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Thursday, December 5, 2013

Johann Sebastian Bach - "Air"

Cover of Bach Favorites (Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra)

Suite for Orchestra No. 3 in D major, BWV 1068: II. Air, commonly referred to as “Air”, is the second movement of Bach’s Third Orchestral Suite and is one of the most famous pieces of baroque music. The suite is from the third of Ouvertures BWV 1066–1069 - a set of compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach, probably composed between 1725 and 1739 in Leipzig. The word ouverture refers to an opening movement in which a section of slow dotted-note rhythm is followed by a fugue; at the time, this name was also used to refer to a whole suite of dance-pieces in the French baroque style. An arrangement of the piece by German violinist August Wilhelmj (1845–1908) has come to be known as Air on the G String.

Air (French for “aria”; also ayr, ayre), a variant of the musical song form, is the name of various song-like vocal or instrumental compositions.

Who was Bach? A Fast and Friendly Guide

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