Some Performance Problems of Bach’s Unaccompanied Violin and Cello Works

Bach's "Sei Solo [sic] à Violino senza Basso accompagnato," consisting of three Sonatas and three Partitas, occupy a unique place in the very center of the repertory, as do the six Suites for cello solo. Both sets owe their eminent station to the unflaggingly exalted quality of their music. At the same time they present the performers with problems that are unique in character and complexity. They are unique owing to the fact that Bach wrote contrapuntal music for two purely melodic instruments that can form pitches on only four strings with only four fingers (the thumb was not yet in use for cello fingerings). As a consequence the demands of these works by far exceed the inherent potential of the instruments and indeed do violence to their nature. That is true of the cello which is more mercifully treated, but more so of the violin which Bach charges with stupendous polyphonic feats in three fugues and several other movements of similar textural complexity. To force works that would have been appropriate for an organ or an orchestra into the narrow confines of an unaccompanied string instrument was indeed an unheard-of tour de force. That Bach succeeded in extracting such 530glorious music from such self-imposed adverse circumstances is one of the greatest miracles of Bach's miraculous oeuvre. ¹