Trois Partitas

Gary Hoffman and Lydia Shelley proposed a difficult but marvellous project: writing three duets for Bach’s Six Suites, a difficult but fascinating exercise.
Each single-movement Partita is played between two Suites, as if the need to be two broke a certain solitude, the need to tell a story together.
How do you dare to write music around these masterpieces? How to penetrate the intimacy of Johann Sebastian Bach and write in the mirror of this unique language?
I organised my work and thought of a way of writing that was stylistically related to the Six Cello Suites, and then certain formulas came to me that were part of my DNA, by which I mean the integration of Bach’s language that has followed me throughout my life, both in my writing classes and as an instrumentalist. The osmosis happened quite quickly, as if my musical nature was happy to rub shoulders with such obvious harmonies as well as the chromaticism that is so dear to him and which is incredibly modern. I don’t want to write ‘too much Bach’, but I want my Partitas to make sense in this context.
The emotion and excitement were constant throughout this long and difficult work. His writing infiltrated mine. Tonal? Atonal? Each Partita is a whole, yet linked by what these Suites represent as a whole. They are arranged as follows:
The first Partita between the third and fifth Suites, the second Partita between the second and fourth Suites and the third Partita after the first and sixth Suites. I recommend this order because I wrote them according to the sequences, but anything is possible, even playing these Partitas as independent pieces.
The three of us are united in our thinking as we embark on this wonderful adventure. Writing for Gary and Lydia has been a great joy.
Graciane Finzi