The idea that Johann Sebastian Bach was a modern who knew how to handle the style galant, then quite new, with such stylistic perfection that the works in question do not suffer the ravages of time. Here is a little-observed aspect of the "Kantor of Leipzig"! Not of course as regards the perfection of his workmanship, which most musicians and connoisseurs acknowledge unreservedly; it is the image of Bach writing "up-to-date" music, especially for the organ, that may be found surprising. It is true that the six trio sonatas stand out as an almost unique exception in his output for the organ, essentially composed for the Lutheran liturgy in a style that is frequently much more severe and sometimes positively out of step with the tastes of his time. Here, though, all the ingredients of the style galant are present: the flexibility and singing character of the melodic lines, the purity and apparent simplicity of the three-part harmony, not forgetting the three movement form.
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