Márta Ábrahám: Chaconne Handbook – Presentation Presented by Liszt Academy

Márta Ábrahám’s Chaconne Handbook, published in Hungarian and English, offers a theoretical and practical guide to the Chaconne from Johann Sebastian Bach’s Partita in D minor (BWV 1004).

The author guides the reader into a previously unknown inner world of the Chaconne by making a comprehensive attempt to reveal the connections and hidden dimensions of the 64 variations woven into a unified musical network.

The book discusses the history of the manuscript and editions of the Sonata-Partita cycle and examines in detail the theme, form, and symbolism of the Chaconne. By applying structural and symbolic aspects together, it also illuminates the deeper possibilities for interpretation of the musical context related to Bach's personal life events. The Handbook contains numerous musical examples, illustrations, and analytical tables which demonstrate the logic and order of the musical relationships. The Chaconne’s pattern or “code” smoothly embedded into the structure is an artefact of musical and historical significance. The theory conclusively clarifies the close relationship between the creation of the Chaconne and the death of Maria Barbara Bach, which had for a long time only been assumed by scholars and practitioners.

“Márta Ábrahám’s Chaconne Handbook is indispensable for all those who love the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, strive to understand the meaning of the Chaconne, and who have recognized the light emanating from the masterpiece, which leads the listener towards the central order.” Dr Salamon Kamp, Kossuth prize-winning conductor, president of the Hungarian Bach Society.

The book presentation promises to be an exceptional event: the author’s conversation partners will be Gábor Takács-Nagy, Bartók–Pásztory and Prima Primissima award-winning violinist, conductor, and Gergely Fazekas, Bach researcher, musicologist, associate professor at the Musicology Department and the Doctoral School.