J.S. BACH (1685-1750)

Sonate a Violino solo, BWV 1001-1003-1005

Edited for guitar by Jacopo Gianninoto

Published by Assumption University of Thailand

This edition for guitar is inspired by the example of the ancient lute masters, who used to transcribe for the lute music written for other instruments.  This practice was adopted by the very J. S. Bach, who occasionally transcribed music for different instruments: e.g. the famous Fugue BWV1000 – which is a version for lute of the Fugue contained in the Sonata BWV1001, the version for lute of BWV1006 (i.e. BWV1006a), BWV995 – which was transcribed from BWV1011, originally written for cello, and BWV964 – which is the harpsichord version of the Sonata BWV1003.

In this edition I maintained the original notation, without additions or modifications.  I only added some slurs that become the guitar rendition, and some fingerings, for mainly two reasons. The first is technical: given the fewer strings in the guitar compared to the lute, the former has significantly less polyphonic possibilities, given the different resonance of the strings and the harmonics.  The second, and most important, is musical: the enchantment of these violin solos lies in the harmonic perfection that one can perceive beyond its physical presence. The listener's imagination can recreate harmonies that exist on a subliminal level, beyond the realm of sound itself. It has been a particularly enlightening experience for me to perform these works at the lute – an instrument which is rich in strings and therefore harmonics, able to bestow us with many harmonic "surprises" – or the 10-string guitar, also an instrument I often utilize for my renditions.

The only actual change was the first Sonata's tonality, which was transposed in the key of A minor in order to facilitate its execution and to exploit the natural resonances the guitar. [...]