Re: Gigues

[Jim Morrison <jim_morrison@sprynet.com>]

Hi Hans.  Thanks for writing in.
>
> I'm not 100% sure, but I think you're wrong.

Well, now you can be 100 percent sure that I'm wrong and you're right.
I got off my laze but and scanned through the video
and found out that you're correct.  It IS the gigue from the French
Overture.
Sorry to cause any confusion out there in F minor-land.

 >Gould wasn't talking about
> the gigue of Partita 4, (something like 'the gigue that surpasses all
> gigues') but about the gigue of the 'seventh partita' in b minor. That's a
> wonderful gigue indeed, played in a remarkable slow tempo by Gould.

You also got the Gould quote right.  Just before he says the above comment,
he says that the gigue "absolutely surpasses the limits of all known
giguedom."

The only other recording I have of this work is by Piotr Anderszewski
and he too takes it at a slow tempo.

The Oxford Bach says of this gigue that it is different from most of the
others gigues
found in Bach's compositions.  This gigue and the only other five like it
that survive in his work
(from BWV822, BWV823, Fifth Cello Suite, Second French Suite, and the Suite
in G minor
for lute BWV995, based on the Fifth Cello Suite) are all of considered
French Gigues.
It's most distinctive feature "is a graceful lilt produced by almost
constant use of the so-called
sautillant figure, that is to say, the beat is divided into triple groupings
of quavers, and duple
groupings of semiquavers below that."


Once again, lacking musical training, I'm not sure what that means.

Interestingly, the gigues from the other works (English Suites 1 and 2,
Cello Suites 1, 2, 3 and 6, French Suites 1, 3, 4, and 6, to name a few) are
supposed more complex and "exploratory" than the French-style gigues.  the
sautillant figure is rarely heard in these gigues.

I would have suspected one of those to have been Gould's favorite gigue.

My vote for favorite, off the top of my just proven faulty memory, is the
gigue from the Second English Suite.

I'm listening to the Gigue from the First French Suite right now, and boy is
that think awkward.  Sounds like a problem looking for a solution.



Jim