Bach's Solo Works — the Sonatas and Partitas, the Universe of the Chaconne

Building a Universe with One Violin

If Vivaldi made the violin shine in the concerto (solo + ensemble), J.S. Bach (1685-1750) took the opposite extreme — building counterpoint (music of interweaving voices) with the solo violin alone, all accompaniment stripped away.

The [Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin] (BWV 1001-1006, c.1720) are the answer to the ultimate challenge: “how to sound harmony and multiple voices on a violin that should only produce a single line.”

The Six Works

Fair-copied in 1720, during his time as Kapellmeister at Köthen. Six works, with three sonatas and three partitas alternating:

Number	Type	Key	Especially famous movement
BWV 1001	Sonata No. 1	G minor	Fugue
BWV 1002	Partita No. 1	B minor	a “Double” variation for each dance
BWV 1003	Sonata No. 2	A minor	Andante
BWV 1004	Partita No. 2	D minor	Chaconne
BWV 1005	Sonata No. 3	C major	a huge Fugue
BWV 1006	Partita No. 3	E major	Preludio

• Sonatas — church-sonata form (slow-fast-slow-fast); the second movement is always a fugue
• Partitas — suites of dances (allemande, courante, sarabande, gigue, etc.)

The Technique of Sounding “Many Voices” on a Single-Line Instrument

The violin is fundamentally single-line. Bach creates the illusion of multiple voices with several techniques:

• Double/triple/quadruple stops — playing 2 to 4 strings at once. Sounding chords directly
• Arpeggios — spreading chords rapidly to convey harmony
• Writing out the voices — presenting low, middle, and high melodic lines with time gaps, letting the listener’s brain reconstruct the voices
• Fugue — a subject chased among multiple “voices.” A fugue on a single-line instrument is Bach’s tour de force

He turned the constraint that “the violin is a single-line instrument” on its head and expanded it to the limit. This is the revolutionary nature of the solo works.

[Chaconne] — the Summit of the Whole

The [Chaconne], the finale of Partita No. 2 (BWV 1004), is regarded as one of the summits of violin music — indeed of all Western music:

• About 15 minutes, a huge movement occupying more than half of the whole partita
• 64 variations built on a four-bar bass theme
• A great arch of D minor → D major → D minor
• Rarely has a single instrument reached such spiritual depth and architectural completion

Brahms said, “If I could have written this piece, I would have gone mad,” and arranged it for piano left hand. Mendelssohn and Schumann added piano accompaniments (today the original unaccompanied version prevails). It has overwhelmed many composers.

The Theory of a Connection to His Wife’s Death

In 1720, while traveling, Bach suddenly lost his first wife, Maria Barbara. There is a theory that the Chaconne is a “musical epitaph” for this loss (an analysis claims chorale melodies are hidden within). Unproven, but handed down as a story of the piece’s deep grief and transcendence.

The 100 Years It Went “Unplayed”

Astonishingly, the solo works were hardly performed for about 100 years after they were written:

• After the Baroque ended, they were seen as little more than “technical études”
• In the mid-19th century, Joseph Joachim (the master of a later article) performed them in concert, restoring them as works of art
• Linked to the Bach revival led by Mendelssohn and others

Only after being rediscovered did the “summit” evaluation take hold — a classic case of a masterpiece buried by its time and revived by later generations.

The Touchstone of Every Player Today

The solo works are now a lifelong task for every violinist:

• They probe both technique (double stops, fugue) and musicianship (voicing, construction) to the limit
• Complete recordings by Heifetz, Szeryng, Milstein, Grumiaux, and Hilary Hahn form a lineage of landmark albums
• The period-instrument version (Baroque bow, gut strings) sounds utterly different from the modern-instrument version
• A staple of competitions and recitals; “how one plays the solo works” reveals a player’s rank

The Culmination of the Baroque

Bach’s solo works are the culmination of Baroque violin music:

• Absorbing Corelli’s technical system
• Having studied Vivaldi’s concerto style, then daring the very opposite — the unaccompanied
• A master of counterpoint (Bach) pouring all his knowledge into the violin

And Bach’s death (1750) is taken as the symbol of the end of the Baroque. In the next era — the Classical — basso continuo disappears, and the violin takes on a new role.

From This Article to the Next

We have traced the contrapuntal universe Bach achieved with the solo violin. The next article turns to the Classical era — Giovanni Battista Viotti systematizing performance technique as “the father of modern violin playing,” and the age when Mozart wrote his violin concertos. And the completion of the modern bow by Tourte transforms playing itself.