin, published level. The final result is the same motive in 1696. It is possible that von Westhoff met moving up by step. This is known as an Bach in in 1703. Without a doubt, ascending sequence. there is a discernible connection between In Bach’s solo violin works, the com- von Westhoff’s writing for solo violin and poser projects implied harmony by writing Bach’s. The second movement of von West- a single line using a sequence of ascending hoff’s First Partita in A minor almost cer- or descending motives. We will hear a highly tainly influenced Bach in writing the first developed example tonight in the final movement of his Second Partita. movement of the Bach composition. In that The Austrian violinist and composer movement, we shall also hear sequences of Johann Joseph Vilsmayr was born in 1663. arpeggios — a highly effective way of imply- He wrote six partitas for solo violin, pub- ing more than one voice. lished in 1715. The Prelude of his Fifth Par- There is no doubt that the use of chords tita in G minor may well have influenced contributes significantly to implied - har Bach in writing the Chaconne of his Second mony. Partita. While the violin can produce chords of There is an important distinction between up to four notes, it is not possible to attack the solo violin works of Bach’s predecessors the notes in a chord at the same time unless and contemporaries on the one hand and it is a two-note chord comprising notes on those written by Bach himself on the other. adjacent strings. The larger chords can be The works of Bach’s predecessors and con- executed only by moving the bow across temporaries are generally played today only the strings. by specialists on historical instru- I have already mentioned that the second ments, whereas the solo works of Bach have movement of each of Bach’s solo sonatas been championed by the greatest violinists consists of a fugue. How is it remotely pos- of the twentieth century continuing well sible to write a fugue for a single stringed into this century, on modern instruments, instrument? in addition to baroque specialists. Many of us have heard choral fugues Sometimes, Bach may use register to dis- written by Bach comprising free flowing tinguish different voices — for example, a polyphony at a fast tempo. A magnificent melody in the upper register is answered by example from the Mass in B Minor is the a tune in the lower register, thus setting in last chorus of the Gloria, titled: Cum sancto motion a dialogue of voices. We will hear an spiritu in gloria Dei patris (“With the Holy Ghost in the glory of God the father.”) Great

26 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Hush — The magic of solo violin genius though he was, Bach knew that he absorb the lesson of implied harmony from could never write for a single violin like this. the solo violin works of Bach. Earlier on, I To begin with, the fugues of the solo drew a comparison between Paganini and violin sonatas each suggest a medium or Liszt. As it happened, Liszt made arrange- medium/fast tempo, never a very fast one. ments of no fewer than five of Paganini’s Bach uses chords to punctuate, or sound caprices for the piano. against, a single melodic line. If this tech- Henryk Wieniawski was born in Lublin nique sounds simple, each specific applica- in 1835 and died in 1880. Since he was born tion requires a first-rate musical mind to five years before Paganini died, the two bring it off. composers cannot be said to belong to the Bach’s fugues for solo violin are remark- same generation. However, there is no doubt able feats of technique in their own right. that the younger composer followed in They are so startling as to require many Paganini’s wake. His principal contribution hearings in order to absorb the magnitude to the realm of solo violin writing is a work of his accomplishment. The word “star- called L’École Moderne (The Modern School): tling" is apposite since it reflects perhaps Ten Études-Caprices. As is the case with Paga- the most admirable trait of his solo violin nani’s caprices, each individual piece poses a works — namely, that despite being pre- formidable challenge to the violinist’s skill. cisely three hundred years old, they have On listening to the whole collection I do not aged not one iota — on the contrary, in the have a sense of a profound use of implied hands of a skilled player they sound as if harmony. The main exception appears to be they could have been written only yesterday. the sixth caprice, titled “Prelude.” Here one has a definite sense of polyphony in the first Live performance: J.S. Bach Solo Violin section, along with the written-out reprise Sonata No. 1 in G minor BWV 1001 of that section. Henri Vieuxtemps was born in Belgium in 1820. In being only fifteen years older than Wieniawski, he belonged to the same gen- eration. An early work, Six Concert Etudes, Opus 16, written when the composer was twenty-five, follows in the romantic wake https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLYFFw of Paganini. Just another composer writing CGj2FIZzj5vt2VO-rEV_69FGwqJq in the romantic tradition? Well, not quite. A Niccolo Paganini was born in Genoa in 1782. much later work, Six Morceaux or Six Pieces, He was a virtuoso violinist of great renown. Opus 55, was published posthumously. These His 24 Caprices for Solo Violin were written very special pieces are much closer to the between 1802 and 1817. They take the form Bach tradition than to the romantic gen- of etudes, with each individual piece calling eration to which Vieuxtemps belonged. for a specific skill. Without a doubt, a for- The final piece is called Introduction and midable technique is required to play these Fugue, and is arguably the most transpar- pieces convincingly. The general consensus ently Bach-like, as the title may suggest. among musicians is that Paganini did not

27 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Hush — The magic of solo violin

The Belgian violinist and composer three sonatas for solo violin. His first sonata Eugène Ysaÿe was born in Liège in 1858. is in G minor and was completed in 1918. His principal creative legacy is a set of six Six years later, in 1924, he wrote two sona- wonderful sonatas for solo violin, written tas that comprise his Opus 31. A mere glance in 1923. Each sonata is dedicated to a dif- at the score of his Second Sonata tells us that ferent violinist whom the composer knew Hindemith had undergone a big change. To personally. begin with, there is an absence of a key sig- The solo sonatas of Ysaÿe are redolent of nature in each of the five movements. More- the Bach tradition from beginning to end. over, while the first movement starts on the As surely as the solo pieces of Paganini are note A-natural, the final movement ends on primarily monophonic, the sonatas by Ysaÿe the note A-flat. Maybe the composer was are intrinsically polyphonic. His second making a statement here, to the effect of: sonata even goes so far as to open with a “If you are looking for a piece that begins direct quotation from the Prelude of Bach’s and ends in the same key, you won’t find it Third Partita in E Major. However, it should here!.” There is no doubt that Hindemith be stressed that in Ysaÿe's solo works, direct was a learned musician who absorbed Bach’s quotations are the exception rather than the practice of implied harmony into the tem- rule. plate of his considerably modified harmonic If we were to sum up Ysaÿe’s life achieve- idiom. ment in just a few words, it might be that Bartók wrote his Sonata for Solo Violin he succeeded in absorbing Bach into a more in North Carolina in 1944 at the behest of modern sounding harmonic idiom. On the Yehudi Menuhin. It is his only contribution one hand, his sonatas are traditionally tonal to the idiom. The Bartók sonata is steeped since they are written in a specific key. On in the Bach tradition. To begin with, the the other hand, in certain places they reflect four-movement pattern of tempos (slow, the influence of Debussy and the French fast, slow, fast) consciously recalls the same school. For example, the third movement of pattern to be heard in Bach’s solo sonatas. Sonata No. 1 has a delightful passage consist- The first movement of the Bartók is marked ing of perfect 4ths alternating with perfect with the tempo of a chaconne, and opens 5ths. This would have been strictly forbid- with a conscious pastiche of Bach’s harmonic den by Bach. world. The second movement is a fugue When we come to the solo violin pieces bearing some of the characteristics of the of Bartók and Hindemith, it is not surpris- fugues in Bach’s solo sonatas. Strictly speak- ing that their sound is even more modern. ing, the Bartók second movement is more of While both composers are “tonal” in so far a fugal fantasy than a fugue proper. as they employ pitch centres, there is a ten- There is no doubt that the Bartók sonata dency to access more notes of the chromatic is the best known of solo violin works from scale. the last century, in part due to Menuhin’s While Hindemith was younger than tireless championing and recording of the Bartók, his works for solo violin precede piece. Not all musicians, however, seem to Bartók’s own sonata. Paul Hindemith was be in agreement regarding how innate the born in 1895 in Hanau, a small town in Ger- writing is from a violinistic point of view. many. He died in 1963. Hindemith wrote On the one hand, the piece is playable; on the other hand, the conductor Antal Doráti,

28 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Hush — The magic of solo violin who knew both Bartók and Menuhin per- The new piece could be regarded as a sonally, has called it “a fiendishly difficult prism which refracts different aspects work” (Yatsugafu, 2011, p. 19). Menuhin of East European music, with a leaning himself was convinced that the piece was towards the Jewish. It comprises four move- almost unplayable after looking over the ments. Unlike Bach’s solo partitas, the work manuscript for the first time. I have written does not comprise a succes- It is worth recalling that every composer sion of dance-movements. Instead, I have referred to so far except Bartók was a vio- chosen the term Partita as a generic title for linist. While Bach is remembered primarily a multi-movement composition spanning a as an organist, he was also a highly skilled wide spectrum of emotions and moods. practitioner of the viola in addition to the We will now hear Anna Da Silva Chen violin. play my piece. This will be its first perfor- Looking at the solo violin world today, mance. my impression is one of unqualified diver- sity, with each composer doing his or her Live performance: Hush Partita for Solo Violin own thing, which in many respects is refreshing. An example of a very captivat- ing piece written by a living composer is the Cadenza for solo violin by the Polish composer Penderecki.2 It was written in 1984. You will find more than one live performance of the piece on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLYFFw My own Partita for Solo Violin was com- CGj2FIZ6a2tGQzJOorw7mD9JZNv0 missioned especially for this event tonight by the Royal Society of New South Wales. References More by coincidence than by design, the Bach, J.S. (2003) Three Sonatas and three Partitas piece is written in the same key as the Bach for Solo Violin, BWV 1001-1006, Edited by sonata: G minor. This is a wonderful key for Günter Haußwald and Peter Wollny, Kassel: the violin, for it draws on open strings. An Bärenreiter Urtext. Lester, J. (2003) Bach’s Works for Solo Violin: open string is the name of the string which Style, Structure, Performance, NY: Oxford sounds when it is not stopped to produce a University Press. particular note. Schenker, H. (1980) Harmony, Edited and While the attraction of a single-move- annotated by O. Jonas, translated by E.M. ment piece resides in its capacity to say a Borgese, Chicago: Chicago University Press. great deal in a short space of time, what Yatsugafu, O. (2011) Performance-Practice Issues I like about the genre of the Partita is its In Bartók’s Sonata for Solo Violin (1944), Doctor of Musical Arts Dissertation, University of capacity to encompass a wide spectrum of Georgia. emotions and moods.

2 Penderecki died on 29 March 2020. [Ed.]

29