Air on the G String (Great Music)

AIR ON THE G STRING (J. S. Bach, German, 1730/1871)

An air is a song-like vocal or instrumental composition. It can be applied to everything from folk songs or pop songs (the tune for "Danny Boy" is called "Londonderry Air") to opera (the Italian word for "air" is aria). Well. The great German composer Johann Sebastian Bach wrote 1,080 surviving compositions; four of them were orchestral suites, and the third of these featured a serene "Air" as the second of its five movements. In 1871, German violinist August Wilhelmj arranged the air by transposing the key down (from D major to C major) to where it can be played (but usually is not) entirely on the G string, the lowest string on the violin. It is thus most famous as "Air on the G String," though it is also sometimes called "Celebrated Air." Its proper name is "Air" from Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D major.

---

Navigation:

• View this post on Facebook or Instagram
• Go to the Mini-Lessons Index

(Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons; CTTO)