by Rebecca Cochran
We flutists are fortunate to have the privilege and challenge of studying and performing a solo work by Bach, the Partita in A minor (BWV 1013). Musicologists are not entirely certain as to the date that it was composed, but it is assumed it was sometime after 1723.
Karl Straub discovered the sole surviving manuscript of this work in 1917. An organist and choral conductor, Straub was active in Leipzig in the early 1900’s. He held the post of organist at the Thomaskirche, where Bach reigned a century and a half earlier.
The work’s original title is Solo Pour la Flûte Traversière. Twentieth century editors are probably responsible for renaming it Partita in A minor. One cannot help but think that Bach could have composed this work with a particular French virtuoso flutist in mind.
We flutists are fortunate to have the privilege and challenge of studying and performing a solo work by Bach, the Partita in A minor (BWV 1013). Musicologists are not entirely certain as to the date that it was composed, but it is assumed it was sometime after 1723.
Karl Straub discovered the sole surviving manuscript of this work in 1917. An organist and choral conductor, Straub was active in Leipzig in the early 1900’s. He held the post of organist at the Thomaskirche, where Bach reigned a century and a half earlier.
The work’s original title is Solo Pour la Flûte Traversière. Twentieth century editors are probably responsible for renaming it Partita in A minor. One cannot help but think that Bach could have composed this work with a particular French virtuoso flutist in mind.
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