The artistic freedom and felicity of Bach's way of working is further illustrated by the manner in which, while using the general principle of the sequence as a means of giving his music unity of idea, he avoids those overliteral, mechanical transpositions of motive which we found in the more primitive dances. There is just the contrast here that there is between a poor speaker, who keeps repeating the same word or phrase with futile emphasis, and the man of real eloquence, who follows a train of thought no less closely, but manages constantly to cast his ideas in new phraseology and fresh figures of speech, so that the variety of what he says is quite as striking as its fundamental unity.
The element of variety introduced into the contrast-section of the gavotte (11-27), by the free modulation through several keys, should also be remarked. The plan of modulation is different from any we have yet had. Instead of beginning in the relative major (which would be the key of F), the section begins in the dominant minor (A-minor). A good many keys are then touched upon before the tonic or home key is reached at the restatement (27-35), which, by a charming subtlety, begins with the theme in the alto instead of the soprano voice.
In all these matters we detect the workings of an original and inventive mind, which, far from being hampered by working in a traditional form, is stimulated to constantly new solutions of old problems, and so produces a piece of music at once perfectly clear and fascinatingly interesting.
In the next chapter we shall see how composers combined groups of such dances as this, with other pieces of a different character, into those suites which were the most popular forms of instrumental music in the eighteenth century.
SUGGESTIONS FOR COLLATERAL READING.
Grove's Dictionary: article "Rhythm," and articles under names of various dances, as "Gavotte," "Allemande," "Courante," "Minuet," "Gigue," etc.
Other examples of dances may be found in a collection of twenty-five old gavottes, published by Breitkopf and H?tel, and in a volume of miscellaneous old dances in the Litolff Edition.
FOOTNOTES:
[10] Parry: Evolution of the Art of Music, page 115.
[11] For this analysis, number all the measures and parts of measures consecutively, which will give 35 measure numbers in the Gavotte proper, and 28 in the second Gavotte or Musette.