The Gigue dance concludes the 1st Bach suite. Translating to the English word, “jig”, the Gigue is a lively dance in a 6/8 meter. (As we will come to see in later blog posts, gigues tend to be written in compound meters such 6/8 or 3/8.) This particular Gigue starts with a D-natural pick-up, the third of the G major chord key that the suite is written in. The following measure then goes to showcase descending arpeggiating figures followed by sttacatto eights. The line then arrives at an embellished trill and ornamentation notes. At measure eight, the movement arrives at an end of a mini-phrase. The following E natural that functions as a pick-up note and returns to a similar theme to stack up into the ending with a descending D-major arpeggio. The first section than repeats to play the motif again. However, in many interpretations of this movement, the second time the repeat is played through, a noticeable dynamic change comes in play. This can be seen in Mischa Maisky’s performance recorded below. Though Bach never wrote any dynamics in his Bach Suites, many performers take the liberty of fabricating dynamics of their own and taking the liberty to do so.

Intro to Gigue

As silly as it may sound, this “personal liberty” has been a controversial topic for many Baroque musicians, especially cellists studying the Bach cello suites. The argument usually takes one of two sides. As music is an art form, does the player have the right to be able to deviate from the music and choose to interpret it as he pleases? Or, does the performer need to respect the musical ideas and intentions of the composer and stick to his writing like glue? Arguments for both sides are unnervingly compelling. in my personal studies, I have often fought myself over which is more important. Playing the music too extravagantly takes away from the meaning of the piece and is something that all cellists need to look out for. In Maisky’s case, asseen below, he is able to find a seemingly perfect balance between the two, deviating from the writing enough so that it contains his own musical thoughts but sticking to the writing enough that it still carries Bach’s original intentions.

As the Gigue concludes the first suite, the next writing will start the second Suite. As the semester continues, this idea of “musical” and “personal” liberty will arise more and more often and will be a center of debate in my future writings.