Updated Courante

Hi all, I'm currently working on refining my Keyboard Suite. A movement which has received a fairly substantial update is the Courante. It's basically a two-part invention. The original idea was to overhold notes in the RH in the first part, and in the LH in the second part. I thought a much better idea was to just escalate the overholding, culminating in a (pseudo-) four part texture with the final theme entry. A lot of the score has been renotated as a result.

All comments welcome!

Edited March 20, 20233 yr by muchen_
minor modifications

Hi @muchen_,

I feel with this update the courante almost becomes Bach's two part invention in Bb major with that same rhythm! I like how you add the parts and changing some of the notes for fuller chords instead of ambiguous chords, and some of the voice-leading to make it even more fluent. Thanks for your update!

Henry

I love this. Part B is gorgeous when then sequence comes in.

Just one thing to be perfect (in my opinion): the anacrusis should be respected (end of bar 14, and in the very last bar).

On 3/13/2023 at 6:35 PM, Luis Hernández said:

I love this. Part B is gorgeous when then sequence comes in.

Just one thing to be perfect (in my opinion): the anacrusis should be respected (end of bar 14, and in the very last bar).

Hi Luis, I'm glad you liked it! You raise a very good point regarding the anacrusis.

Interestingly, the two 3/2 courantes in Bach's Keyboard Partitas are notated exactly this way (i.e. in 5/4 time in the measures before repeats) whereas they're notated in the usual way in his English Suites. It leaves one wondering why a quaver beat is omitted. Nonetheless, all recordings I've listened to suggests that the quaver beat is not to be omitted in practice, so I've edited the score and playback.

I'm a big fan of the descending sequence beginning in mm. 29 too. There's something really nice about the preceding Eb in the bass leading to the sequence!

Edited March 20, 20233 yr by muchen_