6 Suites

Schirmer Library of Classics Volume 1565 Cello Solo

By Johann Sebastian Bach

I am returning to the cello after many years and my children are 3rd and 4th year students, respectively. We love the suites and were pleasantly surprised to find they were not beyond our ability to play. I would recommend this transcription highly as a teaching tool for intermediate players...

, we are learning a lot from playing through it.

Although the Bach Suites constitute the cornerstone of the solo cello literature, this is an old-fashioned, out-of-date edition with lots of editorial input of bowings, fingerings and other interpretive suggestions. However, one previous reviewer did not understand the the 5th suite is composed in scordatura (the A...

-string is to be tuned down one step) and mistakenly assumed these notes were misprints! Another did not understand the chords at end of the D minor Prelude are often 'fleshed out' into 16th-notes (nobody knows for sure what Bach intended). Frits Galliard was a fairly important cellist in his day, but no serious musicians use this edition any more.

My daughter bought this for her horn studies at college. Her horn teacher has asked her to get a different edition, as this one is unusable with so many errors and rewrites. In one section, he was correcting a note in every measure! Do not buy if you're a...

serious musician.

Outstanding!

This edition has been adapted, if you're looking for the original/standard version of the suites don't buy this edition. However, a marimba player friend of mine used this edition and it was perfect for him!