(Music Sales America). The French Suites were written in 1722. But it was not until Bach biographer Johann Forkel prepared an edition in the early nineteenth century that the pieces became known by the collective title French . It is true that Bach gave each of the dance movements a French title, but it was Forkel who declared that they were 'written in the French taste, with an emphasis on tunefulness and consonant harmony rather than German structure and counterpoint'.
Each of Bach's six French suites is written in a different key with no harmonic relationship to one another, unlike most of his other works. Within each suite, all of the movements are in the same key and follow standard binary form. In the traditional Baroque suite, there are four movements: Allemande, Courante, Sarabande, and Gigue. However, Bach also includes lesser-used dances such as the Polonaise, Bourée, and Air. Noted Bach expert Dr. Hans Bischoff edited this collection. Titles: * No. 1 in D Minor * No. 2 in C Minor * No. 3 in B Minor * No. 4 in E-flat Major * No. 5 in G Major * No. 6 in E Major * Suite in A Minor * Suite in E-flat Major
This edition of the Bach Cello Suites is appealing to both the scholar and the performer. The genesis of this edition was the alignment of the relevant manuscripts for easy comparison and study using a line-by-line layout. It has resulted in the ultimate scholarly approach to the study of these manuscripts and has led to many discoveries concerning notes, trills, dots, dynamics, and rhythm. In the scordatura version of "Suite No. 5," pitch names are given above the notes for the re-tuned top string, clarifying confusing elements in the notation. Fingerings and bowings in this edition reflect those used on the DVD set of Starkweather's performance of the suites (item number 730150). Reference to the manuscript edition makes it possible to visually assess the ambiguity of many of the slurs and to reach one's own conclusions.
Bach's Six English Suites have been newly engraved from the acclaimed Hans Bischoff edition. These fresh, easily read pages will make lessons and work towards performance more simple and exciting. Included is a lengthy preface by Bischoff, discussing materials used to develop this edition, along with various footnotes throughout the text to clarify performance. Titles: * No. 1 in A Major * No. 2 in A Minor * No. 3 in G Minor * No. 4 in F Major * No. 5 in E Minor * No. 6 in D Minor
By the early 1940s, when Ukrainian-born Irène Némirovsky began working on what would become Suite Française—the first two parts of a planned five-part novel—she was already a highly successful writer living in Paris. But she was also a Jew, and in 1942 she was arrested and deported to Auschwitz: a month later she was dead at the age of thirty-nine. Two years earlier, living in a small village in central France—where she, her husband, and their two small daughters had fled in a vain attempt to elude the Nazis—she’d begun her novel, a luminous portrayal of a human drama in which she herself would become a victim. When she was arrested, she had completed two parts of the epic, the handwritten manuscripts of which were hidden in a suitcase that her daughters would take with them into hiding and eventually into freedom. Sixty-four years later, at long last, we can read Némirovsky’s literary masterpiece The first part, “A Storm in June,” opens in the chaos of the massive 1940 exodus from Paris on the eve of the Nazi invasion during which several families and individuals are thrown together under circumstances beyond their control. They share nothing but the harsh demands of survival—some trying to maintain lives of privilege, others struggling simply to preserve their lives—but soon, all together, they will be forced to face the awful exigencies of physical and emotional displacement, and the annihilation of the world they know. In the second part, “Dolce,” we enter the increasingly complex life of a German-occupied provincial village. Coexisting uneasily with the soldiers billeted among them, the villagers—from aristocrats to shopkeepers to peasants—cope as best they can. Some choose resistance, others collaboration, and as their community is transformed by these acts, the lives of these these men and women reveal nothing less than the very essence of humanity. Suite Française is a singularly piercing evocation—at once subtle and severe, deeply compassionate and fiercely ironic—of life and death in occupied France, and a brilliant, profoundly moving work of art.
The Keyboard Music of J.S. Bach provides an introduction to and comprehensive discussion of all the music for harpsichord and other stringed keyboard instruments by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750). Often played today on the modern piano, these works are central not only to the Western concert repertory but to musical pedagogy and study throughout the world. Intended as both a practical guide and an interpretive study, the book consists of three introductory chapters on general matters of historical context, style, and performance practice, followed by fifteen chapters on the individual works, treated in roughly chronological order. The works discussed include all of Bach's individual keyboard compositions as well as those comprising his famous collections, such as the Well-Tempered Clavier, the English and French Suites, and the Art of Fugue.
This collection, edited by Dr. Hans Bischoff, consists of the "Six Little Preludes," BWV 933-938, along with twelve preludes taken from "The Little Piano Book" (Clavierbuchlein) of Wilhelm Friedemann Bach. Titles: * Prelude No. 1 in C Major (BWV 933) * Prelude No. 2 in C Minor (BWV 934) * Prelude No. 3 in D Minor (BWV 935) * Prelude No.4 in D Major (BWV 936) * Prelude No. 5 in E Major (BWV 937) * Prelude No. 6 in E Minor (BWV 938) * Prelude No. 7 in C Major * Prelude No. 8 in C Major * Prelude No. 9 in C Minor * Prelude No. 10 in D Major * Prelude No. 11 in D Minor * Prelude No. 12 in D Minor * Prelude No. 13 in E Minor * Prelude No. 14 in F Major * Prelude No. 15 in F Major * Prelude No. 16 in G Minor * Prelude No. 17 in G Minor * Prelude No. 18 in A Minor
In this volume, which contains six suites and seven supplementary pieces for intermediate to advanced level pianists, Judith Schneider has provided detailed biographical and historical information about the pieces, as well as suggestions to achieve a proper interpretation of these works. Bach's table of ornaments is also discussed. This volume beautifully prepares students to perform Bach's more advanced English Suites.
