Scan 37
Violin master works and their interpretation, 1925
6 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1powering and elementary grandeur, and unity of conception makes it an absolute individual work, though comprised with other movements in the frame-work of a sonata or partita.
3The "Ciaconna" or, if one prefer the French form of the word, the "Chaconne" from Bach's Fourth Sonata in D minor, together with its thirty-three variations—because of its absolute musical value—is one of the most frequently played among the great master's works. Before discussing the "Ciaconna" and its interpretation in detail, we should mention that the Bach Sonatas, unlike those of Corelli and Tartini, were not born directly "out of the violin" itself. They were not, in first instance, a direct "violin" product, but a product of pure inspiration, of the highest idealistic invention, and since they occasionally wellnigh ignore the limitations of what is violinistically possible, they offer the player some of the greatest problems to be found in the whole range of violin technique. It has been said and truly that these Sonatas, "notably in the movements in polyphonic style, represent the victory of the spirit over material limitations," and this applies especially to the "Ciaconna."
5I cannot forbear quoting in part the admirable description Spitta, in his "Johann Sebastian Bach," a work which the violinist is not ordinarily apt to consult has given of the "Ciaconna," since it is one which will help the student realize its emotional content in his playing: "The flooding wealth of figuration pouring forth from a few, hardly noticeable sources, betrays the most exact knowledge of violin technique, as well as the most absolute control of an imagination more gigantic, perhaps, than any an artist has possessed. We must remember that it is all written for a single violin! And yet what does this little instrument not allow one to experience! We move from the serious grandeur of the beginning through the gnawing restlessness of the Second Theme to the thirty-seconds driving demoniacally up and down, and veiling the outline of the Third Theme in a sinister shroud. Again, from those quivering arpeggios which, moving in a hardly noticeable manner hang like a cloudy veil above a gloomy mountain ravine, yet which a wind blowing with greater power now drives together and gathering them in a thick ball whips them roaring
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