JS Bach - English Suites BWV 806-811 Piano Book (Urtext Edition)

Johann Sebastian Bach - English Suites BWV 806-811 Piano Book (Urtext Edition)

Level: 6-7 (Medium-Difficult)

The epithet "English Suites" – as with the "French Suites" – did not originate with Bach himself. In contrast to the six intimate French Suites, Bach's English Suites adopt a grander tone, each one opening with a prelude in concertante style. Two of the sarabandes survive in additional versions that feature ornamentation by Bach himself; an impressive testimony to his intended virtuosic and opulent harpsichord style in these pieces.

Despite the lack of autograph sources, the musical text of these works has survived extraordinarily well and reliably thanks to several contemporary manuscript copies. For this revised Urtext edition Ullrich Scheideler has undertaken an exemplary investigation of authentic variants, especially in the ornamentation. All are documented here, and made directly accessible to the player in the musical text itself. This new edition also has another Bach specialist on board: Ekaterina Derzhavina, whose carefully-devised fingerings will guide players securely through the cosmos of Bach's English Suites. 144 pages.

Contents:

• 1. English Suite No. 1 A major BWV 806
  
  
• 2. English Suite No. 2 A minor BWV 807
  
  
• 3. English Suite No. 3 G minor BWV 808
  
  
• 4. English Suite No. 4 F major BWV 809
  
  
• 5. English Suite No. 5 E minor BWV 810
  
  
• 6. English Suite No. 6 D minor BWV 811

For many musicians he is “the Alpha and Omega of all music” (Max Reger). Except for operas, Bach composed masterpieces for every ensemble and genre of his age. His catalogue of works contains almost 1,100 entries, including the great Passions of St. Matthew and St. Johan, the Goldberg Variations, the Brandenburg Concerti, or hundreds of singular cantatas. As organist in Mühlhausen and Weimar he creates primarily organ compositions, concerti, and works of chamber music. Later, as music director in Köthen and for the decades he serves as cantor in Leipzig, he composes chiefly sacred vocal compositions and keyboard works. His later, contrapuntally complex compositions exert an enormous influence on the compositional styles and practices of later generations.