Flute Sonata BWV 1032

Johann Sebastian Bach has left us three flute sonatas with obligato key-
board parts.  There are also two or three flute  sonatas  with  continuo
accompaniments; the authenticity of one of these is contested.

The  manuscript  of  the  Sonata  in  A  is titled Sonata a 1 Traversa è
Cembalo obligato di J. S. Bach in Bach's handwriting.  It was discovered
by  von  Winterfeld  in  an antique shop in Breslau and presented to the
Preuß. Staatsbibliotek in Berlin; during the second  world  war  it  was
moved to the monastery of Grüssau in central Silesia.  At the end of the
war, it was removed by the Polish government to the Jagiellon University
in  Cracow, and in 1977 was presented to the Deutsche Staatsbibliotek in
Berlin.  The manuscript is written on nineteen staves,  and  apart  from
this  sonata  it  also  contains a concerto for two keyboards and string
orchestra.  The concerto occupies the top sixteen staves on  each  page,
and,  with typical economy, the Sonata fills up the lowest three staves.
Eight of the manuscript pages are intact, but unfortunately, on  six  of
the pages the lowest part has been cut away, so that we lack some forty-
five bars at the end of the first movement.

Completions of the first movement have been published by Gustav  Schreck
(Peters),  Georges  Barrère (Boston), Alfred Dürr (Bärenreiter), William
Bennett  (Chester),  and  Bart  Kuijken  (Breitkopf  u.  Härtel).    The
copyright  status  of  these  completions  being  unclear,  this edition
provides a new completion, bars 63 to 87, by Peter Billam.  Also,  since
the  manuscript leaves the right hand of the keyboard part blank in bars
9, 10, 13, 14, 15, 25, 26, 27, and in the last beat  of  bar  37,  these
bars have also been completed by Peter Billam.

Www.pjb.com.au  also  offers  versions  of this sonata transposed into C
major for Alto recorder, and into G major for Descant recorder.

                             Peter J Billam

                           www.pjb.com.au/mus