A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Partie

by J. A. Fuller-Maitland

PARTIE, PARTITA. The German and Italian forms respectively of a name said to have originated about the beginning of the 17th century, with the Kunst- or Stadt-Pfeifers, or town musicians, and given by them to the collections of dance-tunes which were played consecutively, and which afterwards were taken to form suites. Bach uses the name in two senses; first, as the equivalent of 'Suite' in the Six Partitas for Clavier; and second, for three sets of Variations on Chorales for Organ, viz. those on 'Christ, der du bist der helle Tag' (7 Partitas, including the theme itself), on 'Gott, du frommer Gott' (9 Partitas including the theme), and on 'Sey gegrüsset Jesu gütig' (11 Partitas or variations, exclusive of the theme itself). He also wrote three Partitas (in the Suite-form) for the lute. The name has very seldom been used since Bach; the chief instance of its occurrence is in the original title of Beethoven's Octuor, 'Parthia in Es' (see vol. ii. p. 492a). But in the modern rage for revivals it may possibly reappear.

[ J. A. F. M. ]