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 violin 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 Dresden 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 Weimar 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.