Bach: Allemande: French Suite No. 4 in Eb, BWV 814

I have recorded several things by Bach that absolutely defy categorization for pictures. I basically chose either the night sky or pictures of the cosmos to represent the universality of his music and the inexpressible balance of the intellectual and the emotional. Basically what this master could do with music absolutely defies description.

The “allemande “is a moderately slow, serious dance in quadruple meter and binary form.

The allemande began life as a dance in the Renaissance and was later used as an independent instrumental piece. There were four dances especially common in Baroque suites: the allemande, courante, sarabande and gigue made up the core set of music in a dance suite. These dances were written in binary form.

5 thoughts on “Bach: Allemande: French Suite No. 4 in Eb, BWV 814

  1. It’s a cliche to wrote about “making the notes sing”, so I won’t use it. Bach has always struck me as “saying something”, and instead it seems to often become some kind of typed mathematics. This piece in particular, the way you play it, “speaks”, and I can listen to it again and again. (probably will)

  2. The vast majority of players rush through Bach, especially pieces like this. I like your tempo, it lets one savor the notes instead of having them thrust upon you in a hurry.

Leave a Reply