While many of Johann Sebastian Bach's works were forgotten shortly after his death (until "re-discovery" of the works in the 19th century), his influence on music was carried on through his students and admirers. Amongst those, we can count Johann Kirnberger, a composer and theorist who was a great admirer of Bach's, and rumored to have been a student of Bach. Today we look at his Flute Sonata in G Major.

Kirnberger begins the Sonata with a slow Adagio that features a regular syncopation in the flute part in contrast to the steady continuo part. After three measures introducing the themes, Kirnberger immediately begins syncopating the flute line in measure four, a feeling that continues through most of the movement. Kirnberger was a master at the fugue, so we see some wonderful counterpoint writing, though many of the fugal ideas presented are more subtle, with only imitation of the flute in the continuo part.

The second movement brings us to an Allegro, where we see the start of the traditional sonata form, with an opening theme in G, and secondary theme on the dominant. Again, Kirnberger employs syncopation regularly to keep us interested. We see the main theme presented in the dominant, before moving back to the tonic. Hints of a development section are seen throughout this section.

Kirnberger moves on to a short, light minuet movement before taking us through not one, not two, not three, but four doubles. These constant variations give us an early insight into the development of the theme and variations as the final movement of the sonata form. Kirnberger creates a varied flute line that keeps the piece aurally interesting, while maintaining a constant continuo line.

We've located two commercial recordings of this work:
Klange der Nacht, by Benedek Csalog & Miklós Spányi
From the Court of Frederick the Great, by Bartholdi Kuijken