A comparative analysis of J. S. Bach's three partitas for solo violin

Bach's three partitas for solo violin take an important place of the history of the Baroque instrumental music. They exemplify the sonata da camera (chamber sonata) genre, where he inherited the tradition of the Baroque instrumental dance suite. But Bach was seldom content with ultra-simple prototype of the Baroque tradition. All three partitas show that Bach did not overturn the traditions and conventions of his time, but he did modify and fill them with individual ideas. Thus, the essential style of Bach's three partitas can be seen in his combination of the adoption and its modification of the tradition. Bach expanded the overall design and the formal structure of the traditional dance suite. He used both Italian and French styles and forms, transforming them by choosing the style and texture best suited for the dance and infused into fundamental German contrapuntal texture. Bach showed some diversity in the same dance movements by adopting different procedures. He truly displayed his genius variation technique in his partitas. Also his great ability to express harmonic and polyphonic structure through a single line and virtuosic solo writing brought the true development of this genre. Overall, he proved his high technical skill and craftsmanship as composer in his partitas. Bach's three partitas explore the wide possible range of music for violin of the eighteenth century. These pieces demonstrate how Bach accepts, modifies, and subverts the tradition of the seventeenth-century instrumental dance suites in terms of overall forms, dance styles and characters, variation technique, and genre.