The six Sonatas for Violin and Cembalo, BWV 1014-1019, must be dated to the years at Cothen. Bach's second son, Carl Philipp Emanuel, harpsichordist to Frederick the Great at Potsdam, and then Cantor at the Hamburg Johanneum, described them in 1774 as 'among the best compositions of my dear departed father' and went on to say how well they sounded and what pleasure they still gave him, although written some fifty years before. In particular he praised the fine slow movements that could not be written even in his own time in such a singable style. Carl Philipp Emanuel refers to these sonatas as trios, an accurate description of their general three-part contrapuntal texture, with the upper parts given to the violin and the right hand of the keyboard-player, while the left hand takes the bass. The sonatas, which have their counterpart in the organ sonatas, the sonatas for viola da gamba and cembalo and for flute and keyboard, are distinct from those written essentially for solo instrument and continuo, with a melody and bass, the latter with figuring for the addition of the necessary chords. There is occasional figuring in the present works, suggesting a possible elaboration of the right hand part on the keyboard. In the absence of autograph versions, these works rely on a series of manuscript copies by later musicians, including Bach's Leipzig pupil, colleague and later son-in-law, Johann Christoph Altnikol.

The general pattern of the sonatas is that of the sonata da chiesa, the church sonata, an alternation of slow - fast - slow - fast.

There is a fuller keyboard texture in the opening Adagio of the Sonata in E major, BWV 1016, with its fine-spun violin aria. It is the upper register of the harpsichord that introduces the theme of the following Allegro, to be imitated at the dominant by the violin. The C sharp minor Adagio ma non tanto entrusts the violin with triplet figuration in a melody later passed to the harpsichord, accompanied by violin chords, the whole set over a transposing chaconne bass. The violin introduces the theme of the final Allegro, answered by the harpsichord, which has provided spare accompaniment to the opening subject. The rhythm of the movement is varied by the introduction of triplet figuration in the violin part, later taken over by the harpsichord but finally superseded by the original metre.

Writer: Keith Anderson