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ISBN 978-963-12-8865-0
5
The Third Part of the Overall Form ����������������������������� 46
Praeambulum ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 46
Variations 53–54 ����������������������������������������������������������������������������� 46
Variation 55 �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 47
Variations 56–57 ����������������������������������������������������������������������������� 48
Variations 58–59–60 ����������������������������������������������������������������������� 48
Variations 61–62 ������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 49
Variations 63–64 ����������������������������������������������������������������������������� 49
Consummatio – Variations 53–64 ����������������������������������������������� 51
Death and Time ��������������������������������������������������������������������� 53
III. More Detailed Analyses �������������������������������� 63
Separate Analysis of the 33 Formal Units ������������������� 63
Epilogue �������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 143
List of Examples ����������������������������������������������������������������� 144
List of Illustrations ��������������������������������������������������������� 148
6
FOREWORD
In the course of its close to 300-year-long ‘career’, the Ciaccona has inspired many individual approaches by performers and a number of
transcriptions hallmarked by composers of stature. Several analyses have also been dedicated to the work. Most of these by and large follow
the same path: they reflect the Romantic, neo-Romantic and historical viewpoint of the 19th and 20th centuries. The majority of the published
scores and sound recordings available today also point in this direction. Seeking and offering something to get hold of that is theatrical and
dramatic, these diverse media are as a whole more interested in aesthetics than in the structure of the work and its true inner relationships.
Nevertheless, there are a few writings and studies in which certain observations and discoveries – in our opinion – precisely point to some of
the characteristics of the work. These have provided useful help and confirmation in the course of our work.1
While our contribution at points approaches its subject in a scholarly way, it is not a musicological treatise. It is primarily an artwork resulting
from the joint theoretical and practical investigations of a composer and a violinist.
We have done our best to discover the work’s inner relationships and the foundations that support it. On the basis of the order revealed we can
draw the most important conclusion that is true for all creations of genius: The true secret of the Ciaccona cannot be told, cannot be described,
cannot be conveyed and grasped – thus, it is unknowable. Were this not so, it would not be worthwhile studying it.
In other words, as formulated by Sándor Weöres in his book entitled A teljesség felé [Towards completeness] (Part Three: A remekmű)
[The masterpiece]:
‘In the masterpiece, through the mediation of the creative imagination that forms a work, the timeless glimmers through into the world of
time.’
1
Helga Thoene: Johann Sebastian Bach: Ciaccona – Tanz oder Tombeau? Analytische Studie. Oschersleben: dr.ziethen verlag 2001.
Sister Felicitas Curti: J. S. Bach’s Chaconne in D minor: a study in coherence and contrast. Bloomington, Indiana: Frangipani Press 1985.
Judith Bernhart: Analyse der Chaconne aus der Partita Nr. 2 für Violine solo (BWV 1004) von Johann Sebastian Bach
Günther Haußwald, Rudolf Gerber: Johann Sebastian Bach Neue Ausgabe sämtlicher Werke VI/1, Notenband und Kritischer Bericht.
7
INTRODUCTION
The aim of the following sketchy overview is to brush up the reader’s basic knowledge necessary for an examination of the Ciaccona.
The tone systems, the proportions, the performance practice as well as the compositional procedures applied by Bach and the meanings lurking
behind these all provide a basis for approaching the piece as comprehensively as possible.
‘Funeral music’
In her book entitled Ciaccona – Tanz oder Tombeau? Helga Thoene writes that the Ciaccona is a sounding mausoleum – a monument built of
tones – which Bach composed in memory of his wife who passed away unexpectedly. The partial knowledge suggested by the biographical data
and personal story of Bach and his wife render Thoene’s approach plausible. We agree with her viewpoint, and in essence accept the evidence
she provides. At the same time we would like to add that our work relies primarily on a musical and structural analysis of the work; it is on
this basis that we develop our ideas and observations which are similar in weight but refer to time and form.
In July 1720 Maria Barbara Bach unexpectedly died while his husband was away for several months. The composer learned about the tragic
event only on his return, at the door of his apartment. Johann Sebastian Bach’s ardent temperament and the virtually endless depth of his
emotional world makes the composition of the Ciaccona unavoidable, and justifies its vast dimensions.
The parallel may seem remote, but with an eye to ecstatic love the intentions of the Mughal emperor Jahan, builder of the Taj Mahal in India,
and those of Bach, are almost identical. The former erected a miraculous building, the latter an equally miraculous musical edifice in memory
of the person whose aura and vitality continuously invigorated him in life. The structure of the Ciaccona, which is based on the golden ratio,
amply ensures – if we understand the symbols referring to everyday life – that we go through the earthly and unearthly regions of the bodily–
spiritual–intellectual experiences of the man who created the work.
The everyday symbols, for instance the third–sixth relationship – which refers to earthly life and partnership – , or the pairs of variations
– the complementary motions of which outline shapes approaching and moving away from each other – clearly illustrate with the simplest
means the existence of a love relationship and its loss.
In this book we use the term ‘funeral music’ several times. Viewed closely it is grief and mourning, viewed more broadly it is the ‘musical
monument’ character of the piece that determines our approach to the Ciaccona. The use of the term ‘funeral music’ in quotation marks is
meant to express this.