# Bach's chaconne & other solo greats



## Avey

Listening to Bach's _chaconne_ -- at the end of his second partita, or alone -- is special, to say the least. Quite amazing the narrative and emotion J.S.B. penned onto one stave.

A recent listen had me thinking: *Do ya'll have any solo pieces that evoke similar sentiments*, that one instrument alone can feel so much larger and magnificent than a full-scale orchestra? That there's some magic hidden behind a single voice without accompaniment?

Piano pieces are obvious, and I don't mean to exclude, but let's try to get some other solo works down.


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## hpowders

Sure. In the same neighborhood, the Fuga from Bach's solo violin sonata #3.
On the same exalted level as the Chaconne.


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## Winterreisender

I enjoy Britten's _Six Metamorphoses After Ovid_ for solo oboe. It is supposed to be program music, with the oboe describing scenes from Ovid's great poem. Slow and mournful for Niobe weeping the death of her children; jaunty and dance-like for the Bacchic frenzy; repetitive and hypnotic for Narcissus falling in love with his reflection. I am rarely convinced by program music, but I nevertheless find the range of moods highly enjoyable from a more abstract perspective.


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## Guest

Several.

First, staying with Bach, there is the Passacaglia & Fugue, BWV 582, on the organ - incredibly impressive in the right hands.
Biber has a particularly lovely Passacaglia for Solo Violin.
I have also always enjoyed Paganini's Caprice No. 24 in A minor for solo violin - as have others!

Cutting out piano removes a lot of options. My other question would be do we count a voice as an instrument, and to fit in this category, must it be a solo voice, unaccompanied? If not, then I would also add Tallis' Spem in Alium.


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## Manxfeeder

Heinrich Biber's Passacaglia for Solo Violin is also evocative. [Simultaneous post with Dr. Mike; sorry]

No to everyone's taste, but Berio's Sequenza XII for bassoon keeps my attention.


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## tdc

Yes, there are many for me. If we exclude piano, these are two of my favorites:

Dowland - Lachrimae Pavan:






Rodrigo - Toccata


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## Mahlerian

Stravinsky's Elegie for solo viola (or violin) is a surprisingly rich piece.


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## revdrdave

The first movement of Bach's First Cello Suite--one of my favorite pieces in all of music.


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## Ukko

Cello, viola da gamba, lute, flute, clarinet, harp... many instruments have evocative potential, and multiple choices for the music with which to speak. The instrument has to sound , or be deliberately producing sounds quite distant from speech, to avoid speaking to me to some degree. I am even so rash as to suggest that the 'distance from speech' in some modern music is responsible _in part_ for its _obscurity_ (double sensibility there).





[This post has enough hauteur in it to call for a double shot of .]


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## worov

Debussy's Syrinx for flute.


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## Guest

I had read somewhere that the difficulty in producing good music for a single instrument is that there needs to be more than just a melody, or something to that effect. More than just a single voice. I am sure there is a technical term for what I am trying to convey. At any rate, the reason why keyboard instruments work so well is that you can have multiple voices coming through at the same time, the melody and a continuo. The violin and the cello can also pull it off, but with much more difficulty (notice, in particular Bach's Chaconne - Bach creates the illusion of multiple instruments). That is also why, typically, violin and cello sonatas frequently have piano accompaniment.


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## PetrB

I will stand corrected if corrected, but I'm certain the OP intended works for what are thought of as single-line instruments vs. the clearly polyphonic, the piano, vibraphone, marimba, other mallet phones, guitar, harp, etc.

Usually, the 'fuller' pieces are for the stringed instruments, capable of limited polyphony, with 'Cello and Violin literature I think holding most of 'the type.' The trick, of course, is to sustain musical interest with 'very sparse' availability of number of notes at any one moment.

There is something called false counterpoint, a good example being the (relatively) rapid jumping back and forth of a solo instrument between what at least seems like two lines, which the listener will hear as two lines. The technique is found in a lot of solo instrumental work, winds or strings (The lower range wind instruments do not readily "speak as fast" as the higher ranged instruments.) If not a second line, the secondary material becomes like an accompaniment with the primary line, and again, gives a fuller sound.

To write anything for a solo (single-line) instrument which holds interest for any length of time, the composer has to know the instrument's capabilities exceedingly well. The Bach _Partitas_ for solo violin and solo 'cello, and the Paganini _Etudes_ for violin, Britten's two solo 'Cello suites, all examples of this sort of writing for strings.


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## Llyranor

As others have mentioned, the Biber Passacaglia is quite nice.

I also like Bloch's 1st Violin Suite 




(Bach's Chaconne is one of my favorite compositions, ever)



PetrB said:


> There is something called false counterpoint, a good example being the (relatively) rapid jumping back and forth of a solo instrument between what at least seems like two lines, which the listener will hear as two lines. The technique is found in a lot of solo instrumental work, winds or strings (The lower range wind instruments do not readily "speak as fast" as the higher ranged instruments.) If not a second line, the secondary material becomes like an accompaniment with the primary line, and again, gives a fuller sound.


I love hearing counterpoint (or false counterpoint, I guess) with the violin. It blew my mind when I first heard the 2 lines in Bach's 2nd violin sonata (andante) - that was with a single violin???! That was before I had a better appreciation of what the violin was really capable of.





Likewise for the 1st movement of Ysaye's 2nd sonata. I love hearing the Dies Irae theme in counterpoint as a fugue with a solo violin!


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## tdc

If we are talking about single melodic line my vote would probably go to Bach's Flute Partita BWV 1013. 

(In terms of being on a similar level of inspiration as the Chaconne, but lets face it nothing tops that Chaconne!)


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## hpowders

tdc said:


> I we are talking about single melodic line my vote would probably go to Bach's Flute Partita BWV 1013.
> 
> (In terms of being on a similar level of inspiration as the Chaconne, but lets face it nothing tops that Chaconne!)


Try the Fuga from the third violin sonata. Bach tops the Chaconne as only he can.


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## aleazk

This one is well known.


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## PetrB

Berio's Sequenzas are very much part of this tradition:

Sequenza I for flute (1958)
Sequenza II for harp (1963)
Sequenza III for woman's voice
Sequenza IV for piano




Sequenza V for trombone
Sequenza VI for viola 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usnIaA1Sn9Y
Sequenza VII for oboe 
Sequenza VIII for violin
Sequenza IXa for clarinet
Sequenza IXb for alto saxophone
Sequenza X for trumpet in C and piano resonance 
Sequenza XI for guitar
Sequenza XII for bassoon
Sequenza XIII for accordion "Chanson"




Sequenza XIV for violoncello


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## dgee

Sparkling and exciting - Salvatore Sciarrino for viola:






and violin:


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## Cosmos

There are a good handful of works that I can name (even when excluding piano)

Tournier - Harp Sonatine 
Reich - New York Counterpoint (version for one amplified clarinet)
Bach - Cello Suites and Violin Sonatas, most organ works
Britten - Cello Suites
Ginastera - Guitar Sonata


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## KenDuctor

Kodalys solo for cello op. 8 is one of my favorites. Definitely worth a listen if you have never heard. I prefer Starker or Turovsky.


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## Ukko

KenDuctor said:


> Kodalys solo for cello op. 8 is one of my favorites. Definitely worth a listen if you have never heard. I prefer Starker or Turovsky.


Wispelwey under the wire 6 lengths ahead of Starker.


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## Peter Gibaloff

You never know who can surprise you.
I think that it is more to the Artist than to piece.
You can listen Spanish romance for guitar and enjoy more than some modern "Industrial musician" play Chaconne.


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