Johann Sebastian Bach's Solo pour la Flute Traversiere BWV 1013, commonly known as the Partita in A Minor, stands as one of the most enigmatic and challenging works in the flute repertoire. Whilst its four movements, Allemande, Corrente, Sarabande, and Bourrée Anglaise, have captivated performers and audiences for nearly three centuries, the work continues to raise fundamental questions about its origins, compositional intent, and performance practice.
The surviving manuscript, copied by two scribes (the first now identified as Bernhard Christian Kayser, a pupil of Bach), contains no autograph material and presents several textual problems that have puzzled scholars and performers alike. The work likely dates from Bach's Cöthen period (ca. 1718–1722), making it possibly his first composition for the transverse flute and certainly amongst the earliest significant works for unaccompanied flute in the Baroque repertoire.
This essay synthesises recent scholarship on BWV 1013, examining the work through multiple analytical lenses: its historical context within early eighteenth-century flute writing, the rhetorical structures that inform its composition, and the practical considerations for modern performance. By drawing upon the insights of musicologists, historically informed performers, and period sources, we can illuminate both the challenges and possibilities this remarkable work presents.
Understanding BWV 1013 requires first understanding the instrument for which Bach composed it. The early eighteenth-century transverse flute, typically a three-piece French-style instrument, was still a relatively novel solo instrument in German musical circles when Bach wrote this work. As Mary Oleskiewicz notes, the flute's rise to prominence in Germany followed the appointment of French flutists to the Dresden court, particularly Pierre-Gabriel Buffardin's arrival in 1715.
The instrument's range extended from d¹ to approximately a³, with the highest notes requiring considerable skill to produce cleanly. Contrary to Hans-Peter Schmitz's oft-cited assertion that the work is unsuited to the flute, recent research and performance on historical instruments has demonstrated that Bach's writing is entirely idiomatic. The notorious high a³ at the conclusion of the Allemande, whilst challenging, speaks relatively easily on surviving early three-piece French flutes. Significantly, Bach carefully avoids f³, a note problematic on virtually all early eighteenth-century flutes.
Bach's Partita participates in what has been termed the 'violinisation' of flute writing, a conscious movement amongst early eighteenth-century composers to create a new repertoire that moved beyond the gentle brunettes and lyrical airs characteristic of French flute music from the turn of the century. This new style, influenced by Italian violin music, featured expanded tonal ranges, polyphonically inspired passage work, and exploitation of the instrument's upper registers.
Composers such as Johann Joachim Quantz, Johann Martin Blockwitz, and Jean-Daniel Braun were creating similarly demanding works that required flutists to develop techniques comparable to violinists. Blockwitz's unaccompanied Suite in E Minor and Braun's published collections (1740) demonstrate that Bach's technical demands were not anomalous but rather at the forefront of contemporary practice.
The opening Allemande presents immediate challenges to categorisation. Whilst bearing the title of a dance movement, its continuous stream of 764 sixteenth notes, lack of traditional anacrusis, and improvisatory quality suggest a hybrid between dance and prelude. Johann Gottfried Walther's Musicalisches Lexicon (1732) describes allemandes as featuring an anacrusis of one, two, or three sixteenth notes, a characteristic notably absent from Bach's movement.
The movement bears striking similarities to the Preludio from Bach's Violin Partita No. 3 in E Major BWV 1006, composed around the same time. Both begin with a rest followed by an arpeggiated tonic triad, employ similar chromatic sequences, and feature twice-repeated motivic patterns. This parallel suggests Bach conceived the flute Allemande as a movement that transcended simple dance character to embrace the improvisatory freedom of a prelude.
Betty Bang Mather and Elizabeth Sadilek have proposed that the movement's unusual structure reflects characteristics of psalm recitation, with the continuous sixteenth notes allowing for speech-like enunciation and natural breathing patterns. This interpretation aligns with the broader rhetorical understanding of Baroque music as 'speaking' to listeners.
The Allemande's unrelenting sixteenth-note motion has led to persistent questions about where and how a flutist should breathe. However, this concern reflects modern preconceptions about metre and phrasing rather than Baroque performance practice. As demonstrated by Quantz's pedagogical manuscripts, which excerpt movements by Blockwitz with instructions for applying subtle notes inégales (rhythmic inequality), Baroque flutists employed a 'speaking style' of performance that naturally created space for breath through agogic accents and flexible phrasing.
When viewed through the lens of rhetorical performance, with attention to the dialogue between ascending and descending motivic figures, the movement's breathing points emerge organically. The first measure's apparent three-note anacrusis (after the initial rest) establishes an interpretive ambiguity that performers can exploit through varied articulation and timing.
The most vexing textual issue in the Allemande occurs at measure 20, where a visible correction has created confusion about the proper reading. The second scribe made an error after copying the main motive transposed to E minor, and in attempting to correct it, apparently wrote f♯¹ where e¹ should appear. Winfried Michel convincingly demonstrated in 1992 that what appears to be a sharp sign is merely a 'spot' or mark that resembles nothing else in the manuscript. Moreover, no plausible eighteenth-century harmonic progression supports the f♯.
Yet this erroneous reading has been so widely disseminated that many performers have become attached to it. Jesper Christensen and Michael Schneider's recent affirmation of Michel's argument has met resistance from some quarters, demonstrating how deeply incorrect readings can become entrenched in performance tradition.
The Corrente's designation indicates an Italian rather than French model, a running dance in 3/4 time featuring continuous sixteenth notes and wide intervallic leaps. At 62 measures (excluding repeats), the movement demonstrates Bach's command of implied polyphony through a single melodic line. Leaps of tenths, elevenths, and even a fourteenth (in measure 26) create the illusion of separate melodic and bass voices.
This technique aligns closely with contemporaneous works by Blockwitz and Braun, whose correntes feature similar polyphonic writing and large intervallic leaps. Blockwitz's unaccompanied Suite in E Minor and Braun's Sonata in E Minor (published 1740) both demonstrate that Bach's demands on the flutist were entirely in keeping with emerging technical standards.
An intriguing anonymous 'Courente' in E minor appears in both Quantz's and Braun's pedagogical collections, with related versions surviving in copies by Pisendel (for violin) and as part of a lute sonata by Sylvius Leopold Weiss. At 85 measures, this movement exceeds Bach's Corrente in length and technical difficulty, featuring even more pervasive intervallic leaps. Quantz's arrangement includes slurs, a single strategic rest, and several additional cadential points that would assist a less experienced flutist, modifications that highlight the challenges inherent in such writing.
The existence of these demanding contemporary works refutes the notion that Bach's Corrente represents an arrangement from another instrument. Rather, it demonstrates Bach's participation in a broader movement to expand the flute's technical vocabulary.
The Sarabande, traditionally the slow, expressive heart of a Baroque suite, presents in BWV 1013 with characteristic French elegance. The movement's structure follows sarabande conventions: 3/4 metre, emphasis (often) on the second beat, and binary form. However, Bach's writing is notably unadorned in the manuscript, a feature that invites comparison with his keyboard sarabandes.
In the English Suites, Bach provided separate 'agréments' (ornamental versions) for the sarabandes of Suites Nos. 2 and 3, and composed the sarabandes of Suites Nos. 1 and 6 with built-in embellishments. This practice, following François Couperin's 1713 keyboard publication, suggests that Bach expected performers to add florid ornaments to repeats of slow movements. Yet modern performances of the flute Sarabande typically present the movement plainly or with only minimal added ornaments.
Fortunately, Telemann's Sonate Methodiche (1728, 1732) and Quantz's Versuch (1752) provide contemporaneous models for the art of free embellishment that Bach would have known. These sources offer specific guidance for flutists on adding both single-note ornaments (Manieren) and continuous melodic elaboration. A historically informed performance might well incorporate such embellishments, particularly in the repeats.
A potentially significant textual problem appears at measure 35, where what seems to be a recapitulation begins. Unlike many of Bach's three-part forms (which anticipate early sonata structure), this reprise appears to begin not with the opening material (measures 1–2) but with the consequent phrase (measure 5). After one measure, the music continues with sequential material.
A survey of Bach's chamber music reveals that reprises in three-part designs invariably include, at minimum, the movement's opening measures. The Sarabande's truncated reprise is unique in Bach's output. Moreover, measure 35 falls at the end of a system on the manuscript's last page, precisely the sort of location where copying errors frequently occur. The second scribe, already proven prone to error, may have inadvertently skipped from measure 1 to measure 5 when his eye moved to the next system.
Inserting four editorial measures (repeating measures 1–4) before the existing measure 35 would bring the movement into line with Bach's typical practice in three-part forms. This editorial intervention deserves serious consideration, particularly given the work's substantial length and the scribe's demonstrated unreliability.
An additional error at measure 8, where the ascending scale pauses unnaturally on the third beat, finds correction in the parallel passages at measures 10, 40, and 42. Most performers and modern editions sensibly restore the rhythm to match these parallel passages.
The Partita's final movement represents perhaps its most intriguing stylistic puzzle. The combination of 2/4 metre, eighth-note anacrusis, and pervasive anapestic (short-short-long) rhythmic figures creates a character distinct from typical French bourrées. The adjective 'Anglaise' (English) provides the crucial interpretive key: this is not an English country dance per se, but rather a French contredanse, a fashionable hybrid style that adapted English country dances to French taste.
As Meredith Little documents, English country dances became wildly popular in France from the 1680s onwards. French dancing masters adapted these dances by adding characteristic French steps such as the pas de bourrée, creating what came to be called contredanses (simply the French pronunciation of 'country dance'). These adaptations typically featured duple metre, an anacrusis, syncopation, weighty accents, and often angular melodies. When 'anglaise' appeared as a modifier (as opposed to a standalone title), it indicated precisely this French hybrid style.
Surveys of eighteenth-century contredanse collections published in Paris reveal numerous pieces sharing characteristics with Bach's Bourrée Anglaise: 2/4 metre with anacrusis, syncopation, anapestic figures, and passage work similar to BWV 1013. Collections by Leclerc and others demonstrate that this was an established and popular genre.
Amongst Bach's limited use of the term 'anglaise' or 'angloise', the closest parallel appears in the fourth movement of his Overture Suite in G Minor BWV 822 (composed by 1719). Though untitled in its sole source, this movement shares the 2/4 metre, eighth-note anacrusis, and distinctive anapestic figures of the flute Bourrée Anglaise. The parallel suggests Bach was consciously working within an established genre.
Other composers in Bach's circle created similar movements. The Battinerie from Bach's Orchestral Suite No. 2 in B Minor BWV 1067, whilst different in certain respects, shares the playful character and some rhythmic features. Quantz's early Sonata in C Minor includes an Allegro movement (third movement) that opens remarkably like BWV 822's untitled movement, featuring 2/4 time, eighth-note anacrusis, rustic anapestic figures, and descending chromatic fourths.
Telemann's orchestral suites contain numerous 'gigues angloises' and movements simply titled 'Angloise', demonstrating the widespread cultivation of this style. Even Handel's oboe sonatas include 'Bourrées anglaises' with characteristic features. The evidence overwhelmingly demonstrates that Bach's final movement was not an anomaly but rather a fashionable contribution to a popular genre.
Peter Williams's observation about 2/4 metre is crucial for understanding the Bourrée Anglaise's tempo and character. Rather than simply indicating a tempo slower than 4/8, this relatively new metre signature emphasised two 'powerful beats'. The movement should therefore feature clear accents and not be rushed, a consideration particularly relevant given that the Battinerie from BWV 1067 is typically performed much too quickly for proper 2/4 metre.
The contredanse character suggests a somewhat rustic, vigorous quality with strong downbeats and clear articulation of the anapestic rhythms. The melodic range, which lies primarily in the flute's lowest octave, recalls the French style common in flute music of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, providing an effective contrast to the virtuosic upper-register work of the preceding movements.
The application of rhetorical principles to Baroque music performance has gained considerable traction in recent decades, building upon the work of scholars such as Dietrich Bartel and the performance practice of figures like Nikolaus Harnoncourt. The theoretical foundation for this approach lies in extensive eighteenth-century writings that explicitly drew parallels between musical composition and classical rhetoric.
Johann Mattheson's Der Vollkommene Capellmeister (1739) provides the most comprehensive discussion of musical rhetoric, describing the six parts of dispositio (disposition) as direct musical equivalents to Cicero's model of oration: Exordium (introduction), Narratio (narration), Propositio (proposition), Confirmatio (confirmation), Confutatio (refutation), and Peroratio (conclusion). Although Mattheson's discussions are descriptive rather than prescriptive, they establish a framework for understanding how musical materials develop across a composition.
Bryan Keith Burns's dissertation on BWV 1013 offers valuable insights into applying rhetorical analysis to the Partita, particularly the Allemande. Following Christoph Bernhard's distillation of Cicero's six rhetorical stages into three (Inventio, Elaboratio, Executio), Burns identifies the Allemande's opening gesture as its musical 'invention'—the main idea from which all subsequent material derives.
This invention comprises two contrasting figures: a 'principal voice' featuring a three-note mordent figure (E–D♯–E ascending to A) and a 'secondary voice' with a descending contour completing the A minor triad. The dialogue between these ascending and descending figures generates the movement's dramatic tension and shapes its overall affect. As Burns notes, figura anabasis (ascending figures) traditionally expresses feelings of hope or ascension, whilst figura catabasis (descending figures) conveys the opposite sentiment.
The invention appears six times throughout the movement in various transpositions (A minor, E minor, C major, D minor, A minor, and again A minor), functioning as a ritornello that unifies the discourse. Between these statements, Bach develops the material through sequences, chromatic progressions, and motivic fragmentation, the 'elaboratio' that constitutes the movement's dispositio.
Rhetorical analysis directly informs performance decisions. Understanding the dialogue between principal and secondary voices allows performers to delineate these strands through subtle agogic accents, timbral differentiation, and dynamic shaping. For instance, the elision points where the A on beat two simultaneously concludes the principal voice and initiates the secondary voice require careful attention to maintain both linear momentum and motivic clarity.
Tempo rubato, the expressive liberty with note duration whilst maintaining overall pulse, becomes essential for separating gestures and highlighting rhetorical figures. As Quantz discusses in his Versuch (1752), and as C.P.E. Bach elaborates in his keyboard treatise (1753), tempo rubato must be applied with restraint to avoid disrupting the piece's architectural integrity.
The concept of 'pitch-led dynamics', volume naturally increasing as lines rise and decreasing as they descend, aligns with Quantz's instruction that performers must 'maintain light and shadow' through constant alternation between forte and piano. However, rhetorical interpretation may occasionally require departures from this natural correspondence for dramatic effect.
The most crucial performance consideration emerging from rhetorical analysis is the cultivation of a 'speaking' style, what Johann Joachim Quantz termed the ability to make instruments 'speak'. This involves not merely technical mastery but a gestural approach that conveys narrative and emotional content.
For the Allemande's affect, contemporaneous descriptions of A minor provide guidance. Mattheson characterises it as 'somewhat lamenting, honourable and calm, inviting sleep, but absolutely nothing unpleasant'. Quantz includes it amongst four minor keys that 'express a melancholy affect much better than other minor keys'. This melancholic quality, combined with the movement's improvisatory character and alternation between ascending (hopeful) and descending (resigned) gestures, suggests a complex emotional landscape.
Mario Ancillotti's observation that mechanical homogeneity of sound produces 'boring' performances particularly applies to the Allemande. The movement requires 'continuous changes of sound in the various registers and tonalities that underscore the effects', resulting in 'the surprised and pudic resonance of a profound inner emotion'. This aesthetic stands in stark contrast to the twentieth-century ideal of seamless, perfectly even tone promoted by pedagogues such as Marcel Moyse.
Kees Boeke's analysis reveals that the opening gesture of the Allemande, particularly its three-note mordent figure, appears in varied forms at the beginning of each subsequent movement. This motivic unity, whilst not unique to Bach, demonstrates careful compositional planning that binds the four movements into a cohesive whole.
The Corrente's opening anacrusis and its subsequent melodic contour echo the Allemande's ascending gesture. The Sarabande's ornamented opening similarly references the mordent figure, whilst the Bourrée Anglaise's anapestic rhythms transform the original gesture into dance-like propulsion. These connections suggest Bach conceived the work as an integrated composition rather than a collection of independent movements.
As several scholars have noted, the four movements represent different European national styles: the Allemande (German), Corrente (Italian), Sarabande (French), and Bourrée Anglaise (English via French adaptation). This international character reflects the cosmopolitan nature of early eighteenth-century court music, where German courts actively cultivated French and Italian styles.
The French title, Solo pour la Flute Traversiere, and the French spelling of movement titles further emphasise this orientation. Robert Marshall has speculated that the French title might indicate the work was composed for Pierre-Gabriel Buffardin, though no documentary evidence supports this connection. More likely, Bach simply followed conventions for flute music of the period, which heavily favoured French nomenclature and style.
The Partita's four-movement structure represents a deviation from Bach's typical suite format. The six French Suites and English Suites all contain six or seven movements, invariably concluding with a gigue. The Partita's replacement of the gigue with a Bourrée Anglaise, and its lack of an opening prelude (unless we consider the Allemande as serving this function), suggests either that movements have been lost or that Bach deliberately created a more compact structure.
The latter interpretation seems more probable. The Allemande's prelude-like qualities, combined with the Bourrée Anglaise's satisfying concluding character, create a self-contained work that requires no additional movements. This compactness aligns with the work's apparent function as a virtuosic showpiece rather than a courtly dance suite.
Quantz's pedagogical manuscripts provide crucial evidence for performance practice. His excerpts from Blockwitz's Allemanda in E Minor include instructions for applying varied articulation syllables (ti-ti-ri, di-di-ri) and importantly, directions to apply notes inégales, the subtle lengthening of certain notes and shortening of others within groups of equally notated values.
For movements in moderate tempos with consistent sixteenth-note rhythms, Quantz distinguished between 'principal' notes (first and third of a four-note group) and 'passing' notes (second and fourth), with the former slightly lengthened and emphasised and the latter shortened and unaccented. This practice, described as 'unequal but not as if dotted', facilitates the 'speaking style' of performance whilst maintaining rhythmic flow.
Whether Bach expected such inequality in BWV 1013 cannot be definitively established, but the practice was sufficiently widespread in German courts with French musical orientations that performers should at minimum experiment with it. The technique is particularly applicable to the Allemande and Sarabande.
The relative plainness of the Sarabande's written text strongly suggests Bach expected performers to add embellishments, particularly in repeats. Telemann's Sonate Methodiche (1728, 1732) provides models specifically for flutists, showing both simple graces (Manieren) and elaborate melodic divisions (Willkür). Quantz's Versuch similarly devotes extensive discussion to the art of embellishment, including 19 tables of examples.
The question is not whether to ornament but how extensively. A minimalist approach might add only essential trills, mordents, and appoggiaturas. A more elaborate interpretation could introduce continuous florid embellishment throughout the repeats, following the models in Telemann's and Quantz's treatises. Both approaches have historical validity.
For the faster movements, the Corrente and Bourrée Anglaise, ornamentation would naturally be more restrained, focussing on cadential trills and perhaps occasional passage work variations. The Allemande's complex polyphonic texture similarly limits opportunities for extensive embellishment, though strategic ornaments at phrase conclusions would be appropriate.
Establishing appropriate tempos for the four movements requires balancing multiple considerations: the character of each dance type, the technical demands, and the need for contrast. The Allemande, despite its continuous motion, should convey the 'honourable and calm' affect associated with both the dance type and A minor. A moderate tempo that allows for rhetorical phrasing and breath without rushing is essential.
The Corrente's Italian character suggests a quicker tempo than a French courante would require, but the polyphonic writing and large leaps necessitate clarity. The Sarabande, as a courtly slow dance, benefits from breadth and elegance, though not so slow that phrase momentum dissipates. The Bourrée Anglaise, in its 2/4 metre with two powerful beats, should avoid excessive speed whilst maintaining rustic vigour.
C.P.E. Bach's warning against allowing tempo rubato to 'make the entire tempo drag' applies particularly to the Allemande. Performers must 'keep the tempo at the end of the piece exactly the same as at the beginning', a discipline that ensures expressive freedom serves musical architecture rather than undermining it.
The Solo pour la Flute Traversiere BWV 1013 emerges from this multifaceted examination as a work of remarkable sophistication that repays close study from multiple analytical perspectives. Far from being an anomalous or unidiomatic composition, it represents Bach at his most adventurous, creating a cutting-edge work that pushed the boundaries of solo flute writing whilst drawing upon contemporary French taste and the latest developments in instrumental technique.
The textual problems in the manuscript, whilst vexing, should not obscure the work's essential integrity. The erroneous f♯ in the Allemande's measure 20 can be confidently corrected to e, and strong arguments support restoring the apparently missing measures in the Sarabande's reprise. These editorial decisions, grounded in careful source criticism and comparison with Bach's compositional practice elsewhere, enhance rather than compromise the work's coherence.
Performance of the Partita benefits immensely from understanding its rhetorical structures, its participation in the 'violinisation' of flute music, and its synthesis of international styles. The Allemande's dialogue between ascending and descending gestures, the Corrente's implied polyphony, the Sarabande's French elegance, and the Bourrée Anglaise's fashionable contredanse character all reward interpretive approaches informed by period aesthetics.
Modern performers possess advantages denied to our eighteenth-century predecessors: we can study the treatises of Quantz, Mattheson, and C.P.E. Bach; we can examine surviving instruments and hear recordings on historical copies; and we can access the scholarly research of recent decades. Yet we must be cautious about imposing rigid 'rules' or seeking single 'authentic' interpretations. The rhetorical approach advocated by Burns and others is ultimately a creative and pedagogical extension of historical ideas, not a reconstruction of Bach's specific intentions.
Kees Boeke's observation that Piero della Francesca's works have acquired the epithet 'enigmatic' despite his 'lucid narration' applies equally to BWV 1013. The Partita's apparent mysteries, its technical demands, textual problems, and unusual movement sequence, dissolve when we approach the work with appropriate historical and analytical tools. What emerges is indeed a lucid narration: a virtuosic, fashionable, and deeply expressive composition that demonstrates Bach's mastery of the solo instrumental idiom.
The work's challenges remain formidable, but they are the challenges Bach intended, opportunities for skilled performers to demonstrate technical command, musical intelligence, and rhetorical eloquence. When approached with both scholarly rigour and artistic imagination, the Solo pour la Flute Traversiere reveals itself as one of Bach's most fascinating contributions to the solo repertoire, a work that continues to inspire new discoveries and fresh interpretations nearly three centuries after its creation.
Bartel, Dietrich. Musica Poetica: Musical-Rhetorical Figures in German Baroque Music. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1997.
Burns, Bryan Keith. 'Johann Sebastian Bach's Partita for Solo Flute, BWV 1013 Transcribed and Arranged for Guitar: A Musico-Rhetorical Performance Guide'. DMA dissertation, University of North Texas, 2022.
Cheramy, Michelle. '"Bizarre" and "Unusual": A Search for the Stylistic Sources of J.S. Bach's Bourrée Anglaise'. Flutist Quarterly 44, no. 4 (2019): 20–27.
Haynes, Bruce, and Geoffrey Burgess. The Pathetick Musician: Moving an Audience in the Age of Eloquence. New York: Oxford University Press, 2016.
LaBerge, Nellie J. 'Analysis of Three Works for Solo Flute: Partita in A Minor by J.S. Bach, Fantasie in A Minor by G.P. Telemann, and Sonata in A Minor by C.P.E. Bach'. Master's thesis, Georgia State University, 1995.
Mather, Betty Bang, and Elizabeth A. Sadilek. J.S. Bach Partita in A Minor BWV 1013 with Emphasis on the Allemande: Historical Clues and New Discoveries for Performance. Falls House Press, 2004.
Oleskiewicz, Mary. 'The Partita in A Minor for Unaccompanied Flute BWV 1013: Problems and Possibilities'. BACH: Journal of the Riemenschneider Bach Institute 51, no. 2 (2020): 259–94.
Quantz, Johann Joachim. Versuch einer Anweisung die Flöte traversiere zu spielen (1752). Translated by Edward R. Reilly as On Playing the Flute. 2nd ed. New York: Schirmer Books, 1985.
Worthen, Douglas E. 'A Practical and Historical Guide to Johann Sebastian Bach's Solo in A Minor BWV 1013'. Spring 2017. http://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/music_articles.