Publisher's Synopsis
Johann Sebastian Bach's Suites á Violoncello Solo senza Basso are thought to have been composed during 1717-1723, when Bach served as Kapellmeister in Köthen. The manuscript copy of Cello Suite III, BWV 1009 is the only surviving original. It is generally thought to be in the hand of Bach's second wife Anna Magdelena Bach. Some scholars now believe that the manuscript is indeed in the hand of Johann Sebastian Bach. It is housed in the Deutsche Staatsbibliothek in Berlin. This is the historical source, along with current scholarly editions of the Bach cello suites, from which this arrangement has been made. Cello Suite III, BWV 1009, is in the key of C major. This arrangement transposes the original key to A major.It is interesting to note that the great 20th century cello virtuoso Pablo Casals declined to edit his own edition of the cello suites. He said that was because his attitude to the music was founded on an unending search for musical and technical solutions, and thus was ever evolving and changing. He felt that any edition of his would therefore become out of date in a short time.For guitarists Casals's attitude of "unending search" is doubly applicable. This arrangement reflects my own current take on how Bach's Cello Suite III may be played on guitar. In order to offer guitarists a rich palette of resources with which to explore this music, this edition consists of three parts, each of which includes the complete suite: Part I - The fully realized guitar arrangement.Part II - The guitar arrangement in score with the unadorned cello part. This allows the player to always have at hand a definitive resource to see what the Bach original was.Part III - This is a reproduction of the original manuscript, which is essential for not only cellists, but for guitarists as well.
