Minor Key Music 97: J. S. Bach – Sarabande from Lute Suite 3 (BWV 995)
Even as a child, there was something about Bach’s music that I just connected with. It was a little darker, a little more unsettling, and a little more MINOR (even as a kid I would skip the major key songs) than other music of the baroque era. And all of these qualities are on full display with today’s song (this version by Xavier Diaz Latorre is played on a period-appropriate 13 course Baroque lute):
I have wanted to write about this piece for a while because it is such a perfect representation of the genius of Bach. A few simple melodic lines that contain so much alien strangeness. One of the Bach trademarks is his use of accidentals (notes that are not NORMALLY found in whatever key the song is in), and a quick scan of the sheet music will reveal an egregious amount of extra sharps and flats:
While this piece (as transcribed here–the lute recording in this post is probably C minor as originally written) is ostensibly in A minor, there are so many “notes that don’t belong” it can sometimes be hard to get your bearings. Each line is full of discordant notes that seem completely out of place until you realize that they actually work despite themselves. A good example of the Bach magic is how so often the final low note clashes with what came before until you realize it is actually leading to what comes next. The piece is full of such tricks, constantly keeping the listener on their back foot as the metric displacement and inversions subvert every expectation as to how a song should be written.
All of which is to say, the humble minor third is well down the list of the most Minor Key Monday elements of this song.