J.S. BACH 1685 - 1750

Orchestral Suite no. 3 in D major BWV 1068

1. Ouverture

2. Air

3. Gavotte

4. Bourree

5. Gigue

The exact date of composition of the four orchestral suites is uncertain, as no original manuscript score survives. Possibly written at Cothen between 1717 and 1723, they were certainly performed by Bach's Leipzig "Collegium Musicum" from 1729 onwards. The composer's own title for the suites was Overture, perhaps in deference to the French "Ouverture" of the time with its fugal allegro flanked by two "grave" episodes and in itself a curtain raiser to a series of dance movements.

The third suite is scored for 3 trumpets, 2 oboes, timpani, strings and continuo, and the particularly exuberant character of the work as a whole suggests that it may have been written for some special festive occasion. The majestic swell of the opening movement calls to mind the world of the great Cantatas, and the fugal middle section exploits the particular character of high pitched trumpets to the full, using them with great originality in those sections where their shimmering pedal points create a backcloth to the "perpetuo mobile" of the strings.

The justly famous "air on the G string", as it has become known, needs little introduction, although few of the popular arrangements ever capture the full harmonic subtlety of the inner parts. The double Gavotte which follows is scored for full orchestra and dominated by the jubilant exclamations of the trumpets.

After the Bourree, the joyful and festive character of the whole work is summed up in the final Gigue where the folktune-like melody of the strings and oboes is doubled by the trumpets in the higher octaves.