| The six English Suites (BWV 806-11) of Johann Sebastian Bach are among his best known pieces for harpsichord, and have been acknowledged as great works since the time of Johann Nikolaus Forkel, Bach's first biographer. However, they have not received the attention by musicologists which their intrinsic quality and great reputation among earlier Bach scholars warrants. The present study attempts to redress this situation by presenting both a summary of what has been already been written about the English Suites and new research into the many questions surrounding their origins and early history. A complicating factor, so far as musicologists are concerned, is the lack of surviving autograph material. Moreover, the questions regarding the title, unlikely to have been used by Bach himself, and a date of composition, are complicated by conflicting and slight surviving evidence.;The present study deals first with the question of the many surviving early manuscript copies of the English Suites. In Chapter 2, the question of the origin of the title is thoroughly investigated, and a case is made for linking the composition of the English Suites with Bach's interest in the music of French and Italian composers in the 1710's. Chapter 3 presents a complete descriptive analysis of the English Suites, with special emphasis given to their performance on the harpsichord. In subsequent chapters, the history of publication and performance of the English Suites is traced, and a comparison of the English Suites with Bach's remaining suite collections is presented. Finally, a discussion of the latest research into surviving German harpsichords, especially those in which a link with Bach can be established, is included as an Appendix. |
