NEWLY REVISED 2023
PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION
An edition of music, like anything else, is a product of its own time. During the 1980s, guitarists of my generation were starting to become aware of stylistic concerns in the interpretation of early music. There was a movement towards stylistic authenticity, an attempt to rediscover the original intentions of early composers and recreate the aesthetic elements that were appropriate to their music. (Many style-conscious players no longer think of being “authentic”—a concept unattainable both in theory and in practice—and prefer, instead, to use the term “historically informed.”) That growing movement was what first prompted me to research the lute music of Bach and to develop my own edition of it. I tried to find performance solutions on the guitar that were as faithful as possible to the original music and to clearly delineate any necessary editorial alterations.
In particular, I attempted to preserve the integrity and independence of Bach’s original voicing. I came to believe, however, that sometimes I went too far and sometimes I did not go far enough in doing this: I went too far in places where the musical end-results were not justified by the excessively difficult fingerings needed to achieve them; I did not go far enough when I failed to provide fingerings that bring out lines that are implicit, although not specifically differentiated in the score. (Bach did not always distinguish individual voices—especially inner voices—in his notation, to save the clutter of rests, ties, multiple stems, and the like.)
For those reasons, I developed a revised second edition, which was published in 2002. Since then, I believe that I have been better able to integrate the idiomatic strengths and limitations of the guitar into my arrangements while still being faithful to the spirit and intent of the original music. My goal has always been to blend scholarship with practical performance solutions for the guitar. Now, I am pleased to offer a third edition of this remarkable and enduring music.
Frank Koonce, 2023
| Frank Koonce, Arizona State University, 2002 |
Editorial Criteria
Reference Information
Sources and Historical Data
The Lute-Harpsichord
Aspects of Baroque Performance
Ornamentation
Embellishment
Stylized Dance Movements
Rhythmic Flexibility
Attempts to Regulate the Dot
Rhetoric and Affect
Articulation, Texture, and Voicing Original Notation Symbols
Editorial Notation Symbols
Suite, BWV 995
Fourteen-course Lute (Theorbo)
Suite, BWV 996
The Face of Bach
Suite, BWV997 Prelude, Fugue and Allegro, BWV 998
Eleven-course Lute
Prelude, BWV 999
Fugue, BWV 1000
Suite, BWV 1006a
Reading Manuscipt Sources
Facsimile Reproductions
Bach is Referenced in our
2017 Anniversaries article by Irene Gomez
