Greetings Dear Curators

Here I bring you my participation in the #openmic week 106, in which I will play for you the fourth movement of the Partita en A menor for solo flute by J. S. Bach. Before I start I would like to thank all the #openmic team that makes this wonderful contest possible, I want to thank especially @luzcypher, @meno, @soundlegion, @kristie, @pfunk, @isaria, @ausbitbank and many others who support the whole community of musicians through this contest.

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Bach, The Baroque and The Partita

To speak of Bach is to speak of the alpha and the omega of music. He is the man who created the foundations on which all current western music is based. He perfected the Renaissance counterpoint, laid the foundations of Western harmony and the methodology of how to teach it, helped in the creation of the pianoforte (now known simply as "piano"), theorist and creator of the tempered system of tuning (the system we use in the Western world today to tune all instruments), virtuous pianist, organ deity, could follow and follow and never stop talking about everything that genius did in his life for the music.

Cover of the "well temperate harpsichord", a masterpiece that initiates tempered tuning and its rapid diffusion throughout the Western world. Source	Fragment from the Manuscript of the Toccata and fugue in D minor. Iconic counterpoint work. Source

It is precisely the variety of things that can be said about it that challenges me to share some facts with all of you. I swear I want to talk about each of the things I mentioned in the previous paragraph! However, I doubt that it would be very practical for you to read a huge text of more than twenty pages. I have the pending task of making some publications dedicated to him and his music, really, for the sake of my mental health and my desire to share knowledge.

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Bach was the pinnacle of the Baroque, the period of music (and other arts) that preceded the Renaissance. The Baroque is one of the most extensive and heterogeneous periods in the history of music; from the early Baroque, to the late Baroque (where Bach belonged), there is an enormous stylistic difference.

Late Baroque was characterized by the majority use of instruments over the human voice. This tendency was completely opposed to the Renaissance and the Middle Ages, periods when choral music was the predominant musical expression. This was thanks to philosophical, political and social changes in Europe at the end of the 17th century that I will not go into detail in this publication. Besides, one of the most powerful reasons that made composers of the time direct their inspiration mainly to instruments was that it was precisely at this moment in the history of universal music that luthiers and instrument technicians achieved important advances in their mechanics and physical characteristics. The new resources available opened a range of sound possibilities to composers who, taking advantage of the opportunity, began to develop their concerts for their favorite instrument and orchestra.

At this time the famous luthier Stradivarious begins to build his instruments. This is the "The Gould" violin . Source	Trumpet of keys. System developed in the Baroque, predecessor of the current system of pistons used. Source

Bach was one of those greats who wrote a lot for instruments. The composer's catalogue consists of between 1200 and 1300 works found so far, and I say for now because it is not unusual to see in the news a finding of a new batch of works by the master hidden under the basement of some ancient building....

The Partita in A minor for solo flute is, like most of Bach's chamber music works, a piece of which almost nothing is known. It was composed approximately between 1720 and 1730 and is listed in the official catalogue under the number BWV 1013. Bach had already composed his famous violin partitas, or even his most famous cello suites. However, I can imagine that it was a great challenge for him to compose an unaccompanied piece for the flute, as it was an instrument he never learned.

The Partita is a musical form, that is to say, a predetermined structure that the composers take to create their works. Also called Suite, the partita consists of a set of 4 movements composed by traditional short dances popular at that time. The movements of the partita for flute are: Allemande, Corrante, Sarabande and the Bourrée Anglaise.

In the video I share with you here, I played the last movement of the work. The Bourrée are a group of autochthonous dances of the central zone of France that reach their maximum frenzy in times of Bach. These could be to 2 or to 3 beats mesure, depending on the region where it was danced, but always always always, it begins with an anacrusic note that anticipates the syncopated rhythm that always characterizes this dance.

As a flutist I can tell you that the partita bourrée is an iconic and obligatory piece of study if you wish to improve in the interpretation of baroque music. It has its technical difficulties, the intervals in the first group of semiquavers are quite open, and added with the articulation to perform, make that small fragment a pleasant headache for any flutist.

Another curious element, characteristic of all Baroque works, is that the indications of articulations are non-existent, or very scarce. This happens because at that time it was the custom that it was the duty of the interpreter to analyze and understand the work, to choose the appropriate articulation for each passage. Today you can get a treatise on baroque articulation on the web that can help you understand the style of the time and make the best decision.

Playing this work was a complete pleasure for me. I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed working on it and then sharing it with all of you, I really invite you not only to listen to this movement, but also the whole piece. I assure you that you will love it.

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_{P. S: All screenshots of the scores were taken from my computer with a public domain score downloaded at https://imslp.org/}