- Born March 21, 1685, in Eisenach
- Died July 28, 1750, in Leipzig
- Composed before 1725
- Duration: 17 minutes

In 1717, Bach left Weimar for Cöthen, a town north of Halle in eastern Germany, to assume the position of Kapellmeister at the court of Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Cöthen. Prince Leopold was a Calvinist who had no need for elaborate sacred music for church services, leaving Bach with ample time to focus on secular compositions. This was the only position he would ever hold that would afford him this possibility. Additionally, Leopold was an avid musician himself, often joining the court musicians on harpsichord, violin, or viola da gamba—a fretted string instrument that is held like and resembles a cello, though smaller in size. Evidence suggests that Bach was very well respected at Leopold’s court; notably, his salary was twice that of his predecessor. The feeling was mutual: Bach enjoyed working for someone who appreciated, understood, and participated in the making of music as much as Leopold did. He held the prince in such high regard that he named a child after him and asked him to be the baby’s godfather. Sadly, Leopold Augustus Bach died in infancy. 

 The environment in which Bach was immersed at Prince Leopold’s court led to the long-held scholarly belief that his career was split into two clear-cut periods: chamber and instrumental music in Cöthen, and vocal music in Leipzig. Though we now know this to be an oversimplification, the Cöthen era did see great innovations in the domain of chamber music—the blindingly virtuosic harpsichord solo in the fifth Brandenburg Concerto, for example. This solo was such a brazen departure from the world of modest continuo accompaniment to which the harpsichord had usually been relegated, that some musicologists have suggested it ought to be interpreted as a political statement: releasing the harpsichord from its musical shackles as a metaphor for freedom of expression. It is during or shortly after this prolific and innovative period of chamber music composition in Cöthen that Bach wrote the Sonatas for Violin and Keyboard, BWV 1014–1019. The set can be dated to before 1725—two years after Bach left for Leipzig— with confidence.

 Bach’s exploration of sonata form built upon the Italian trio sonata, an already well-established Baroque structure employed by composers like Arcangelo Corelli. Typically, a trio sonata would have two instruments (pairs of violins, flutes, oboes, etc., or combinations of different instruments) and a continuo part. The continuo—often played on harpsichord—would consist of a bassline and figures to indicate the desired harmony. Notably, the standard trio sonata contained no specific, written-out material on top of the bassline. As in his treatment of the harpsichord in the Brandenburg Concerto No. 5, Bach transformed the role of the instrument in his chamber sonata sets (six featuring violin and three each with viola da gamba and flute). Approaching each of the keyboardist’s hands as a distinct participant in the trio, he delegated the accompaniment to the left and, to the right, a part no less substantive or prominent than that of the violin, gamba, or flute. With this so-called obbligato keyboard, Bach created sonatas that are true collaborations between a keyboardist and another instrumentalist—not instrumental solos with keyboard accompaniment. 

 The Adagio of the Sonata in E major for Violin and Keyboard, BWV 1016, features a lyrical, heavily ornamented violin part over a densely polyphonic texture in the keyboard. The moments of C-sharp minor are strikingly melancholic with the lone violin cantabile (singing) line hovering over somber chords, while the same texture renders the contrasting major-key phrases stately and proud. The separation of roles is dropped in the Allegro, a brisk fugal movement full of playful syncopations. In the opening of the Adagio ma non tanto, the keyboard part—a descending left hand resembling a lament bass with chords in the right hand—is texturally similar to that of the first movement, if not tonally or affectively related. Bach proceeds to break apart this characteristically keyboard-style layout in the next phrase, where the violin plays the chords previously in the right hand of the keyboard, which in turn plays the violin’s triplet runs. Such swapping of material continues throughout the movement. A seemingly definitive C-sharp minor cadence is upended by one last flourish of triplets in the violin and right hand before the movement comes to an end on an unresolved dominant chord, leaving us with a sense of incompleteness. The joyful Allegro contrasts different rhythmic motifs intertwined in the top voices. The brusque interjections of one into the other lend a conversational and, at times, humorous quality to this final movement. 

Program note © Jack Slavin