III. A BACH GAVOTTE.
If the reader will now compare with these two dances the Gavotte in the sixth English Suite of J. S. Bach, who had the advantage of living half a century later than Corelli (besides being an immeasurably greater genius), he will be amazed to see the power and originality with which a master can treat a traditional form.[11]
EXAMPLE FOR ANALYSIS, No. 4.
Bach: Gavotte in D-Minor from the Sixth English Suite.
Before looking at matters of detail, we must notice the structure of the piece as a whole, since it is not only highly interesting in itself, but is an example—the first we have had on a large scale—of a type of construction that is perhaps more popular with musicians of all schools than any other.
This structural type is nothing but an application to an entire piece of that three-part form which we have seen in little in the Galician folk-song of Chapter I and in "Polly Oliver" in Chapter II, and to which we may now give the name of "ternary form," to distinguish it from the "binary form" discussed in Chapter III. Bach here writes two distinct gavottes, repeating the first after the second: so that Gavotte I is a statement, Gavotte II a contrast (emphasized by change of key from minor to major), and the repeated Gavotte I a restatement. This practice is very frequent in Bach's suites, where we often find two courantes, two bourr?s, two passepieds, two minuets, etc., combined in this way, the function of the second being to afford contrast to the first. In some instances the second of the pair is called "trio," probably because the earliest examples were written in three-voice harmony, or "musette," from the French word for "bagpipe," in reference to the drone bass imitating that instrument. (This is the case in the present gavotte, where the gavotte II bears the alternative name of musette.)
In the sonatas and symphonies of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven, as we shall see later, this three-section structure is found in the minuet with trio, and in the scherzo with trio. Nor is it less common in modern music, occurring notably in the marches of Schubert, many of the short pieces of Schumann, in the polonaises and some of the nocturnes of Chopin, in the rhapsodies and intermezzos of Brahms, and in the lyric pieces of Grieg. Indeed, its naturalness and clearness inevitably commend it to all composers.
Looking more closely we see, again, that the same scheme is used by Bach in each of the two gavottes, considered separately. In the first, we note the structure A = measures 1-10, B = measures 11-27, A = measures 27-35; in the second we find, A = measures 1-10, B = measures 11-19, A = measures 19-28. The student should verify this analysis for himself.
Proceeding now to details, we notice first that Bach, supreme master of polyphony that he is, writes even a gavotte in such a way that each of its voices has its own melodic value. The gavotte itself is in three voices throughout, and the musette in two, and while these voices are not so purely melodic as in an invention or a fugue, and there is little strict imitation, yet the general effect is polyphonic rather than homophonic. In measures 27-31 the alto voice even has the theme.
The phrase balance is freer than even Corelli's, because Bach's mind is quicker to seize upon and work out the latent possibilities of his melodies. All begins regularly enough: the first four phrases are each two measures in length; but after the double-bar the "plot begins to thicken." First we find two more phrases just like the preceding ones (measures 11-13 and 13-15); but in the next phrase, begun in the same way, in measure 15, the yeast of Bach's fancy begins to work, and the melody broadens out in a series of evolutions, first in the soprano and later in the alto, not coming again to a point of rest (end of a phrase) until measure 23. This extension of a phrase through the germination or blossoming of the thought (in this case it all comes from the bit of melody in measure 7) is a matter of supreme importance in composition, and this instance of it, as well as another in measures 23-27, should be carefully studied by any one who desires to understand music. The power thus to develop or draw forth the hidden potentialities of his motives is one of the most important of all the gifts which go to make a composer. Still further instances of it should now be found by the student himself in the musette.