BWV 1030, now for viola and keyboard!

My relationship with the Bach B-minor Flute Sonata is rich. I have a dim memory my mother practicing it, and then an equally dim memory of the last movement being used as end-credit music for a television program narrated by Kukla, Fran, and Ollie that showed kid-oriented movies.

[That link goes to a Kukla, Fran, and Ollie episode that does not contain the Bach. I couldn't find the one that did.]

Anyway, my next memorable encounter with the piece was when I auditioned for "District" when I was in ninth grade. The required passage was from the B-minor Sonata. I suppose that we were "ranked" on either how quickly we could play it, or if we could play the whole passage in one breath. It is a lovely passage when taken at a leisurely tempo, but if taken at a musically-appropriate tempo, it is impossible to play on the modern flute in one breath.

I probably had to take a breath while playing it. I didn't get into "District" that year, and it bothered me a great deal. To be fair, I had only been playing flute for one year, and it was my very first "audition." Hard work (and I worked really hard) could not make up for the years of physical experience that my flute-playing peers in the Greater Boston Area had. Years later I met, by chance, the judge of that audition. She remembered me.

I didn't let the experience really sour me on the piece, but I rarely liked hearing it played because of the frantic tempo that was necessary.

Bach originally wrote the piece for oboe, and set it in the key of G minor. Oboe players can play very long musical lines on a single breath, but flutists can tongue faster. The recorder, which wastes less air than the flute, is a good compromise, and Michala Petri softens the passage with some slurs here and there (this video is set to start at the above passage) and plays it brilliantly in one breath.



In order for baroque flutist Stephen Schultz to play the passage at a leisurely tempo, he has to sneak in a breath in order to remain alive. I think he made a wise choice. Here's a discussion of this piece in the form of a masterclass with William Christie that is worth watching. Unfortunately he doesn't discuss (and the musicians don't play) the first movement.

My pianist friend and I have been on a Bach Sonata "bender," and after playing the six Violin Sonatas, we have moved to the Flute Sonatas (why not?). The B minor is kind of whiney and uncomfortable on the violin, but taken down an octave and played on the viola it is wonderful. So I made a transcription, altering the keyboard part slightly when necessary, and put it onthis page the IMSLP.