The Six French Suites (BWV 812-817); Two Suites in A minor & E flat major (BWV 818-819) (Piano)

J S Bach The Six French Suites (BWV 812-817); Two Suites in A minor & E flat major (BWV 818-819) (Piano)
With Versions A and B as well as the alternative versions BWV 814a, 815a, 818a, 819a

The origin of the title of the French Suites, composed during 1722-1725, is unclear.  Such a title occurs neither in Bach's writings or in the earlier copies of the suites; yet Friedrich-Wilhelm Marpurg mentions it in 1762 as if it were commonly known.  Forkel writes in his biography of Bach (1802) "One usually calls them French Suites because they are written in the French manner"; yet this criterion could just as well be applied to the so-called English Suites.  Perhaps the name originated by analogy with the "English Suites" which (according to Forkel) were "composed for an aristocratic Englishman".  Thus, after composing the English Suites, Bach may have wished to entitle his next collection of suites in a matching or complementary fashion, and so chose the name of the nation that had been preeminent in suite composition.  In any case there was never an attempt in the earlier literature to trace the title of the French Suites back to any Frenchman's commission.

This volume contains the six French Suites in the form in which they were handed down in the Altnickol MS tradition and in their later embellished form (version B).  It also includes two suites, in A minor and E-flat major, which are related in style to the French Suites.  Each of these suites is presented in an earlier form (BWV 818 and 819) and a later form (BVW 818a and 819a).  Finally our volume includes one alternative version each of the Third and Fourth French Suites (BWV 814a and 815a).

- Urtext of the New Bach Edition

- Comprehensive preface (Ger/Eng)