Orchestral Suite No. 1 in C Major, BWV 1066

• Bach composed this suite before 1725 (possibly while he was Kapellmeister at Anhalt-Cöthen, when he had extensive opportunities to compose and direct instrumental music).¹
• Bach revived this work, as well as his other three orchestral suites, to performed with the Collegium Musicum he directed in Leipzig.
  • The Collegium Musicum was an instrumental group founded by Telemann in 1702; Bach began directing the group in 1729. The Collegium was composed of professional musicians and university student musicians
  • The Collegium gave weekly concerts at coffeehouses in Leipzig, famously Zimmermann’s Coffee House, and welcomed frequent guest artists. The audience was mostly middle class listeners. 
  • Bach enjoyed directing the Collegium because the group gave more artistic freedom and stronger musicians than his church work.

Movements

1. Ouverture
2. Courante
3. Gavotte I, II
4. Forlane
5. Menuett I, II
6. Bourrée I, II
7. Passepied I, II²

1.  Christoph Wolff and Walter Emery, “Bach, Johann Sebastian,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed January 12, 2021, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-6002278195.
2. “Orchestral Suite No.1 in C major, BWV 1066 (Bach, Johann Sebastian),” IMSLP, accessed January 12, 2021, https://imslp.org/wiki/Orchestral_Suite_No.1_in_C_major%2C_BWV_1066_(Bach%2C_Johann_Sebastian).