Saturday, July 02, 2022

an uneven pair of bourrées

Plague Year(s) Bach Project, 20th month

Time to try a new movement, although I've only managed to memorise half of the Courante from the fourth suite. Staying in the key of Eb (which I am beginning to enjoy now I've grasped the geography of those three flats), I am now tackling the very curious pair of bourrées of the fourth suite. They are both in the same key (while the paired dances in the other suites typically have the second dance departing from the key of the suite). And the second bourrée is dramatically shorter than the first, in a relation of 1:4 (12 bars to 48 bars). In his short book about the suites, Steven Isserlis mused whether Bach was having a bit of fun with the number 4 here - it is the fourth dance movement of the fourth suite after all, if we leave the prelude out of the count.

Anyhow, it looks manageable, doesn't have any chords in the longer bourrée, which is a bonus for me. As always I am starting with Inbal Segev's video (which is quite short this time).

Performance videos: There aren't many to choose from, but this version by Christine J. Lee works for me.

I seem to have run out of random snaps of the cello, so this recent selfie will have to do:

During Covid I discovered that I kind of like having a bicolour fur pattern around my chin. Once it's going all white, I may shave that off again.

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