JAVS Spring 2025

Other than the two significant changes mentioned above, the following are a few more shared modifications throughout the suite: 1) I omit what did not naturally lie under the hands and bow of the Baroque viola. When necessary, I replace the omitted notes from the first step with alternative notes to fill out missing harmony or counterpoint. This follows a principle of Bach’s to adapt music in ways that are idiomatic for a particular instrument.

containing chains of small suspensions. Since the movement is not very fast and stays almost solely in a two-voice texture, most of the bass part is included in the transcription. The third beat of m. 9 and the last beat of m. 12 provide good examples of including a bass line while applying implied polyphony. It would be impossible to hear the tied note at the top voice in those spots, but playing the bass, which fills the empty beat, is both musically and harmonically satisfying. However, some of the bass line was removed because, while playable, not every bass note is aesthetically pleasing to play. For example, in mm. 5 and 6, I could include the bass note, but since this was the very beginning of the movement, I wanted to leave some room for the texture to grow (See Example 11). Another example is provided in mm. 11 and 12 where a pedal tone in the bass is musically pleasing to include. However, I see a mordent-like half-step ascending sequence in the third to fifth sixteenth note in m. 11, and Bach would likely have written a slur over those figures. In this case, the bass note is interrupting the natural flow of the top voice, thus I decide not to have bass in that passage. Moreover, the E pedal tone arrives right after every sequence. (See Example 10). In m. 28, I remove the bass in the second half of the measure because, although playable, it would be unnecessarily hard to play and interrupts the melodic sequence that is continued from m. 26. Instead, I notate the bottom voices in the eight note rests to indicate that there was a bass line in the original (See Example 12). Lastly, the chords from m. 53 until the end of the movement are rearranged to be played more easily on the instrument (See Example 13).

2) I add slurs based on the patterns that are typically found in Bach’s string music.

3} I reassign notes in chords so I can play them more easily on the viola within the same harmony.

4) I apply implied polyphony to smooth out some of the more complex contrapuntal textures. When highly independent voices are moving simultaneously, I only depict notes which are the most audible. When there is a sustained note creating interesting harmony or texture, I reassign the note later to create an effect of sustaining. 5) Finally, I transpose the piece from C minor to D minor: after trying to perform it in C minor, I found it unsatisfactory (which is very unexpected since C minor would give us two bottom open strings which makes the performance more resonating) but when I transposed it to D minor, I found the piece lay naturally under the left hand, especially in the Fugue. I. Preludio The suite opens with a Preludio composed of continuous sixteenth notes in stepwise motion and sequences

Example 11. BWV 997, Preludio. mm. 5-7.

22

Journal of the American Viola Society / Vol. 41, No. 1, Spring 2025