Flute Sonata No. 2 in E flat major, BWV1031

The sonata unfolds in three movements, fast, slow, fast, a shape common to Baroque instrumental music.

I. Allegro moderato: The flute and keyboard trade a flowing, dance-like melody back and forth, with the keyboard often doubling as a partner rather than mere accompaniment. Listen for the buoyant, walking motion that never quite stops.

II. Siciliano: This is the movement people wait for. Over a gently rocking, lilting rhythm (the "siciliano" pattern, a slow lullaby-like sway), the flute sings a long, aching melody. It is one of the most recorded slow movements in the Baroque flute repertoire, and its melancholy sweetness stands out sharply against the brighter movements around it.

III. Allegro: The mood lightens again into a quick, cheerful finale full of light, running passages that toss the tune between the two instruments, ending the piece with playful energy rather than weight.

Because the outer movements are brisk and short, the whole sonata passes quickly, leaving the Siciliano as the emotional center listeners tend to remember afterward.

This sonata belongs to a set of flute sonatas long attributed to Johann Sebastian Bach, though scholars have debated its authorship for decades, since the surviving sources are not autograph manuscripts. Whether or not every note came from Bach's own pen, the work circulated among flutists and keyboardists as part of the core eighteenth century repertoire for the instrument. Its central slow movement, the Siciliano, became especially beloved and has since taken on a life of its own, frequently arranged for other instruments, including organ, guitar, and orchestra. Today the sonata is programmed both in original chamber form and in transcriptions, valued less for settling questions of attribution than for the warmth and clarity of its melodic writing, especially in that famous middle movement.