JS Bach Cello Suite No.1 BWV 1007 for guitar (PDF Sheet Music)

An arrangement for classical guitar with fingering and ornamentation suggestions.

Sheet music PDF.

Prelude
Allemande
Courante
Sarabande
Menuet I
Menuet II
Gigue
Ornamentation suggestion sheet

11 pages. Incipit

Edition notes

There are plenty of fine guitar arrangements of the Bach Cello Suite No.1, but I decided to try and make a version for myself, one that feels friendly to me.

This is a challenging piece for me - my playing ability is modest - but working on an arrangement has let me get to know the work a little better. The process of making decisions about each detail necessarily prompts further investigation and consideration.

Playing the piece unmodified, other than to transpose into the guitar’s range, is certainly an option. But the cello and guitar are instruments with different characteristics. Though the plucked guitar isn’t capable of the continuously powerful sonority of the bowed cello, it does grant the possibility of adding further accompaniment. Playing the piece as a straight transcription on guitar can sound somehow incomplete, like an outline that hasn’t been coloured in. Perhaps this is partly due to expectations formed by familiarity with other guitar repertoire. Maybe also because the cello has a timbre that is richer in overtones, with the guitar more in need of incomplete harmonies being fleshed out. To me, at least some adaptation is called for - though I’ve been reasonably sparing with reinforcements in this arrangement. Part of the delight in these solo cello works is that the polyphony implied by their mostly single-line texture can be ambiguous. Interpreting these with a particular harmonisation risks detracting from this, collapsing multiple possibilities into a single concrete realisation.

In the first two movements, where the flowing runs and arpeggiations are largely self-supporting, I’ve tended towards minimal changes. The Courante and Sarabande have more occurrences where the line of an implicit voice can be clarified by lengthening note durations, or where some additional harmonic support seems helpful, particularly at cadences. For the galanteries and Gigue, idiomatic norms for the guitar probably lead us to expect an underlying bass part - they can sound awkwardly bare without at least some additional continuo. But I also wanted to keep these brisk and joyous, in the galant style - so the bass additions are still fairly sparse, avoiding undue technical burden.

Many versions for guitar employ drop-D tuning to allow a sustained low D pedal note in the Prelude. I enjoy the resonant luxuriousness that this creates, but I’ve taken a different approach here. I’ve kept with standard tuning, and don’t sustain the bass notes of the arpeggiations to create an explicit low voice. The upper notes of arpeggios can be left to ring longer, and the basses can still be emphasised - but stopping them sounding on through the whole bar helps to keep things rhythmic and crisp, and doesn’t overwhelm the lighter texture above.

Source manuscripts

No autograph manuscript by JS Bach is known to have survived, but copies from the 18th century exist, with good quality facsimiles available. This edition is based largely on the manuscript copy by Anna Magdalena Bach (known as “Source A”), supplemented by the Johann Peter Kellner copy (“Source B”).

In my edition, arrangement additions to the original sources are notated in a smaller font size. Legato bowing indications from the manuscripts have been disregarded - the sources frequently conflict, and in any case, cello bowings may not correspond directly to meaningful guitar articulations. Slur markings in this edition indicate suggested single-string hammer-on / pull-off slurs, rather than legato phrasing. In most places, I haven’t notated the separation of implicit voices, preferring to keep the simplicity of the original beaming. The fingering is chosen to help allow further definition of these lines by overlapping the ends of phrases a little into the next beat. Where a continuo voice has been added, I’ve not been pedantic in notating additional rests - simply leaving blanks if a voice disappears, to avoid visual clutter while hopefully still maintaining clarity.

The last notes of bars 3 and 7 in Menuet II are a point of continued discussion because of discrepancies between the sources. I’ve seen arguments in favour of different possibilities, all of which appear to have merit to a non-expert like me. Most common seems to be to play a B-flat in bar 3, and B-natural in bar 7 (E-flat and E-natural in the original key). Here, I’ve opted to play both as B-natural: it is what is actually notated in Source A, and seems viable harmonically, particularly in light of the Dorian mode key signature. I don’t have a strongly-held opinion here though - I may well change my mind.

Ornamentation

I don’t feel the need for much further ornamentation over that which is already indicated - so much is already written out. Even during repeats of slower movements, elaborate free ornamentation can seem a bit overblown. I have added a few parenthesised marks where an extra ornament seems appropriate - I’ve maybe been conditioned to expect them through familiarity with some recording or other. The end of the Sarabande feels like it wants a bit of an extra flourish, so I’ve written that out for the repeat.

I’ve added a page of suggestions for approximated ornament realisations. All trills here are single-string slurs, sometimes with additional articulation in their interior to maintain the sound production and help with rhythmic definition. Most are supported above-note (appoggiatura) trills, with a rest point on the main note. Main-note trills are suggested in a couple of places, where the preceding written note acts as the lead in from above (Allemande bar 14, Sarabande bar 10). In the Sarabande bar 11, most editions place the trill on the second beat, though in both Source A and Source B it seems to be marked above the following eighth-note, which is where I have chosen to place it, forming a pralltriller.

Tempo suggestions

Prelude - 60 (bpm)
Allemande - 54
Courante - 92
Sarabande - 36
Menuet I - 108
Menuet II - 104
Gigue (dotted quarter) - 80

Edition summary

Title	Cello Suite No. 1
Composer	Johann Sebastian Bach
Work number	BWV 1007
Instrument	Guitar
Original key	G major
Arranger	Jonty Dawson
Edition date	2022-08-30
Page count	11
Edition PDF	bach-js-bwv1007-cello-suite-1-guitar.pdf