The video discusses how this Allemande not only introduces the first partita, BWV 1002, but also sets the stage for all the partitas in the collection. It is probably not simply by happenstance that Bach began the first partita with an Allemanda (a Franco/Italianate word referring to a Germanic dance) in the French overture style. Using the nomenclature as a simple starting point, the video discusses the cosmopolitan life at the courts and how this allemanda embodies it all. We visit Lully at the Court of Louis XIV in Versailles, and Corelli in Italy; we then take a look at the European climate and the events and circumstances that led up to the time when Bach composed the piece.
A fascinating look at how the Allemande in B Minor, BWV 1002, emulates current trends of the time, and how Bach encapsulated much of what was in style, and then surpassed it. This video takes an in-depth look at the intriguing historical provenance of the Allemanda, and how it epitomizes in so many ways the so-called "mixed style" that was popular in Germany at that time. Harking back to the beginning of the violin’s creation, through to the sonatas of Corelli, the dances from the Court of Louis XIV and combined with the serious German Affekt and virtuosity, this Allemanda embodies it all.
If one were to think of this Allemanda as being a ballroom dance, we may think its Double as being more like a barn dance. The perpetual strong-weak slurs in the Double suggest playing with "notes inégales.” in the same way that a fiddler would tend to “swing” the notes and play with a certain rhythmic freedom.
