A Critical Reappraisal of J. S. Bach's A-Major Flute Sonata

Abstract

'W ithin twentieth-century Bach studies the problems attending the Sonata in A major for flute and obbligato harpsichord, BWV 1032, hold a place of curious prominence. This cannot readily be attributed to a corresponding position of greatness for the piece within Bach's complete works. One can probably explain the privileged position of BWV 1032 in research as a function, on the 367 one hand, of its peculiar manuscript transmission and, on the other, of its distinctive place in the flute repertory of the baroque period. Scholars study the sonata particularly because it appears in the only known double-manuscript of the Bach autograph scores and, furthermore, because it survives as a fragment (Bach entered the Vivace and five measures of the Largo e dolce of the sonata into the empty staves below his notation of the Concerto in C minor for two harpsichords, BWV 1062, and since someone subsequently cut several of the flute sonata staves out of the double-manuscript, about forty percent of the Vivace is now lost).1 Musicians, on the other hand, study the sonata because it is unquestionably one of the best chamber pieces in the baroque flute repertory. Since the sonata fills certain practical needs of performers, one encounters the piece in concerts and on recordings more often than many of Bach's other works, and, perhaps