J. S. Bach wrote a great many pieces during his lifetime, most of them for use in the church. From time to time he did write some solo keyboard works for clavier or harpsichord. Among them are the two English Suites, written in an attempt to assume the style of the English baroque composers, of whom Handel is the best known. Most musicologists would probably say that what Bach achieved is more in the French style of the time, but that does not make the pieces any less interesting.

There are two bourrees in the second English Suite, and we have chosen to present the livelier second bourree ("boo-RAY").

A request came to us to come up with something for a trio of violin, viola, and cello, and we immediately thought of this piece, and quickly transposed it from our version for two flutes and cello. Also available for flute quartet, brass quintet, and saxophone quintet.

MP3 sound sample: entire piece (synthesizer/midi).



BOURREE by J. S. Bach, arranged by Tom Kirkland for two flutes and cello, comes in a pdf file of 187K, with a two-page score, three one-page parts, and a license page, six pages in all. Performance time should be about 1:45.