by Shane Lestideau

I’ve always loved and admired the work of J.S. Bach, especially his Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin. This suite of tunes started the day I broke up the D minor gigue from Partita II to playfully improvise with the B part. I wanted to fuse the sounds of an Irish jig with Bach’s longer phrases in this 12/8 movement and eventually came up with a musical pastiche using fragments of this work, other sonatas, as well as some original lines. 

The slow air which follows was inspired by the G minor Adagio from Sonata I. I learnt it when I was a teenager, enjoying the florid embellishments and double-stopping. Baroque slow movements, like Irish slow airs, can be highly improvised and I preferred not to notate it for that reason. It’s an invitation for others to listen to the original Adagio and react to it musically in whichever way they see fit.

The last tune in the suite is a reel inspired by the G minor Fuge from Sonata I. It makes use of an original melody for the A Part and broken arpeggios for the B Part. The final descending line is typical of the baroque period but also sounds a lot like bluegrass!

I named the suite in honour of my mum, Gabrielle O’Brien. She organised my first violin classes and has always encouraged me in my creative pursuits. 

Composed in 2014.