I love many, many of Herr Bach’s compositions.
For someone like myself, untrained, but one who appreciates much of his work, I’ve learned to recognize certain techniques he often used. In many of the sonatas, there seems to be both a ‘shadowing and foreshadowing’ effect of the melody, played back in varying octaves. I don’t know how else to describe it.
One example: the third movement of Sonata in E Minor BWV 1023.
For me, the beginning of that piece provides an exquisitely pure and flowing melody. I listened to Sonata in E Major, BWV 1016 , a violin with piano accompaniment performed by
Issac Stern and Alexander Zakin. It’s outrageously beautiful. Listen to it yourself. I’m not skilled at provided links, sorry.
there seems to be both a ‘shadowing and foreshadowing’ effect of the melody, played back in varying octavesI've heard experts explain it (we have a local Bach Consort that brings in professors to discuss the performance pieces), but your description is far more to the point than anything I may have understood from the experts. Yes, he intertwines, overlays, repeats, partially-repeats, mixes up the melodies... it's so fantastic and so hard to listen to anything else afterwards!