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Music Analysis Bach Suite No. 3 in D Major Gavotte Essay

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Analysis: Bach Suite No. 3 in D major
The instruments used in the piece are: * Trumpet 1 * Trumpet 2 * Trumpet 3 * Timpani * Oboe 1 * Oboe 2 * Violin 1 * Violin 2 * Viola * Continuo – Harpsichord or Double Bass
Why this piece is typically baroque
This is piece is baroque as it includes many of the baroque characteristics: * Perfect Cadence!! – In the concept Pitch, the perfect cadence is very obvious at the end of the sections and phrases – change from the dominant to the tonic. * Duration – the rhythmic pattern heard at the start of each gavotte, is reiterated many times throughout the piece. This also links to Pitch – the opening melody of the piece is heard many times throughout…show more content…
The phrases are generally 8 beats long extending over 3 – the last two beats of the first bar and the first two beats of the third bar( in the excerpt to the right).
Throughout Section A, there is no syncopation – all notes fall on the beat.
Texture – The texture is homophonic throughout the whole of Section A. There are three layers of sound in the Section A. The first is the melody – played by the violins and trumpets. This is the layer of sound which is most prominent throughout A. The second is the timpani and viola part. This is the softest layer throughout the section. It provides harmony to the melody, using the notes of the D major chord. The last layer is the continuo bass It provides accompaniment and bass.
The harmonic rhythm is not very steady as the chords only change in bars 7, 10 and 11. The chord changes from D to A and then from A to E and E to A (shown in the musical excerpt). These chord changes are changes from either the dominant to the tonic or the tonic to the dominant, showing the typical barque chord changes.
Through adding trumpets, bars 1-3 and bars 5-7 are the densest of Section A. This highlights the main repeated motif. Bars 3-5 and 7-11 are softer as these are the less important phrases of the section.
Section A1 – bars 12-27
This Section is called A1, because it uses similar rhythms and pitch throughout the Section. The structure of the section is however not the same to section A as there are various key changes
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