----------------- Bulletin Email -----------------
De : J. S. BACH
Date : 17 janv. 2009, 17:27


Unaccompanied Suites for Cello No 3 'Allemande'

is uploaded into music player.










The Six Suites for Unaccompanied Cello by Johann Sebastian Bach are acclaimed as some of the greatest works ever written for solo cello. They were most likely composed during the period 1717–1723, when Bach served as a Kapellmeister in Cöthen.




The suites contain a great variety of technical devices, a wide range of emotional content, and some of Bach's most compelling voice interactions and conversations. It is their intimacy, however, that has made the suites amongst Bach's most popular works today, resulting in their different recorded interpretations being fiercely defended by their respective advocates.


The suites have been transcribed for numerous instruments, including the violin, viola, double bass, viola da gamba, piano, marimba, classical guitar, recorder, horn, saxophone, bass clarinet, bassoon, trumpet trombone, euphonium, and tuba.



History:

An exact chronology of the suites (regarding both the order in which the suites were composed and whether they were composed before or after the solo violin sonatas) cannot be completely established. However, scholars generally believe that—based on a comparative analysis of the styles of the sets of works—the cello suites arose first, effectively dating the suites pre-1720, the year on the title page of Bach's autograph of the violin sonatas.


The suites were not widely known before the 1900s, and for a long time it was generally thought that the pieces were intended to be études. However, after discovering Grützmacher's edition in a thrift shop at age 13, Pablo Casals began studying them. Although he would later perform the works publicly, it was not until he was 48 that he agreed to record the pieces, becoming the first to record all six suites. Their popularity soared soon after, and Casals' original recording is still widely available today.


Attempts to compose piano accompaniments to the suites include a notable effort by Robert Schumann. In 1923, Leopold Godowsky realised suites 2, 3 and 5 in full counterpoint for solo piano.


Unlike Bach's violin sonatas, no autograph manuscript survives, thus ruling out the use of an urtext performing edition. However, analysis of secondary sources—including a hand-written copy by Bach's second wife, Anna Magdalena—have produced passably authentic editions, although critically deficient in the placement of slurs and other articulation. As a result, many interpretations of the suites exist, with no singularly accepted version.