Bach Lute Suites

[portlandgreg2]

I'd like to read/play the Bach lute suites and am looking for opinions from anyone who has purchased sheet music. Specifically, any experience with a good complete collection (ie Sadanowsky, Tabei, etc.) or a poor version to avoid.

Notation only please. Tab becomes like a heavy weight around the neck as soon as you begin to explore advanced work. I cut my ties to tablature a year ago and will never go back.

Thanks for any opinions.

[steve v]

Greg,

You might want to check out the Koonce collection, which GSI has. It has everything Bach wrote for the lute, not just the lute suites, and seemed to be a pretty good source when I was just starting to delve into it twelve years ago.

[Mikey]

I have the complete Lute Works published by Ariel Pub. and edited and fingered by Jerry Willard. While the collection is nice because it has everything Bach wrote for the lute(including that beautiful fugue!), the fingerings are mediocre at best. Lots of cross string/open string nonsense. However, this problem is not limited to only this transcription. I feel most arrangements of Bach's work are poorly fingered. What I'm doing, and did while learning the IV suite, was learn from the Willard arrangement and cross reference with an arrangement by Konrad Ragossnig. The Ragossnig arrangement, published by Schott, is pretty good. After cross-referencing I altered many other fingerings in the piece to fit my liking. I do reccomend the Ragossing arrangement, as its the best I've seen, but I think its only published one suite at a time, not a compilation.

Hope this was helpful,
Mikey

[portlandgreg2]

Steve V and Mikey,

Thanks to both of you. Those were just the opinions I was looking for.

I've made some sheet music purchases with poor fingerings/strange key translations and am now more cautious before I fork out money for something relatively expensive like a collection, so I appreciate both of you taking the time to respond.

I'll look into the publishers/editors you mentioned. Thanks again.

[adrian]

protlandgreg2.

I'd recommend two editions:

:arrow: Frank Koonce, "The Complete Lute Works of Bach" (http://guitarsalon.com/store.php?it=SMSOLBA-02982), and

:arrow: GuitArt Bach Edition: Complete Lute Music of Bach (with CD) (http://guitarsalon.com/store.php?it=BOGUIBA-02718)

The second is especially valuable because it includes the excellent recording by Zigante himself, and for the insightful academic analysis included.