Bach Chaconne Absorbs Anguish on Elementary's While You Were Sleeping

Summary: The Bach Chaconne perhaps absorbs anguish from a solo violinist who attains an accurate performance on Elementary's While You Were Sleeping Oct. 8, 2012.

Oil on canvas, ca. 1715, by Weimar Court Painter Johann Ernst Rentsch the Elder (died 1723) may or may not be portrait of German Baroque composer Johann Sebastian Bach during his residence at Schloss Weimar, Thuringia, central Germany, as Court Organist (1708-1717) and as Konzertmeister (1714-1717); Angermuseum, Erfurt, Thuringia, central Germany: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The Bach Chaconne asks for awesome abilities from a solo violinist whose anguish it perhaps assists in absorbing on the Elementary procedural television series episode While You Were Sleeping Oct. 8, 2012.

Director John David Coles and writer Robert Doherty bring the Bach Chaconne, the fifth movement of Partita 2 in D-minor, into the first season's second episode. Joan Watson (Lucy Liu), sober companion to recovering addict Sherlock Holmes (Jonny Lee Miller), comes across a closeted violin with S. Holmes carved under the strings. Sherlock disputes, with "Playing took up too much space in my brain, so I stopped," Joan's declaring, "Playing an instrument can relieve a lot of stress."

Joan expresses, erroneously and scarily as an ex-surgeon whose expertise ended in a patient unexpectedly, but avoidably, expiring, that "You can't unlearn something you already know."

Sherlock fathoms who fatally foiled Casey McManus' and Anna Webster's inheritance claims, as albeit illegitimate children, to equal shares in shipping magnate Charles Ellison's many millions.

Endothelial corneal dystrophy, facial bone structure and widow's peaks versus seated-shooter bullet paths and tea blossom scents respectively give away Anna's and Casey's father and killer. Eyewitness testimony, physical evidence and unrelated confessions help Sherlock head Captain Tommy Gregson (Aidan Quinn) and Detective Marcus Bell (Jon Michael Hill) to killer and accomplice. Once the case is solved, Sherlock initiates an impeccable interpretation of the Bach Chaconne even though he never indicates his interpretation of the fifth movement's inspiration.

Online sources judge the Bach Chaconne as the emotional, professional or spiritual journey of Johann Sebastian Bach (March 31, 1685-July 28, 1750) as husband, composer, Lutheran.

Partita No 2 in D Minor for Solo Violin, as BMW 1004 in Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis ("Bach Works Catalogue"), keeps four dance-type movements and the fifth for variations.

The Bach partita and sonata set, Sei Solo a Violino Senza Basso Accompagnato ("You Are Alone for Violin Without Bass Accompaniment" literally), lodges the second partita. The second partita in the correctly called Sei Soli ("Six Solos") manifests Allemanda ("German"), Corrente ("running"), Sarabanda (from Persian سربند, "headband") and Giga ("bowed lyre") movements. French terminology nowadays nudges out Italian, with the quartet named Allemande, Courante, Sarabande and Gigue and the fifth Chaconne (from Italian ciaccona, from Basque txoko, "corner").

The slow Bach Allemande, Courante and Sarabande court dances and lively Bach Gigue folk dance occur before the dance-song re-organized as the slow Bach Chaconne instrumental.

The Bach Chaconne presents, in 256 measures, 64 variations that prevail between the four-measure beginning basic theme and the more harmonious, stronger four-measure ending basic theme.

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt's 2006-released Violin Dreams by Arnold Steinhardt qualifies the first four and the fourth movements as respectively "beautiful if modest" and "brilliant and upbeat." The retired first violinist of the Guarneri String Quartet of Marlboro, Vermont, regards the first, second and third Bach Chaconne sections as representing the Holy Trinity. Steinhardt and Belgian musicologist Helga Thoene respectively suggest the Bach Chaconne messaging God and memorializing Bach's first wife, Maria Barbara (Oct. 20, 1684-buried July 7, 1720).

Perhaps the night-time Bach Chaconne from Sherlock's violin tells who triggered his addiction in London, England, and recovery in Hemdale Rehabilitation Facility and the Holmes brownstone.

Sherlock Holmes (Jonny Lee Miller) and Joan Watson (Lucy Liu): Elementary @CBS Elementary, via Facebook Oct. 4, 2012

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Oil on canvas, ca. 1715, by Weimar Court Painter Johann Ernst Rentsch the Elder (died 1723) may or may not be portrait of German Baroque composer Johann Sebastian Bach during his residence at Schloss Weimar, Thuringia, central Germany, as Court Organist (1708-1717) and as Konzertmeister (1714-1717); by 1720, J.S. Bach completed Sei Solo a Violino senza Basso accompagnato, which includes Partita No. 2 in D minor (BWV 1004); Angermuseum, Erfurt, Thuringia, central Germany: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Young_Bach2.jpg

Sherlock Holmes (Jonny Lee Miller) and Joan Watson (Lucy Liu): Elementary @CBS Elementary, via Facebook Oct. 4, 2012, @ https://www.facebook.com/ElementaryCBS/posts/407159756017316

For further information:

Beisswenger, Kirsten; Wolfgang Schmieder; Alfred Dürr; and Yoshitake Kobayashi. 1998. Bach Werke Verzeichnis. Leipzig, Germany: Breitkopf & Härtel.

Block, Melissa. 18 January 2007. "'Violin Dreams': Chasing Bach's Elusive Chaconne." National Public Radio, Inc [US] > Music News.
Available @ https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6888973

Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan. 1892. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. London, England: George Newnes Ltd.

Elementary @CBSElementary. 4 October 2012. "Get a sneak peek at tonight's all new episode. Like this post if you'll be watching Sherlock and Watson team up to solve crimes at 10/9c!" Facebook.
Available @ https://www.facebook.com/ElementaryCBS/posts/407159756017316

Marriner, Derdriu. 29 September 2012. "Are Lesser Clovers Sherlock's Lucky Shamrocks on Elementary's Pilot?" Earth and Space News. Saturday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2012/09/are-lesser-clovers-sherlocks-lucky.html

Steinhardt, Arnold. 2006. Violin Dreams. New York NY: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Thoene, Helga. 1994. "Johann Sebastian Bach. Ciaconna - Tanz oder Tombeau. Verborgene Sprache eines berümten Werkes." In Festschrift zum Leopoldfest [15. Köthener Bachfesttage], 14-81. Cöthener Bach-Hefte 6, Veröffentlichungen des Historischen Museums Köthen/Anhalt XIX. Köthen.

Thoene, Helga. 2001. Johann Sebastian Bach, Ciaccona: Tanz oder Tombeau? Eine analytische Studie. Oschersleben, Germany: Ziethen.

"While You Were Sleeping." Elementary: The First Season. Los Angeles CA: Paramount Pictures Corporation, Oct. 4, 2012.