J.S. Bach~Flute Sonata No 2~Siciliano

Today's Classical Corner... Bach!

No copy of this sonata has survived in Bach's hand, yet that's true of
all but one of Bach's flute sonatas. Some musicologists suggest that
this is the work, at least in part, of C.P.E. Bach or some other
composer, yet the authorship has not been disputed seriously enough for
this light, entertaining piece to be banned from the Bach catalog. Here,
the composer takes note of the emerging galant style of the 1730s, with
light textures, simple harmonies, and highly ornamented melodies. The
sonata falls into three movements, the pattern familiar from Vivaldi
concertos rather than from the more sober, four-movement church and
chamber sonatas of the immediately preceding decades. (Bach continued to
employ this latter style in several of his other sonatas from this same
period.) The first movement, marked Allegro moderato, opens with a
keyboard introduction obsessed with a little rolling, melodic figure.
The keyboard maintains the basic rhythm of this material throughout the
movement (and enjoys further short, solo passages, ritornello style),
but the flute offers more sustained, lyrical material. In the slow
movement, a Siciliano, the harpsichord is now reduced to a more
simplified, tinkling accompaniment role, while the flute plays a
particularly haunting melody making good use of the Siciliano's typical
dotted pattern. The harpsichord becomes a far more equal partner in the
concluding Allegro, an extended movement by the standards of its
predecessors. The mood is cheerful, and the keyboard writing remains
fairly independent of—yet always complementary to—the flute part. The
movement also holds touches of counterpoint that move even the most
doubtful musicologists to concede that this may, after all, be the work
of J.S. Bach.

from "classicalarchives.com"