Composition dates for J.S. Bach flute sonatas?

Question

Does anyone have a source that mentions the composition dates of the six Bach flute sonatas? I know they were not composed in the order their BWV numbers are labeled, but any other help would be great!

Answer 1

It is often very difficult to ascertain exactly when work from this long ago were written. However, this is the likely order that the flute sonatas were written:



Sonata in E minor, BWV 1034 = c 1724

Sonata in E-flat major, BWV 1031 = between 1730 and 1734

Sonatas in B minor, BWV 1030, A major, BWV 1032 and C major, BWV 1033 = c 1736

Sonata in E major, BWV 1035 = c 1741

Answer 2

Most datings remain imprecise, settling in the main for an unspecified range between 1720 and 1741, that is to say, distributed among his days at Cöthen and Leipzig. The Partita for solo flute (BWV 1013) is placed more precisely in 1718, in that case making it the first to see the light of day. I have not come across specified dates for each of the six you are particularly interested in, not individually, and many sources do not trouble themselves to mention these works more specifically than their existence, so it may be that the broad date range is at present the best that scholarship seems to be able to come up with.



Johann Nikolaus Forkel, in his very early Bach biography of 1802's chronological catalogue has them earlier rather than later in that time span, close to 1720 but he, too, is no more precise than that for any individual works out of the six beyond that.



Hope this helps some of the way at least.



All the best,

Answer 3

Js Bach Dates