Ciacona Sopra’l Canto fermo: O Jesu du edle Gabe.
Mus.ms.autogr. Walther, J.G. 7,
Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin
Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin
Ciacona, originally a kind of dance, came to denote a piece in triple meter with a short, repeating bass line or harmonic progression. The present work is found in a manuscript by Johann Gottfried Walther, composer, music collector, and author of the first music encyclopedia, but it is not attributed to himself. A letter to his correspondent Heinrich Bokemeyer appears to explain that Walther suggested the theme (the first and second phrases of a hymn tune also used for ‘Sei gegrüßet, Jesu gütig’, upon which Bach wrote a partita) and certain aspects of its treatment – above all the possibility to use both phrases together – to a student, who wrote the piece. The theme is found not only in the bass, but eventually in all voices in turn, with various figural elaborations and some use of invertible counterpoint; the fact that the second phrase of the melody moves to the relative major key allows the ciacona to do the same from time to time. The elegant piece ends with a restatement of the opening phrase.