http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cello_Suites_(Bach)#Suite_No._3_in_C_major.2C_BWV_1009
Suite No. 3 in C major, BWV 1009
The Prelude of this suite consists of an A-B-A-C form, with A being a scale-based movement that eventually dissolves into an energetic arpeggio part; and B, where the cellist is introduced to thumb position, which is needed to reach the demanding chords. It then returns to the scale theme, and ends with a powerful and surprising chord movement.
The Allemande is the only movement in the suites that has an up-beat consisting of three sixteenth-notes instead of just one, which is the standard form.
The second Bourrée, though in C minor, has a 2-flat (or G minor) key-signature. This notation, common in pre-Classical music, is sometimes known as a partial key-signature.
http://www.laphil.com/music/piece_detail.cfm?id=1627
The Third Cello Suite, in C major, is probably the most sonically sensuous of the set. The standard cello tuning - C, G, D, A - makes drones and double stops (playing on two strings simultaneously) relatively easy in the key of C, and allows extra resonance from open strings.
Bach responded to this acoustic opportunity with warm, spacious, extroverted music. His tunes are based on scales and broken chords, clearly indicating the harmony an accompaniment would have supplied in other media. The grand prelude begins with a scale and broken chord, running down two octaves, then back up the scale. Bach plays with the shifting patterns that emerge from his steady stream of 16th notes, arriving at an extended passage of harmonies gliding over a repeated open G. It closes with a rich cadenza full of four-note chords, combining maximum reverberation and rhetorical impact.
The sound of open strings and double stops, and the rhythmic play of cross-accented patterns continue in the ensuing dances. The allemande is stately and wide-ranging, and the courante is an exercise in athletic elegance. As with all of the Cello Suites, the sarabande is the heart of the matter, here a luxurious palace of sound, the second half expressively expanded to twice the length of the first half of the dance. The rustic bourrées stamp heartily, and the leaping gigue ends the suite with comic acrobatics.
http://www.krannertcenter.com/shared/uploads/20807_maprog.pdf
All six of the Cello Suites share supreme beauty of melody
and counterpoint. The suites demonstrate Bach’s superb
command of contemporary performing techniques as well
as his ability to create compact counterpoint and harmony
with distinct and clear rhythmic designs in dance music.
The dance suite was already an established form in Bach’s
time. Originating as folk and court dances, its parts had
become highly stylized and had moved from the ballroom
to the concert room in the 17th century. Their forms and
order had become codified. Each of Bach’s six cello suites
has six movements. Each consists of a formal opening
movement, the Prélude, and then five dances. The Prélude
is derived from the kind of improvisation that was once
expected of instrumentalists when they first sat down to
play and was sometimes called “preluding.” In Bach’s six
cello suites, the Préludes vary considerably in character, but
they are all designed to fix the home key firmly in mind.
With few exceptions, all the movements of each suite are in
the same key, and Bach uses the same sequence of dances in
all the suites, except for the next-to-last movements.
After the introductory, improvistory Prélude, replete with
scales, chords, and runs, the suite proceeds with a slow,
stately, and often highly ornamented Allemande. The first
of the dance movements, the contemplative Allemande is a
Renaissance and Baroque dance that originated in Germany
and was still danced throughout the 17th and 18th centuries.
Its mood was usually serious and its tempo was slow. It
also flourished as an independent instrumental piece from
around 1580 to 1750, and became the first of the four core
movements of the solo suite. In its mature Baroque form,
characteristically it was more aligned with idiomatic instrumental
writing than with dance rhythm
Following the Allemande comes the Courante, or corrente,
an Italian dance movement in triple meter that originated in
the 16th century and became a regular part of the solo suite.
The Courante was a courtly running or jumping dance.
After this lively, light dance comes the Sarabande, a slow,
majestic movement characterized by beginning without an
upbeat, with an accented dotted-note on the second beat of
its three beat measure. Sarabandes from the elegant courts
of Spain were normally in binary form with simple melodies
that invited profuse ornamentation. The dance was first
known as a zarabanda in Spain in the 16th century, accompanied
by castanets and guitar, and it survived as a dance
until the end of the Baroque era. In France, it was transformed
into a slow, refined, introspective, and stately dance, and
German composers generally followed the French models.
Last comes a vivacious Gigue, or jig, from England. The
Gigue, like the Allemande, Courante, and Sarabande, was a
core of the dance suite. This fast movement in binary form
was the traditional closing movement of the suite. Bach
often favored the Italian, flowing, triple motion common in
this dance form.
Between the Sarabande and the Gigue there was leeway for
the composer to insert a light-hearted dance. These inserted
forms were called galanterie and included the graceful minuet,
the bright gavotte, and the bourrée, all originally French.
The Third Cello Suite is one of the longer works in the set of
six, but it has a very defined structure. The music is taut
and trim; it is written with economy and clarity. Its mood is
complex and confident.
There are few ways to establish the home key more firmly
than Bach does in just the first two measures of the Prélude.
He starts with a descending C major scale, adds a broken
chord of C major and a held low C, and then goes on with a
rising scale. The ear will never wonder where “home” is
during this extended movement or during the rest of the
work. Although suite movements are basically entirely
independent of one another, the Allemande and Courante
of this suite seem to resemble the Prélude because they,
too, are based on scales and triads. Next comes a stately
Sarabande with a long, complex theme. The Bourrées are
in C major and minor, the second played as a contrasting
centerpiece between two performances of the first. The suite
closes with an animated Gigue.
In the Fifth Cello Suite, Bach specifies a variant of the usual
tuning of the instrument’s highest string in order to make a
different harmonic vocabulary available. The Prélude of this
suite is in two parts, in the manner of a French opera overture,
the first grave, the second a fugue. The most elaborate
Prélude in the series, it contains the only fugue in the suites.
Next comes a meditative German Allemande; a quick
Courante, a complex running (or jumping) dance; a slow
and stately Spanish Sarabande; a pair of French Gavottes;
and a closing Gigue derived from an Anglo-Irish jig.
In the Sixth Suite, the cello spends much time at the top of
its range. The work seems to have been intended for a
variant of our modern cello, with one more string than the
standard four and possibly even reduced enough in size to
be held horizontally rather than vertically. The demanding,
high-position figuration makes this an uncommonly difficult
work to play. Forkel credits Bach with having invented the
viola pomposa, an instrument tuned like a cello but with
one more string at the top, somewhat larger than a viola,
and attached with a ribbon so that it could be held on the
arm in front of the chest. Presumably because of his keen
interest in exploring unconventional sonorities, Bach specifically
designed this suite for that instrument, or at least for
five strings: “á cinq cordes.”
The Prélude of this suite sits firmly in D major, and the
rapid alternation between loud and soft suggests the
manner of a solo concerto with accompaniment. The dances
are a highly ornamented Allemande, a rhythmic Courante,
a particularly rich-toned Sarabande, a pair of Gavottes, and
a Gigue.
—Notes ©2006, Susan Halpern Program Notes
http://web.mit.edu/ckcheung/www/MusicalWritings_files/CharmViola_Notes_20060421.pdf
Suite No. 3 in C major (BWV 1009) is
probably the most brilliant sounding suite in the
set. Here, and especially in the Prélude, Bach
demonstrates how harmonic progressions can be
articulated even by a single line of spinning notes.
For instance, in the following passage, a
modulation from C major to E minor is so clear
and unambiguous that one can even hear the voice
leadings of the chord progression:
A single voice can not only show harmonic
progressions, but also imply contrapuntal
textures. A simple and obvious example occurs
in the Bourée. The following phrase,
is suggestive of a 2-voice melody:
Through his imagination and compositional
virtuosity, Bach transcends the limit of the solo
cello (or viola) by inviting the performer to hear
interacting voices beyond those defined by the
actual written notes. These dances are more than
just monophonic movements; to fully appreciate
them, the audience has to be as imaginative as the
performer.
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