Bach - Suite in A major BWV 832 - Fortin | Netherlands Bach Society

This Suite in A major, performed by Olivier Fortin for All of Bach, is one of Bach’s works in the ‘Möller manuscript’, as it is known. This manuscript was compiled between 1703 and 1707 by Bach’s elder brother Johann Christoph, with whom Johann Sebastian had moved in, following the death of their parents. So Bach could not have been older than about 20. The manuscript also contains French keyboard music: a chaconne by Lully and suites by Lebèque and Marchand. Nearly everything about Bach’s own suite seems to be French-inspired: the musical style, the exciting harmonies in the Sarabande, and the idea of an Air pour les trompettes. Both this French title and the description itself are reminiscent of keyboard arrangements of Lully’s music, which was also popular in Germany. Moreover, another manuscript compiled by Johann Christoph Bach in the same period includes a keyboard arrangement of an Air de trompette by Marin Marais, with which the young Johann Sebastian must also have been familiar.