Hi Donatella, I checked out at a glance so far your tab version of BWV 996 and looks nice! There has been a real flowering of lute tablature of Bach's music. Clive Titmuss has been active and completed - quite recently, a playable version of BWV 1012 - the sixth cello suite. For beginners out there - be warned - this is not easy stuff! As for 996, it used to be my favourite and not too difficult on the classical guitar. For some strange reason I fnd it very hard on the Baroque lute. I worked out that it is not so much the technical PLAYING difficulty, but rather the problem of realisation on my fourteen course theorbo-lute. Since I note - your instrument, Donatella, is also a swan neck, you too problem run into the difficulty of not having D sharp bass, resulting in an unavoidable interruption of the passagio - opening prelude. Tim Crawford once gave an interesting solution to this, which is to attach a device - similar to one used by harpists, which stops the string. I haven't quite done this as yet! My temporary solution is to play the D# an octave higher, and although not perfect, is acceptable. You encounter this problem also in the Courante. As for the sxth cello suite, this is beautiful stuff on the lute and in the key of D Major makes it a warm and beautiful work to play. It has been said before that Bach wrote some of his finest and brighter sounding music in this key. The Magnificat is one such example. The prelude has the same intensity and virtuosic feel as that of BWV 1006a IMHO. Cheers. Michael Stitt http://bachplucked.com/lutenist/
Donatella Galletti <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Thomas and Michael, thanks for your answers, they were inside the "spam" file, for some unknown reasons ( well, one reason is the use of "html"..) I agree that the A is to be played an octave upper, when lowering the 13th to G, in BWV 995 , but there are not so many..an archlute would also go ( I heard someone doing it and I think I played it once, but I preferred the Baroque lute), and why not a theorbo? It's strange for Bach writing something which had something to be changed to make it playable, but it's also true that many of his works are "the music", so the instrument is just a means to reach what he wanted to and it was not his problem, but the player's... It's also possible that he had an istrument with one more course, Kapsberger had 19 on the theorbo, so why not 14 on the baroque? Anyway I put online my version in tablature of BWV 996, a couple of years ago, I've made some changes since then, but it's quite easy to remove notes or simplify if you want just a "very playable" thing. It's in E minor, and I must thank Alain Veylit for his programs, as I used to look for the right key when doing everything only with pencil and paper, and it took so many, many hours... in this way you can have a whole piece and see it at a glance.. Donatella http://web.tiscali.it/awebd ----- Original Message ----- From: "sterling price" To: "Michael Stitt" Cc: Sent: Wednesday, January 07, 2004 6:22 AM Subject: Re: MORE THAN 14 course German theorbo? > > The only one which I feel is particularly better > > suited for a guitar is BWV 996 ? perhaps because of > > the e minor key which is well suited to that > > instrument. > > You know the key of e minor gets a bad rap on the > baroque lute. It is actually a pretty great key for > the instrument. True there is not much written for it > in that key but what there is works great. BWV 996 > works well in e minor. I play the edition by Michihiko > Okazawa and for me its much easier than in g minor. I > have been playing the Falkenhagen prelude that goes in > all keys, and if you want a truly horrid key for the b > lute try C#major or Bmajor! > Sterling Price > --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Hotjobs: Enter the "Signing Bonus" Sweepstakes --
