Sonata in E minor
BWV 528 performed by Leo van Doeselaar
Walburgiskerk, Zutphen
Behind the music
Story
Story
Credits
Credits
A race on the organ
Bach pulls out all the stops in this fourth Trio Sonata for organ
Generally speaking, a trio sonata is a sonata for two melody instruments and basso continuo. Countless Baroque composers wrote trio sonatas, including Bach. But Bach the organist often thought in keyboard logic, and so he wrote trio sonatas for just one instrument: the organ. The two solo instruments were played by his hands (on two different manuals), and the bass by his feet. This gave rise to the Trio Sonatas for organ: six pieces composed by Bach around 1730, probably for his son Wilhelm Friedemann.
Like most of the sonatas, this one – the fourth – is a compilation of earlier pieces that did not belong together, but which Bach carefully combined. The first movement comes from Die Himmel erzählen die Ehre Gottes (BWV 76), one of the first cantatas Bach wrote in Leipzig, in 1723. Following a short introduction, the two melody parts – in the original an oboe d'amore and a viola da gamba – engage in a lively duet. They take turns in challenging one another with runs of semiquavers, which are immediately imitated by the other part, in a race to which Bach holds the patent.
The middle movement is probably the oldest, as the original version dates back to around 1708. Everything points to it being written for organ in the first place. Yet in composing this movement Bach has listened carefully to the Italian trio sonata that was becoming fashionable at the time. Corelli would not have been ashamed of its beautiful melodies and rich harmony.
The final movement, too, probably existed at the time the sonata was put together. Some people believe it was written for the organ in Weimar, where Bach worked between 1708 and 1717, although others see no evidence for this. However, the rich and strict counterpoint (the art of combining different melodic lines – ed.) is suddenly made more danceable than ever by the playful triplets.
Six sonatas, BWV 525-530
Around 1727-1730, Bach introduced a new organ genre: the trio sonata. This type of sonata –with two melodic instruments and bass, or a soloist and keyboard – had long been a fixture in Baroque chamber music, but the three parts had never been heard before on one instrument. Through clever registration, it is possible to attain a wealth of sounds on the organ, but this is merely the beginning, as the six sonatas are regarded as extremely difficult. Schweitzer, for instance, says that “those who have practiced these sonatas thoroughly will not actually encounter any more problems in either the old or the modern organ literature. [...] He has achieved absolute precision in his playing – the ultimate condition of the true art of organ-playing. In this complicated trio piece, even the smallest irregularity can be heard with terrifying clarity”.
Biographer Forkel remarked that Bach wrote the collection (or transcribed it from earlier material) for the studies of Wilhelm Friedemann, whom he “thus trained to be the great organist he later became”. Maybe this context is also the reason he adds galant touches to the Italian concerto style here and there, inspired by the operas in Dresden of which Friedemann was apparently a great fan. The sonatas remained influential for a long time, also on the young Mendelssohn, for example. Notwithstanding its chamber music origins, this is out-and-out keyboard music, with a unique interaction between both hands. The almost endless variation of form makes the collection a world of its own.
- BWV
- 528
- Title
- Sonata in E minor
- Instrument
- organ
- Genre
- organ works
- Serie
- Six sonatas (organ)
- Year
- 1727-32
- City
- Leipzig
Extra videos
Vocal texts
Original
Translation
Credits
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- Release date
- 22 May 2025
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- Recording date
- 27 May 2024
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- Location
- Walburgiskerk, Zutphen
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- Organ
- Leo van Doeselaar
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- Instrument
- Henrick Bader, 1639/1643
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- Director and editor
- Gijs Besseling
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- Music recording
- Guido Tichelman, Pim van der Lee
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- Music edit and mix
- Guido Tichelman
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- Camera
- Danny Noordanus, Manon Hoskens, Remco van Leest
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- Grip
- Wouter Visser
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- Assistant music recording
- Marloes Biermans
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- Producer
- Lisanne Marlou de Kok
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