Hello to one and all

Although it possibly is a tad early but may i say merry christmas to you all, not long left for shopping eek :-)

I am working on Partita in A minor the 2nd and 3rd movements for my Grade 8, and the 3rd movement, the Sarabande is fine and i love the stately feel to it but the 2nd, the Corrente is nice but im finding it hard to find places to breathe and still make it sound musical. I told my teacher it would be perfect hehe so I need to show her :-). The first part of this movement is ok and i can do the breathing fine its just after the first repeat bar it all goes a little wrong. If any of you know this peice any help would be much appreciated.

Also, if anyone does know what is a corrente and I know its a dance but is it used purely for that reason, as i always like to put feeling into pieces that i play but i must admit that i do find Bach hard to figure out.

Many thanks for reading this and any comments really would help.

Lance

Corrente or Courante,
Part of the baroque solo suite in 3/4 meter.
There were two versions. One French in 3/2 meter (more solemn and grave having the same pulse as a sarabande (A good way to begin learning this mvt.)

The other Italian version (Like this Bach Corrente)was in 3/4 time, played faster and has many scales and triads in the writing.
It can be a bit ambiguous as to the phrase structure(As this one is in places.) The style will begin with upbeats and end on strong beats.
The Italin Corrente is a cheerful courtship dance that might have been used in solo suites and court dances.

"The first part of this movement is ok and i can do the breathing fine its just after the first repeat bar it all goes a little wrong"

The first phrase will begin in the 2nd ending on the last b eighth note.
go to the G on the 2nd beat of the 3rd ms and breathe well after it's tied note. Thisis to make it through the nest 4 measures. Breathe on the barline before the measure that begins beat one: e1 c2 g2 g2.

Places to breathe can be troublesome becasue in the period it was advised to breathe at phrase points. (Vague in this piece) and at jumps. So, one can breathe after many of the quarter notes and eighth notes which have jumps after them. Choosing a breath place should be made intelligently and in advance. Considerations:
1)Where is the phrase point?
2)How far do I need to go on the breath? maybe work on where to breathe from the back to the front of the piece.
3)Where can I sneak a breath so that it does not become obvious.
4)Can I leave out an unimportant note so that I can breathe. Unimportant notesmay be repeated 16th notes or that are on the 2nd or 4th 16th note of the grouping. I would try to not breathe after notes that are tied so that they don't get cut off short. In Bach, I tend to emphasize the notes on the strong beats: 1,2 and 3 and sometimes stronger eighth notes (Down beat and upbeat notes (Such as ONE-e-AND-a in moderation with stress rather than accent. an example might be the first ending, Stress the first E, then the next G, F# and E to emphasize a cadence utilizing the scale notes of e minor. The last e after beat 3 is part of the next phrase. So breathe before it.
I look to emphasize notes that follow patterns of scales or 5ths. ascending 5ths being FCGDAEB...descending 5ths being BEADGCF...

And finally, breathe with quiet breaths. Not like a Hoover vacuum.

~Bilbo
N.E. Ohio

Thank you for helping with this matter, its quite hard to get your head around and i do think i need to practise on not sounding like a hoover as i am doing at the moment, but thank you and i will work on your suggestions this evening.

Lance, I would suggest finding a recording of the piece and checking into other publishers.
One version that I have is by Southern Music Co. It has breath marks indicated.
For a recording, I'd check out Fluteworld.com
Even this may be helpful:
http://cdbaby.com/cd/zucker9

you can even hear a snip here:
http://www.amazon.com/James-Galways-Plays-Bach-Vol/dp/B000003FWZ

~bilbo
N.E. Ohio

there are good recordings out there of the partita, many of the performers breathe in different places so it can get confusing, the main thing is to make the breathing musical and natural sounding, much like a singer would do.