The Validity of Transcribing Bach's Lute Music

Careful interpretation of Baroque music often entails making educated guesses about what composers intended. Of course, performance practice research is ongoing and constantly being reevaluated, so this is not easy. Compared to most music from 1900 until today, interpretation of Baroque music is an inexact science. We could compare the performance of Baroque music to jazz: many subtle details were not written down, but understood to be freely, stylistically interpreted.If J. S. Bach were alive today, there are undoubtedly many questions we would ask. As a percussionist, I would love to know which instruments he preferred his “lute” music to be played on. Did this concern him? Did he have a preference? If he did not, can we justify playing his music on other instruments today? Along these lines, would he have approved of his music being played on modern versions of the instruments he was familiar with and on instruments that were not around during his lifetime such as the marimba and the synthesizer?In order to come up with educated guesses to these questions, it is necessary to trace the history of the lute and related instruments during the Baroque era and also to analyze what was happening historically at the time, with Bach himself and with events of the day.During the Baroque period, the lute was considered the “noblest” instrument, played in courts by kings and noblemen, especially during the reign of Louis XIV. The lute’s nobility had much to do with the kings and noblemen being fairly competent players.[1] It was important at this time to know how to dance and play music, and the lute was the popular instrument for entertaining at the time.[2] “The lute in use during the Baroque period had up to thirteen total courses, depending on the type of lute. In addition to the traditional six courses of upper strings, five courses of bass strings that did not pass over the fingerboard were tuned diatonically to suit the key of the piece. One refers to “courses” rather than strings, because lutes had all but the highest strings doubled at the unison or octave.”[3] Unlike guitars, the high octaves of the lute are only intended to add harmonic richness to the low notes and are not considered to be musical tones in their own right. The strings below the sixth course were commonly played open and were adjusted chromatically to the key of the individual piece.Baroque music for lute falls into two major categories: Arioso or lyrical style with a singing melody, and style brisé or broken style, consisting of extensive use of the arpeggio. The lute is particularly suitable for the latter.[4] Most of the late 15th century repertory of the lute, beside song accompaniments, was intabulated (transcribed into tablature, the notation used for lute) from chansons and other vocal originals. The lute was also widely used as a solo instrument to accompany songs, and for preludes and interludes during court ballets. In Spain, the local variant of the lute, the vihuela [de mano] [5] was favored.

Lute music in the Early Baroque consisted of stylized dances which were compiled in books according to type. Later the separate dances were arranged in groups according to keys, forming suites.”[6] From this practice, J.S. Bach probably learned the idea of the suite form for his lute and cello suites.To French musicians during the Baroque period, the suite was an anthology rather than a strict sequence of dances.[7] The dance music for chamber ensembles and for keyboard was far surpassed in quantity by the dance collections for lute and guitar which, like recordings of the twentieth century, contributed most to the dissemination of popular dances. These dance collections may be compared in many ways to “fake books” used by jazz musicians. Lute tablature may also be compared to modern guitar fingering charts. Of course, jazz and Baroque lute music are quite different, but both seem to fulfill a similar purpose of providing suitable entertainment music during each respective era.

“It was not necessary to read the usual staff notation to play the lute, since its music was notated in tablatures, which showed the placement on frets that marked off semitones on the fingerboard. (Tablatures were also devised for viols and keyboard instruments.)[8] This made the instrument and its repertory accessible to unschooled musicians. However, “it was not an easy instrument to master, and the tuning of sixteen or more strings was an awesome hurdle.”[9]

During the Baroque era, the harpsichordists were so strongly influenced by the lutenists that the harpsichordists enthusiastically augmented their style, copying the lutenists mannerisms, stile brisé, imaginative titles, ornamentation, variations and grouping of dances according to keys.[17] The harpsichordists included, along with the lutenist’s manner, the repertory dances, preludes, tombeaux, and other characteristic pieces. The “greatest hits” of the lute were transcribed for the keyboard, as in the collection of works by Ennemond and Denis Gaultier edited by Perrine, Pieces de Luth en Musique (Lute pieces in Score), Paris, 1680 or in the arrangement by d’Anglebert.[18] French harpsichordists for a time ignored the capabilities of their own instrument to rival lutenists in their area.[19] This was especially true of J. S. Bach, was so taken with the lute that he even had a lute-harpsichord built for him.The lute-harpsichord, or lute-clavier as it is also called, is a variety of the harpsichord strung with gut, occasionally supplemented by a 4’ choir of metal strings. It is intended to imitate the sound of the lute rather than the harp, as in the case of the arpicordo.[20] The lute-harpsichord was primarily cultivated in Germany during Bach’s lifetime, and his estate included two lutes and an instrument called alautenwerk (lute-harpsichord)[21] Bach "invented the lute-clavier, which he had Zacharias Hildebrand make for him." What Bach meant to do with this clavier is not quite clear. It could only be used for playing his lute compositions on a keyed instrument.”[22] It is reasonable to suppose that Bach had a working knowledge of the lute, but in view of the difficulty of playing he instrument well on a part-time basis he may have preferred the ease of the keyboard imitation.[23] It is certain that he enjoyed the lute, and when Wilhelm Friedman Bach brought the S.L. Weiss and J. Kropfgans to see him in July 1739, it was reported that “something special in the way of music” occurred.[24] In Musica mechanica II, Adlung mentions having seen and heard a lute-harpsichord devised by Bach and constructed by Zacharias Hildebrand in Leipzig around 1740. “It was slightly smaller than an ordinary clavicembelo, but in other respects was made like one. It had two catgut strings to each note and a so-called “little octave” of brass strings.” Under ordinary circumstances, when one stop is drawn, it sounded more like a theorbo than the lute. In contrast, when the so-called lute stop was drawn (the damping of the metal strings) was drawn with the cornet stop, “the lutenists by profession might almost be deceived by it.”[25] Bach’s pupil Johann Friedrich Agricola, in a note to the sections of Jakob Adlung’s Musica mechanica organoedi (1768) dealing with the lute-harpsichord (pp. 333ff.) also recalls having seen and heard one in Leipzig in about 1740 that had been made at Bach’s suggestion by Zacharias Hildebrand. No historical example has survived.[26] However enamored Bach was with his lute-harpsichord, he seemed to favor the clavichord even more. According to Forkel, Bach “clung to the older, in fact to the very oldest instrument — the clavichord. This was his favorite. The clavecín was too soulless for him.”[27] For himself, for private musical entertainment, and for practice, Bach used only the clavichord. “He found it most apt for the expression of his finest thoughts, and did not believe that such variety of nuance in the tone could be got on any “Flügel” or pianoforte as on this instrument, that was indeed poor in tone, but extraordinarily flexible in detail.”[28] However, Adlung, in Musica mechanica II, clarifies that in all of the instruments, left by Bach, not a single clavichord is enumerated.[29]

Whichever instruments Bach preferred, he must have enjoyed the sound of the lute, since he owned one and also owned the lute-harpsichord. Bach also transcribed many of his pieces from violin to lute and from cello to lute. Two of Bach’s most famous lute compositions are his transcription of Cello Suite V/Lute Suite III and his Prelude [, Fugue and Allegro].It is not always possible to tell whether a Baroque composer intended a given piece to be played on the on the lute or the lute-harpsichord, or for this matter, on the harpsichord or the clavichord. They seemed to allow for different kinds of instruments and varying numbers of musicians.Bach and many other composers of the Baroque period sometimes transcribed lute arrangements for the harpsichord. Lutenists normally strike one note at a time, however fast the arpeggiation may be. This necessitates sketching in the melody, bass and harmony by sounding the appropriate tones in one register and then in another, “leaving it to the imagination of the hearer to supply the implied continuity of the various lines. This was the style brisé or broken style which other French composers adapted to the harpsichord, together with certain features of the variation technique derived from the English virginalists.[30] Except for chords that are plucked with several fingers at once or quickly strummed, a player using style brisé plucks only one note at a time, alternating the fingers. Alternating higher and lower strings creates an allusion of two parts on the lute. Style brisé results when inner voices enter at will and soon evaporate. In this sense, Style brisé is not strumming, as the breaking up of the chords is slow enough to sound deliberate. Style briséis a deliberate, yet idiomatic arpeggiation on the lute.Style brisé is native to the lute. Keyboard composers during the Baroque era appropriated it because they liked the aerated, loose mixture of polyphony and chords, particularly its richness of rhythmic nuance and its animation.[31]In Bach’s music, lute-like style-brisé textures are apparent in his preludes, especially in suites 1 – 4 and in suite 6:

“...where the quality of the arpeggios and the easy way of the chords lie under the hand make it seem as if the suites were originally composed for the guitar. Cello Suite V/Lute Suite III, is of course, a model for transcription from a bowed to a plucked medium, since Bach himself wrote a version of this suite for cello and a version for Baroque-lute.”[32]

“The peculiar charm of free-voiced texture is best felt on the lute, or instrument with short duration, not the piano. “Its texture, more suggestive than real, is definitely bound up with the instrument. Lute music represents perhaps the cleverest example of making a virtue of necessity—a veritable triumph of mind over matter.”[33]

Beside Bach, the composer who took style brisé to its peak was Jacques Gaultier of the Gaultier dynasty. The quickly fading sound of the lute did not lend itself to polyphonic voice-leading and called for specific techniques that compensated for the technical limitations of the instrument. The broken style of lute music — paired with a most ingenious and consistent application of such a technique — may be called the glorification of the simplest lute figure: the arpeggio. The broken style is characterized by rapidly alternating notes in different registers that supply, in turn, melody and harmony. Seemingly distributed in arbitrary fashion over various registers, the notes produced in their composite rhythm a continuous strand of sound. The lute composer was able to articulate the even flow by means of double and triple stops which suggested the rhythmic patterns essential to the dance. "The texture of lute music was of necessity free-voiced since no voice could be carried through and since notes that hinted at one voice at the beginning of the measure dropped out as soon as they had appeared.”[34] Performers in the Baroque era were always expected to add to what the composer had written. Lute compositions were dependent on performers’ skill, taste and experience for their proper completion. Many of the characteristic ornaments and agréments of Baroque keyboard and ensemble music originated in lute music.Beside style brisé, other innovations in lute performance of the Baroque era were the tremblements (a refined group of ornaments), also called little ornaments(agréments), verre cassé or vibrato, and several forms of left hand legato playing. The lute does not lend itself to polyphonic voice-leading: ornaments were used to help sustain the line.[35] All of these innovations were indicated by stenographic signs on the page and sometimes left to the discretion of the player.[36] There are two main ornaments used in the Baroque era, the trill and the mordent. The trill is an alternation of the main note with an upper auxiliary a step or half-step above, beginning with the dissonant note (the upper note in all standard cases). Where trills are indicated at cadences, they are obligatory since they are an integral part of the harmony.The mordent (a trill sign with a slash through the middle of it) is an alternation of the main note with a lower auxiliary note a step or half-step below, and it is often executed with one repercussion.[37] In some cases, one may wish to execute this ornament with more than one repercussion or begin with the lower auxiliary note. Adding trills and mordents in lute music is a very idiomatic procedure: the fingers are comfortably spaced on the neck of the instrument in such a way as to allow very easy single step alternating neighbor tones with the main note. Since the sound of the strings die away as the tremblements are being performed, a somewhat delicate effect is conveyed to the audience.“The extreme delicacy of the ornaments bespeaks the highly intimate character of lute music; it was destined for a solo virtuoso and a very small audience.”[38] The composers, who, in many cases, were the performers themselves, gave those solo virtuosos a relatively large amount of interpretative freedom.

However, the freedom was not absolute or haphazard: it was governed by certain conventions and by the mood and tempo of the piece. There are different opinions as to how Baroque tempi should be interpreted, as well as for what instrument some Baroque music is intended for, and even whether the instrument makes any difference or not.[39] Baroque performers had a certain sensibility and were sensitive to Baroque style.[40] In this respect, ornamentation probably came somewhat naturally to Baroque performers. Most performers and composers were probably very familiar with all of the popular dances of the time, and this familiarity obviously helped the performers interpret dance music because they thoroughly knew the dances that went along with the respective music. This also helped composers such as Bach compose dance suites.Bach’s suites for solo cello were composed around 1720 during his tenure as Kapellmeister at Cöthen.[41] Bach wrote two versions of his fifth suite for unaccompanied cello, one for the cello (Cello Suite V) and another entitled Suite pour la Luth par J.S. Bach [Lute Suite III]. This is a model from a bowed to a plucked medium.[42] The autograph of this lute version is harmonically clearer and more polyphonically filled-out than the cello version. According to the date of the watermark on the manuscript of the autograph lute version, Bach wrote down this version between 1727 and 1731. It is probably a more mature composition than the cello version which was written down before the lute version.[43] Bach probably wrote Lute Suite III after Cello Suite V for the same reason that most modern composers write multiple versions of a work: to guarantee as many performances as possible and to guarantee sales of the sheet music. In many ways, the transgression from cello to lute is a natural one, especially since they share a similar range.Was the Suite pour la Luth par J.S. Bach written for lute or the lute-harpsichord? The title of his autograph manuscript (“Suite for the Lute”) should leave little doubt for what instrument it was intended. However, Bach wrote notes which cannot be played on the lute, most notably the low ‘G’ at the beginning of the Prelude in Lute Suite III. In the following examples 1a and 1b, the first note is the lowest non-scorditura note of the unstopped contrabass string on a Theorbo, a large six-course bass lute. The second note is the low ‘G’ that J.S. Bach wrote in the Prelude (mm. 3, 5–7, etc.):

At first glance, one might assume that you could just re-tune the ‘A’ contrabass string for the entire piece. This necessitates not having a low ‘A’ in the entire movement, unless there is a suitable rest to re-tune the note. Unfortunately in m. 16, there appears a low ‘A’, right after a low ‘G’ in m. 14 and before a low ‘G’ in m.18. Of course, you could also assume that the other contrabass string could be re-tuned, but they are all needed in their regular tunings throughout the entire movement.

The manuscript of the score for Lute Suite III is also not in tablature, the universal notation system for lutenists during Bach’s lifetime.[44] You could chalk this up to expediency on Bach’s part; it may have been easier for him to write in regular notation for the sake of getting it down on paper. Adding further confusion is the recorded fact that Bach could play the lute. Perhaps we will never know why the “lute” music was not always notated using tablature.As an interesting aside, we should take note of the bourrée from theSuite in E Minor (BWV 996) occurring in a collection made by Bach‘s pupil Johann Ludwig Krebs in two staff notation. A later hand added the words “auf’s Lautenwerk.”[45] In addition to Lute Suite III, some of Bach’s clavier pieces were probably composed first for the lute (possibly from an improvisation): the little prelude in C minor, the prelude in E-flat major, (B.G. XLV, p. 141), the suite in e minor (B.G. XLV, p. 149 ff.) and the one in E Major (B.G. XL II, p. 16 ff.). The one in C minor (B.G. XLV, p. 156 ff.) is a clavier arrangement of a composition for the lute. The fugue of the G minor sonata for solo violin and the Suite discordable for cello have also come down to us in lute tablature. The three Bach partitas for lute mentioned in Breitkopf’s catalogue in 1761 are thus not lost, as many had thought. Conclusively, and as written earlier, Bach himself probably played the lute, whatever his ability may have been.Interestingly, Lute Suite III is the most lutenistic of all of Bach’s lute works. However, it contains technical impossibilities such as a contrabass G, a note that exists on no known 18th century lutes (even with scorditura tuning),[46] but is within the range of a large Baroque harpsichord.Similar problems in Bach’s other lute pieces suggest that Bach played the lute, but probably not very well. However, as stated earlier, he owned a lute which was listed among the instruments in his estate in 1750. He was also personally acquainted with many German lutenists, among them Silvius Leopold Weiss, Johann Kropfganss, Johann Christian Weyrauch, and Luise Gottsched. His own keyboard and composition students Johann Ludwig Krebs and Rudolph Straube and probably Ernst Gottlieb Baron (who visited the Cöthen court in 1720 and praises the playing of Bach in his book of 1727) were also lutenists. Thus, we can assume that Bach was intimately acquainted with the lute and its notation and technique even though he probably was not an adept lute performer.[47] There is a strong possibility that the Lute Suite III was composed as a piece of idealized lute music for, or at least upon, this lute-harpsichord. In writing in this manner Bach would not have had to use tablature, and it would have been easy to write passages that are awkward on the lute even though they sound lutenistic. Bach could also extend the range of the lute easily downward. In a chamber setting, no time would need to be spent retuning the lute strings.In an anonymous tablature version of Lute Suite III made during Bach’s time, the lutenist who adapted the work had to transpose low G’s and other notes that are difficult or impossible to play. This tablature version is a good example of the performance practices of lutenists of the time.There is no question that the original medium of the Lute Suite III and his other lute works was the plucked string, whether lute, lute-harpsichord or harpsichord. The arpeggiated style of the suite is clearly, what inspired the anonymous intabulation.[48] While modern guitarists and marimbists may be interested to know for what instrument the music was actually composed, they can rest assured that it falls idiomatically on the guitar and on a more modern instrument, the marimba.[49]

There exists three principal existent 18th-century manuscripts of Lute Suite III/Cello Suite V: the manuscript “for lute” in J.S. Bach’s hand, another for unaccompanied cello in the script of Anna Magdalena Bach and a third in French Baroque lute tablature in the script of an anonymous lutenist.[50] Two copies also exist of the cello version, one by J.P. Kellner and the other by an anonymous scribe.Bach’s music is essentially a synthesis of two musical styles that were identified with the countries of their origin, Italy and France. The Italian Style was virtuostic, extroverted, expressive and disposed to straightforward, vigorous rhythms, drama, and high contrast. The French style was restrained, graceful, impressionistic, and inclined to intricate rhythms, elegance, balance and subtle nuance. The music of all of the cello suites, except Cello Suite V, is mostly Italian in style, whereas Cello Suite V seems to be mostly in a French style. We may speculate that Bach looked over Cello Suite V and saw an opportunity to make another version of it. Perhaps one of his sons, his wife or one of the many lutenists he was acquainted with suggested this idea to him.Another of Bach's compositions supposedly written for the lute, Prelude [, Fugue and Allegro], (BWV 998) (“Prelude our la Luth. ò Cémbal. par J.S. Bach.”) is confined to the range of the lute and is in a lutenistic style (generally a slow-moving bass and a relatively thin texture). It seems to have been conceived as a lute piece but written at the harpsichord. “This impression is also suggested by the alternative instrumentation in Bach’s own hand: “Prelude for the lute and harpsichord.” It is very unlikely that the work was composed at the lute since there are many awkward and uncomfortable fingerings that never occur in the works of a lutenist such as Silvious Weiss, for example, although his musical style is quite similar. Where this sort of writing appears in the Prélude Fugue and Allegro, the fingering many guitarists and lutenists use is intended to allow the individual voices of the harmonies to ring as long as possible.In the past, some scholars have doubted whether it is a complete composition and even whether it is by Bach. Upon examining the autograph score, these doubts are easily laid to rest: the autograph score “is signed in Bach’s hand, “par [by] J.S. Bach,” and Bach writes “Fin” at the end of the Allegro. On the basis of the watermark analysis and the character of Bach’s script, the date of composition of BWV 998 has recently been placed in the beginning to mid-1740’s, though it could conceivably be a revision of another piece since lost. The late date is substantiated by the da capo fugue, a rare form that Bach used in a few other late compositions, among them the C minor lute suite, BWV 997.”[51] Was Bach particular about which instruments music should be played on? The evidence suggests that he was not. In fact, he composed pieces for the purpose of being played on multiple instruments.Through careful research, it seems that if Bach played the lute, he was not very good at it, or he was idealistic about the range of the lute. He probably indulged himself with the sound of the lute on his lute-harpsichord because it was easier to play and had a larger range. Although it is difficult for a somewhat hero-worshipping society to imagine, Bach was probably not good at all things, particularly at playing the lute. The keyed instruments were what he played most of all, so that is probably what he composed with and mostly wrote for, including the lute-harpsichord. We may conclude that Bach probably would not mind if his music were played on different instruments, as long as the instruments are sufficiently sensitive to warrant an excellent performance.

August, 2005

[1]Manfred F. Bukofzer, Music in the Baroque Era, (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1947), 164.

[2]John Gingerich, “Music of the Baroque Period, M653” Class Notes, fall 1996, Indiana University.

[3]Claude V. Palisca, Baroque Music, 3d ed. (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1991), 184.

[4]The Baroque Guitar, selected and trans. Frederick Noad, (New York: Ariel Music Publications, Inc., 1974), 17.

[5]Donald Jay Grout and Claude V. Palisca, A History of Western Music, 4th ed. (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, inc., 1988), 288.

[6]Harold Gleason and Warren Becker, Music in the Baroque, Music Literature Outlines, Series II, 3d ed. (Frangipani Press, Alfred Publishing Co., Inc., 1987), 56.

[7]Manfred F. Bukofzer, Music in the Baroque Era, (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1947), 167.

[8]Donald Jay Grout and Claude V. Palisca, A History of Western Music, 4th ed. (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, inc., 1988), 289.

[9]Claude V. Palisca, Baroque Music, 3d ed. (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1991), 186.

[10]Manfred F. Bukofzer, Music in the Baroque Era, (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1947), 168.

[11]Manfred F. Bukofzer, Music in the Baroque Era, (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1947), 47.

[12]Ibid., 111.

[13]Donald Jay Grout and Claude V. Palisca, A History of Western Music, 4th ed. (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, inc., 1988), 397.

[14]Claude V. Palisca, Baroque Music, 3d ed. (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1991), 184.

[15]Manfred F. Bukofzer, Music in the Baroque Era, (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1947), 169.

[16]Ibid., 169.

[17]Harold Gleason and Warren Becker, Music in the Baroque, Music Literature Outlines, Series II, 3d ed. (Frangipani Press, Alfred Publishing Co., Inc., 1987), 56.

[18]Claude V. Palisca, Baroque Music, 3d ed. (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1991), pp. 186-187.

[19]Claude V. Palisca, Baroque Music, 3d ed. (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1991), 187.

[20]The Norton/Grove Concise Encyclopedia of Music (1988), s.v. “Lute-harpsichord.”

[21]A description of this instrument and an account by Bach’s pupil Johann Friedrich Agricola of a particular lute-harpsichord owned J.S. Bach are included in Jacob Adlung’s Musica Mechanica Organoedi (Berlin, 1768.) This work has been reprinted in facsimile by Bärenreiter-Verlag (Kassel, 1961). Howard Ferguson also describes the instrument in his article “Bach’s ‘Lauten Werck’ “ in Music and Letters (1967.)

[22]Palisca, 204.

[23]Amelia Hollins, “Information to Aid the Marimbist in the Transcription of Music Written for the Guitar”, [ca. 1980], collection, Leigh Howard Stevens, Asbury Park, New Jersey, 1.

[24]Jacob Adlung, Musica mechanica II, 1768, pp. 144 and 152, as quoted in Albert Schweitzer, J.S. Bach Volume I, trans. Ernest Newman, Dover Publications, Inc. New York, 204.

[25]Ibid., 204.

[26]The Norton/Grove Concise Encyclopedia of Music (1988), s.v. “Lute.”

[27]Jacob Adlung, Musica mechanica II, 1768, pp. 144 and 152, as quoted in Albert Schweitzer, J.S. Bach Volume I, trans. Ernest Newman, Dover Publications, Inc. New York, 202.

[28] Forkel, Über Johann Sabastian Bachs Leben, Kunst und Kunstwerke, Leipzig, 1802, p. 17, quoted in Albert Schweitzer, J.S. Bach Volume I, trans. Ernest Newman, Dover Publications, Inc. New York, p. 203.

[29]Jacob Adlung, Musica mechanica II, 1768, pp. 144 and 152, as quoted in Albert Schweitzer, J.S. Bach Volume I, trans. Ernest Newman, Dover Publications, Inc. New York, 203.

[30]Perhaps the most ironic accusation of twentieth century musicians is the accusation that baroque lute music is “tonal” and non-dissonant and/or spicy, when in fact this is almost always due to musicians’ lack of knowledge of how to ornament baroque lute music. The agréments are what make the music “spicy”, ad taking the intended ornaments away reduces the music to a tonal skeleton.

[31]Claude V. Palisca, Baroque Music, 3d ed. (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1991), 184.

[32]Johann Sebastian Bach, Cello Suite III (BWV 1009), guitar trans. Michael Lorimer (New York: Shattinger-International Music Corp., 1977), 2.

[33]Claude V. Palisca, Baroque Music, 3d ed. (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1991), 166.

[34]Claude V. Palisca, Baroque Music, 3d ed. (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1991), 165.

[35]John Gingerich, “Music of the Baroque Period, M653” Class Notes, Fall 1996, Indiana University.

[36]Perhaps the most ironic accusation of twentieth century musicians that Baroque lute music is “tonal” and non-dissonant and/or spicy, when in fact this is almost always due to musicians’ lack of knowledge of how to ornament Baroque lute music. The agrémentsare what make the music “spicy”. Taking the intended ornaments away reduces the music to a tonal skeleton.

[37]Johann Sebastian Bach, Cello Suite III (BWV 1009), guitar trans. Michael Lorimer (New York: Shattinger-International Music Corp., 1977), 2.

[38]Claude V. Palisca, Baroque Music, 3d ed. (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1991), 167.

[39]Author and title unknown. Extracted from note pack of Leigh Howard Stevens.

[40]The Baroque Guitar, selected and trans. Frederick Noad, (New York: Ariel Music Publications, Inc., 1974), 13.

[41]Johann Sebastian Bach, Cello Suite III (BWV 1009), guitar trans. Michael Lorimer (New York: Shattinger-International Music Corp., 1977), 2.

[42]Johann Sebastian Bach, Cello Suite V (BWV 1011)/Lute Suite III (BWV 995), guitar trans. Michael Lorimer (New York: Shattinger-International Music Corp., 1977), 2.

[43]Ibid., 2.

[44]Ibid., 2.

[45]Amelia Hollins, “Information to Aid the Marimbist in the Transcription of Music Written for the Guitar”, [ca. 1980], collection, Leigh Howard Stevens, Asbury Park, New Jersey, 1.

[46]The difficulties this suite presents to a lutenist are discussed in Hans Radke’s article “War Johann Sebastian Bach Lautenspieler?” in Festschrift Hans Engle zum siebzigsten Geburtstag, edited by Horst Heussner (Kassel, 1964),  281ff.

[47]Johann Sebastian Bach, Cello Suite V (BWV 1011)/Lute Suite III (BWV 995), guitar trans. Michael Lorimer (New York: Shattinger-International Music Corp., 1977), 2.

[48]The surprising aspect of this intabulation is that Bach was probably inspired by the lute; he then probably wrote Lute Suite III on his lute-harpsichord, and then the anonymous intabulation was made for the regular lute. Thus, a cycle was made.

[49]Johann Sebastian Bach, Cello Suite V (BWV 1011)/Lute Suite III (BWV 995), guitar trans. Michael Lorimer (New York: Shattinger-International Music Corp., 1977), 2.

[50]J.S. Bach’s original autograph score is in the Brussels Biblioteque Royale. The cello version is in the Oeffentliche Wissenschaftliche Bibliothek, Berlin. The tablature version is in the Leipzig Stadtbibliothek.

[51]Johann Sebastian Bach, Prelude [, Fugue and Allegro], BWV 998, guitar trans. Michael Lorimer (New York: Shattinger-International Music Corp., 1977), 2.