Suite 1

Suite 1 without slurs, New edition 31,08,2026

   Since I published my first edition of Bach’s Cello Suite No. 1 without slurs on the internet in 2008, I have been fortunate to see it quite widely used.

   However, some users seem to have taken it simply as a convenient score in which they could add their own articulations. That is certainly one of its advantages, but my edition is intended to be used together with the editor’s notes, which I very much hope readers will consult. 

   For the New edition, I have therefore decided to put some information about the sources directly into the score. I have kept this to the most important points, so that the score does not become too cluttered. My aim is still to make a practical performing edition, rather than something like Bärenreiter’s 2000 “Scholarly-Critical Performing Edition”.

   What interests me most is what may have been written in the score that Anna Magdalena Bach had in front of her when she copied her husband’s music around 1727. Kellner’s manuscript is essential if we want to get closer to that question, and Sources C and D also provide useful information.

   Over the years, some of my ideas have changed as well. I would like to revise the articles from my blog, Bach’s Cello Suites: Editor’s Notes, and gradually move them to this website.

Prélude 

Bach's "Calendar"

I do not know very much about Bach and numbers.

Nevertheless, in this Prelude, it seems to me that Bach clearly composed the piece according to some kind of underlying plan.

The Prelude consists of 42 measures. What is 42? It is, of course, 7 × 6. And that also means 14 × 3.

I think it is well known that Bach was fond of the number 14. If we take the numerical positions of the letters of the alphabet, B = 2, A = 1, C = 3, and H = 8, so that 2 + 1 + 3 + 8 = 14. Half of 14 is 7, which is also the number of days in a week and, in the Old Testament, the number of days in which God created the world and then rested. The number 3, of course, represents the Trinity and can also be understood as a number symbolizing God himself.

And when we look at the structure of this Prelude, remarkably, it is in fact built as 14 × 3.

Furthermore, the first 21 measures, ending with the fermata, consist mainly of arpeggios, while the second 21 measures consist mainly of scales.

I call it Bach's Calendar.

I like to think that in this Prelude Bach (14) is praising God (3). 

However, AMB’s copy was already published by Diran Alexanian in 1929. Almost 100 years have passed since then. Why do we still not play these notes as double stops ?