Analysis of Bach Allemande
Analysis of “Allemande” from J.S. Bach’s English Suite No. 3 in G minor.
I have analysed Bach’s allemande from the English suite no. 3 using the Schenkerian method, by reducing the score down to its basic foundations, in order to show how the work can be understood on the foreground, middle ground and background levels. In order to this, I have taken away unnecessary notes, such as the neighbour and passing notes, to leave the score as a basic four part chorale-like piece with two chords to a bar, following the harmonies. I began the reduction by taking the G minor arpeggio in bar 1 and taking away the Bb, and top G in the bass to leave the bass part with a G and a D, a fifth apart. I took the top note in the first half of bar 1, in this case a high G in the treble part, and the Bb in the top stave. This gave me my basis to start the rest of the reduction. I then worked out the chords in each bar, in wrote them out in roman numeral form, according to what key the each chord was in. For example, with a chord consisting of the notes G, Bb, and D, I wrote chord I in Gm and so on. I found that the key modulated several times during the piece, but the main area which the piece modulated to was D major at the halfway point, in this case D major being chord V. I wrote the roman numeral chords so that I would be able to work out which notes were not part of each chord, and therefore which notes were not necessary to the chorale reduction of the piece. After figuring the chords, I then attempted to remove each note that did not belong to the chord that it was with. For example, in bar 1, the first half of the bar is centered around the chord of G minor, however, Bach has placed an F# in the second beat. This F# acts as a neighbour note between the two G’s, but is not part of the G minor chord and therefore must be eliminated from the score if a chorale-like chordal structure is to be put in place. I then proceeded to work across the whole score, taking away
I have analysed Bach’s allemande from the English suite no. 3 using the Schenkerian method, by reducing the score down to its basic foundations, in order to show how the work can be understood on the foreground, middle ground and background levels. In order to this, I have taken away unnecessary notes, such as the neighbour and passing notes, to leave the score as a basic four part chorale-like piece with two chords to a bar, following the harmonies. I began the reduction by taking the G minor arpeggio in bar 1 and taking away the Bb, and top G in the bass to leave the bass part with a G and a D, a fifth apart. I took the top note in the first half of bar 1, in this case a high G in the treble part, and the Bb in the top stave. This gave me my basis to start the rest of the reduction. I then worked out the chords in each bar, in wrote them out in roman numeral form, according to what key the each chord was in. For example, with a chord consisting of the notes G, Bb, and D, I wrote chord I in Gm and so on. I found that the key modulated several times during the piece, but the main area which the piece modulated to was D major at the halfway point, in this case D major being chord V. I wrote the roman numeral chords so that I would be able to work out which notes were not part of each chord, and therefore which notes were not necessary to the chorale reduction of the piece. After figuring the chords, I then attempted to remove each note that did not belong to the chord that it was with. For example, in bar 1, the first half of the bar is centered around the chord of G minor, however, Bach has placed an F# in the second beat. This F# acts as a neighbour note between the two G’s, but is not part of the G minor chord and therefore must be eliminated from the score if a chorale-like chordal structure is to be put in place. I then proceeded to work across the whole score, taking away