Thurston Dart (clavichord) ‘J,S, Bach, The Six French Suites’
Recorded mono 1961 for Editions de L’Oiseau-Lyre Mono OL 50208
Clavichord built by Thomas Goff

Side One
Suite No. 1 in D minor
00:00 Allemande
01:37 Courante
02:55 Sarabande
04:40 Menuets I & II
06:12 Gigue

Suite No. 2 in c minor
08:20 Allemande
09:42 Courante
10:45 Sarabande
12:24 Air
13:11 Menuet
13:59 Gigue

Suite No. 3 in b minor
15:33 Allemande
17:19 Courante
18:45 Sarabande
20:26 Anglaise
21:17 Menuet & 22:19 Trio
22:55 Gigue

SideTwo
Suite No. 4 in E flat major
24:12 Allemande
25:33 Courante
26:41 Sarabande
28:19 Gavotte
29:03 Menuet
29:34 Air
30:21 Gigue

Suite No. 5 in G major
32:02 Allemande
33:39 Courante
34:33 Sarabande
37:16 Gavotte
37:59 Bourree
38:49 Loure
40:12 Gigue

Suite No. 6 in E major
42:03 Allemande
43:31 Courante
44:27 Sarabande
46:39 Gavotte
47:21 Polonaise
48:17 Bourree
49:05 Menuet
49:54 Gigue

The earliest sources of five of Bach’s so-called Frencht Suites are the two manuscripts of keyboard music prepared for Anna Magdalena Bach in 1722 arr, 1725; in addition, these texts are completed by copies from the collections of Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, Johann Nikolaus Gerber, and other pupils. In both of Anna Magdalena’s books, each suite is headed .’Suite pour le Clavessin’. As a result of this, the suites have usually been discussed-and played-as though they were composed for the harpsichord. But these headings do not appear to be in Bach’s own handwriting; since many people had the chance of jotting things down in the manuscripts before they reached their present resting place in Berlin, the headings have no special validity as an expression of Bachts own views on the subject. Moreover, all clavichordists will agree that the musical idiom of these suites is perfectly suited to their instrument, whereas it differs markedly from the styles Bach adopted for such self-confessed harpsichord music as the six partitas or the Goldberg variations. Though it is far from easy to assign early keyboard music to a specific instrument, and though few composers seemed to have cared very much keyboard instrument was used for any specific work, nevertheless some boundaries can be drawn with a certain amount of precision.
One of them encloses an area which may be termed ‘first preference clavichord. This distinctive style of composition begins at least as early as the generations of Froberger and Buxtehude, it is continued without a break by Böhm and.Kuhnau, it is adopted by Bach himself (in the ‘French’ suites, the two-and three-part inventions, the first book of the 48t, and elsewhere), it is extended in the music of his sons and pupils, and it shades imperceptibly into the pianoforte music of Haydn and Mozart.
The clarity of this line of development has been blurred by the sound commercial instincts of such enterprising printers as Estienne Roger and Louis Bourgeat, both of whom published much of Froberger’s clavichord music with title-pages suggesting that it was primarily intended for the harpsichord or organ.
The line has been further obscured by 20th-century players of the modern concert harpsichord, who have enthusiastically laid claim to all early keyboard music whatsoever, and by the many musical scholars who have wanted to present their readers with a simple picture of an impossibly complex subject-the growth and development of keyboard style during the last six centuries or so.
But a sleeve-note is the place neither for polemic nor for a potted history of clavichord music. On a companion disc (OL 50207/SOL 60038) I have tried to illustrate some aspects of Frobergerts magnificent contribution to the repertory of music for the clavichord. On the present disc I have tried to show some of the special beauties of Bach’s ‘French’ suites’ by playing them on the instrument for which – so my heart, mind and fingers tell me – they were originally composed, the delicate and expressive clavichord. Like so much of his keyboard music, they can be played and enjoyed on almost any instrument; but many of their nuances of expression, intonation and vibrato are unobtainable save on the clavichord, and for many years now I have never played them on anything else,
I have not been able to discover who first called these works by the name of ‘French’ suites’.
Thurston Dart

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