4. A Prelude in C (printed among the organ works, series v. 8. 3), and two sets of twelve and six little preludes for beginners (200, pp. 3, 14).
5. Five Fugues, in C minor, two in C, and two in D minor (200, pp. 20, 22, 24; 212, pp. 3, 5).
6. Four Preludes and Fugues in D minor, E minor, and two in A minor (200, pp. 26, 28, 33; 207, p. 36).
C. Leipzig Period.
Two Fantasias and Fugues in A minor and C minor (208, p. 22; 207, p. 32 and 212, p. 22, the two parts are separated in the edition).
To this list must be added the two sets of inventions (201) written at Coethen; and the four great Duets (208 p. 36) in which the idea of the invention (or sinfonia) is treated on a much larger scale.[27] The duets were written at Leipzig, and it has always been claimed that no skill could possibly add a third real part to them.
In a similar intermediate position stand the two sets of Variations, one in A minor, a Weimar composition, headed alla maniera Italiana (215, p. 10), the other a great series of thirty variations in G, of which notice will be taken in connexion with Bach’s life at Leipzig (209).
The Suites begin at Coethen with the six so-called French Suites (202) and three single sets which probably belong together (214, pp. 18, 26, 32). A solitary suite, in F, bears traces of having been written at Weimar (215, p. 25). At Leipzig Bach produced six Great Suites, known as the English (203, 204), and an equal number of sets of Partitas (205, 206). Another partita of the same period, in B minor, is known from its opening as the French Overture (208, p. 4).[28]
At Coethen Bach also wrote three sonatas, in A minor, C, and D minor (213, pp. 2, 16, 24), with a fourth which remains only a fragment (212, p. 18).[29] These sonatas, the title being to some extent interchangeable with suite, have little in common with the form to which Bach’s son Philipp Emanuel, Haydn, and Mozart (Beethoven can of course not come into the comparison) developed it. The parent of this exists also among Bach’s works, but it has a different name, being distinguished as the Italian Concerto (207, p. 4). It is remarkable that it should bear a designation properly true of an orchestral composition, as though in prevision of the unlimited development of which the form was susceptible.[30] But the feeble internal resources of the clavichord, Bach’s chosen instrument for study—the harpsichord was too hard, and the infant pianoforte too coarse for him—prevented him from himself following up the conception. He preferred to write music which was independent of so imperfect an exponent; and his clavichord works are characterised by freedom and delicacy of melody, infinite fancy, and, as we see specially in his fugues, the fullest solidity and richness of structure, rather than by any effects which need a responsive sympathy in the instrument. It is as such that we ought to judge them, however much their life is broadened by performance on the piano.
It is difficult to separate Bach’s chamber compositions from those for orchestra. The orchestras of that day were very small, that at Weimar consisted but of sixteen performers, and Bach’s matured scheme for the production of his church music at Leipzig asked only for a band of twenty. It is wholly uncertain how far it was usual, or considered necessary, to multiply with the parts; in any case chance might often reduce the small orchestra to numbers more consistent with chamber music. That this happened in the concertos which Bach conducted in his own house we may be pretty sure. There is, therefore, little objection to our enumerating both forms of composition in one section.