JAVS Summer 2011

5. Bach created music with an infinite variety of possible, valid, and artistic performance media and practices. These suites are arranged for guitar, trombone, horn, saxophone, and marimba—to name just a few. The suites also work just as well when arranged for a ten year-old student violist or for the most diligent of mature, scholarly performers. 6. Bach created a special moment in musical time and space (kairos)—different from ordinary time and space—where he created something special and unique, dramatically changing the course of music history. The violoncello suites are a part of that kairos! 7. Each Bach suite demands a valid, conscious, and genuine effort to perform. Yet, there can never be an absolute, final expression. There can only be many such expressions, each true and beautiful, yet somehow incomplete. Parameters for comments include the very pedestrian issues of measure numbers, (for comparison and convenience), 10 page layout, and the amount of editing and suggestions (including bowings, fingerings, metronome markings), as well as general directions. Some of the more weighty issues include: the sources used; amount of explanation regarding note, articulation, and rhythm discrepancies between sources; and indications on how the difficulties were resolved. Of course, the previously mentioned problems of scordatura in Suite No. 5 and the difficult problem with the Suite No. 6 five-stringed instrument are included—retain the key of D major and re-write some parts to keep the brightness of D major or transpose to G major to keep the bariolage and double stops as written? Each edition approaches each suite with its own combination of information and solutions. Louis Svecenski (1862–1926). Svecenski was principal viola of the Boston Symphony from 1885 until 1903 and founding violist of the Kneisel Quartet. Publisher information: G. Schirmer, Inc ., Vol. 1278, 1916. This 1916 edition is most likely the first American viola edition of the suites and is still available. There is no indication of sources and very brief remarks regarding performance directions/notations for the added bowings and fingerings. As in many early editions, the editor has included Italian tempo markings, e.g., Prelude to the Suite No. 1 is marked “Allegro moderato (quasi andante),” and Italian instructions within the body of the movements, e.g., molto cantabile, diminuendo , ritardando , etc. The optional dances in Suite No. 4 are labeled “Loure I and Loure II” rather than as in most other editions—Bourrées. There is no indication of scordatura in the fifth suite. The sixth suite is in D major (the original key) with unmarked alterations except for the Sarabande. The Sarabande is transposed to G major with this note on EDITION ANNOTATIONS

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