ABSTRACT
In the six Partitas Bach continued in the direction marked by his French Suites, favoring new approaches to traditional keyboard dances, new types of keyboard texture, and further use of galant idioms as opposed to imitative counterpoint. Some movements are close to those of the French Suites, especially no. 6. But in general the Partitas are larger, the style freer and more variegated, and the technical demands on the player greater. Th e keyboard range is wider, extended from four octaves to over four-and-a-half (GG to d´´´ in Partita no. 5). Most of the dances are longer and diverge farther from traditional models; the preludes, each of which in principle represents a diff erent sort of opening movement (overture, toccata, etc.), are original forms, only the overture of Partita no. 4 adhering closely to the genre to which it ostensibly belongs.
