Bach | Francœur | Locatelli | Lully: Works for Violoncello and Harpsichord

The three sonatas for viola da gamba (or violoncello) and obligate cembalo were composed, the same as most of Bach's chamber music, between 1717 and 1723, when he was - before his appointment as "Thomaskantor" - conductor at the court of Prince Leopold von Anhalt in Köthen. Conductors did not only head the orchestra, but had to be virtuoso instrumentalists, too, regularly presenting new compositions of their own. Court musicians like Bach wore stylish court clothes, accompanied their master on his travels, and very often became their friend. The drawback was, however, their dependence on the ups and downs of court life; Bach e.g. left service at Köthen when Prince Leopold married and his unmusical wife negatively influenced cultural life at court. Bach, a virtuoso an all keyboard instruments, freed the piano in Köthen of its exclusively accompanying function as basso continuo. The sonata gradually expanded to include a duo of equal partners. The sonatas still have movements recalling the old basso continuo principle, such as the andante intermezzo of the G Major or the adagio of the third G Minor sonata. Essentially, however, the keyboard instrument paricipates in the theme, polyphony and figuration on an equal footing with the frequently favoured string instrument.

Bach composed these three sonatas for viola da Gamba, as the cello usually only served to strenghten the basso fundament. The viola da gamba was the favourite instrument of artistically-minded amateurs due to its delicate, intimatte, and floating sound, and nothing indicated that a mere hundred years later, the gamba would be considered the very symbol of old-fashioned and backward music and be shunned by the theoreticians of classical music.