Tune of the Day: Musette in D major
Anna Magdalena Bach, Johann Sebastian's wife, was presented with the famous Notebook by her husband in 1725. He started her out with a fine gift of two partitas, and left the rest blank for her to collect compositions herself. The Musette in D major, BWV Anh. 126, is one of those collected compositions. Because all the entries are anonymous, it is impossible to know for certain whether or not J.S. Bach actually composed this brief, simple musette. Certain things about it, most notably its somewhat boisterous mood, suggest the work of one of Johann Sebastian's sons. The boisterousness chiefly manifests itself in witty alternations between broken octave bass accompaniment and unison in the statement of the perky theme, and some tricky, less-than-completely sweet harmonies in the contrasting material.
In this transcription for the modern C flute we kept the original key of D major, but we had to raise the last note by an octave.