Lute Suite No. 4 in E Major, BWV 1006aI. PreludeII. Loure

III. Gavotte en RondeauIV. Menuet I and II

V. BourréeVI. Gigue

Cello Suite No. 1, BWV 1007I. Prelude

II. AllemandeIII. Courante

IV. SarabandeV. Minuet I and II

VI. Gigue

Prelude, Fugue, and Allegro, BWV 998I. PreludeII. Fugue

III. Allegro

Cello Suite No. 3, BWV 1009I. Prelude

II. AllemandeIII. Courante

IV. SarabandeV. Bourrée I and II

VI. Gigue

Ave Maria, Bach/Gounod

Born in Eisenach, Germany to a musical family, Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) composed an immense output of works consisting of both sacred and secular music.

His compositions are timeless, and he is an iconic figure in the history of music. He composed for the keyboard, voice, choir, chamber ensemble, orchestra, organ, cello, lute, and violin. The most prolific composer of the Baroque period, he was a great organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist. He held various musical posts during his lifetime, among them as organist in Mühlhausen, director of music in Weimar and Cöthen, and cantor in Leipzig. In Cöthen he wrote many of his secular works. Among his monumental secular works are the six Cello Suites, six Violin Sonatas and Partitas, and four Lute Suites. His mastery of counterpoint, harmony, improvization, and motivic organization, and his use of rhythms, forms, and textures influenced by Italian and French music are evident in these works. Bach’s works were thematically catalogued in 1950 in the Bach Werke Verzeichnis, or “BWV” (Bach Works Catalogue).

In the Sixteenth Century, the lute played a fundamental role in European musical life, but its importance diminished in the second half of the Eighteenth Century in favor of the harpsichord and the clavichord. Bach himself owned a lute and wrote seven works for solo lute between 1708 and 1717 when he was in Weimar and Leipzig. Four of these are original works for the lute and the rest are unaccompanied violin and cello music adapted to the lute. Bach’s interest in the lute evolved from his friendships with German composer and celebrated lutenist of the Dresden court, Sylvius Leopold Weiss (1687-1750), and others. In the mid-Eighteenth Century, Bach even collaborated with an instrument maker to develop the lute-harpsichord, which was smaller than a harpsichord but sounded like a lute.

Bach’s own work provides precedent for transcribing his violin and cello works to create music for the guitar. He himself transcribed his own violin and cello works to make music for the lute and other instruments. Lute Suite BWV 1006a was in its earlier form Partita III BWV 1006 for solo violin.

Bach used the Prelude of this Lute Suite again as an orchestral Sinfonia in Cantata BWV 29 and as an introduction to the second part of an unfinished Cantata BWV 120a. Bach arranged the Fifth Cello Suite BWV 1011 into the Third Lute Suite BWV 995. In addition to these examples, Bach transcribed other composers’ works, such as Vivaldi’s string and wind concertos, to create music for harpsichord and organ.

Featured on this CD are arrangements for guitar which I have made from selected works of Bach for the violin, cello, lute, lute-harpsichord and keyboard.

This recording offers a fresh approach to playing Bach. My purpose is to make Bach more accessible to a wider audience. Many others have arranged works by Bach for the guitar, but my arrangements (published by Mel Bay Publications and used on this recording) are quite different. Bach seldom wrote dynamics and ornaments and left these nuances to the

aesthetic judgment of the performer. Ornaments are to be used especially in the repetitions of slower movements of his compositions. My arrangements give the performer greater latitude in providing dynamics and ornaments. The arrangements on this recording allow the compositions to be played faster, and the harmonic fingerings I use reveal harp-like nuances never before heard on a recording of Bach arranged for the guitar, completely in keeping with Bach’s own approach to his music. This approach inspired the title of the CD: Bach on Fire.

My fingerings are done on cross-strings as much as possible, a technique which uses multiple strings to make the melody and harmony overlap and blend together, somewhat in a lute style known as stile brisé (broken style).

The effects of the cross-string fingerings are especially evident in the Prelude BWV 998, Prelude BWV 1007, and Prelude BWV 1009, as well as other works on the CD. This fingering on the guitar produces a more spacious,

smooth, and harmonious quality to the textures and the lines of the music. The fingerings make playing Bach on the guitar more idiomatic; the music is fresher, more enjoyable, and has more vitality and expressiveness. They make the pieces sound as if they were written for the guitar. My Bach guitar arrangements also include bass notes which are added to fill out the melodies and chords when necessary, but not so much as might hinder the musical line or cloud the harmony. They rather enhance the stylistic and expressive character of each movement.

Lute Suite No. 4 in E Major BWV 1006a This is Bach’s arrangement of the Third Violin Partita for the lute, written in 1720 in Cöthen, which I have arranged here for the guitar. The music is in French style. There are seven dance movements with varied character. The Prelude consists of a rhythmic and melodic motif at the very beginning, introducing the key of E Major on all six strings, as if Bach is checking the tuning of all six strings before taking off on an exciting path of perpetual

sixteenth notes to the end. The piece is the most virtuosic and demanding of the movements. The Loure, a delicate and rare dance with a coquettish quality from Normandy, is in 6/4 time and was originally danced to a bagpipe accompaniment. Gavotte en Rondeau (Gavotte in Rondo form) is a charming and graceful dance which comes from the mountain people of Gavot in the upper Dauphiné section of France, and it still survives today as a folk dance in Bretagne. This piece begins with a half measure upbeat and is in a cyclical form of structure known as the “rondo” which became more common later in the Eighteenth Century. The most beloved dances in all Europe during the Eighteenth Century, however, were minuets. Menuet I is poised and stately in character, whereas Menuet II is gentler and more melodious. Bourrée is another French folk dance in quick duple time. Beginning with an upbeat, it has unusual and exciting rhythmic patterns. The Gigue, originally a British dance, is in 6/8 time and embodies the grace and lilt of the French style to bring an end to the Suite.

Cello Suite I This work was written between 1717 and 1723 during the period when he was for the first time in his life employed in a post of secular music in Cöthen. Aside from the Prelude, it consists entirely of dance movements. Originally in G Major and transposed here to D Major, it is much lighter in texture and feeling than the Third Cello Suite. The dance movements of these Suites derive mainly from French court dances of the late Seventeenth and early Eighteenth Centuries. The Suites are each in six movements. With its arpeggiated chords in sixteenth notes, the Prelude sets the mood for the entire Suite. The piece lends itself perfectly to cross-string fingerings on the guitar, allowing me to achieve more resonance and perform the piece much faster than is heard on other guitar recordings. This produces a tempo similar to what is heard when the piece is played by more accomplished cellists. The Allemande, originally a German dance taken over by the French, is in binary form with a short upbeat, strong first beat, and weak second, third and fourth beats leading back to the first. The spirited

Courante, a dance prominent in France but originally deriving from the Italian Corrente, is in triple meter and is made up of running eighth notes with occasional slurred groups of sixteenth notes. The gentle and expressive Sarabande (originally a lively dance from Spain and Latin America), with its emphasis on the second beat, is in triple meter and is in the very heart of the Suite. Ornaments are added for embellishment of the melodic line. The Minuets are highly contrasted. Minuet I is gentle and bright in D Major, while Minuet II is sad and dark in the respective tonic Minor. After Minuet II is played, the music returns to Minuet I, which is played again da capo (from the beginning), but without repetitions. This is a form that Bach used in composing minuets. Because it is played again da capo, these two minuets are recorded on a single track. In the spirited Gigue, eighth note rhythms predominate, with sixteenths thrown in to great effect, adding to the liveliness of the dance.

Prelude, Fugue, & Allegro, BWV 998 Written in the first half of 1740’s in Leipzig, this work shows Bach’s contrapuntal mastery. The work is originally in E Flat Major, but transposed to D Major for the guitar. The French title reads “Prelude pour la Luth o Cembal par J.S. Bach” (Prelude for Lute or Harpsichord by J.S. Bach). The Prelude uses stile brisé, and I have fingered it so that the four voices are heard on different strings as much as is technically possible. Written for the lute–harpsichord, this piece gave Bach the means to combine the timbral qualities of the lute with the versatility of the keyboard. The Fugue is in three and sometimes four parts, in ternary form with a contrasting development section and a recapitulation of the contrapuntal material in the exposition. The Allegro is in binary dance form with perpetual sixteenth notes and clever hidden hemiolas.

Third Cello Suite BWV 1009Written between 1717 and 1723 in Cöthen, this Suite was originally in C Major and is transposed here to A Major for the guitar. Beginning with a majestic Prelude, the key of A Major is introduced in a descending scalar passage and developed from there. It dissolves into an arpeggiated section with a pedal on Low E culminating with chords and the A Major scale. The Allemande is a delightful dance articulated here with short and long notes beginning with a three note upbeat. The Courante consists of straight eighth note patterns. A sad and lonely Sarabande follows. Bourrée I is rhythmic and spirited, whereas Bourrée II is more lyrical and stately. Bourrée I returns da capo on the same track. The Gigue with its combinations of eighth note and sixteenth note rhythmic patterns in 3/8 time is especially playful and dance-like.

Ave Maria A widely appreciated and well-known Bach piece, this originally comes from his Prelude No. 1 in C major, BWV 846, from Book I of The Well-Tempered Clavier. More than 100 years later, the French Romantic composer Charles Gounod (1818-1893) added a vocal melody over the piano part. I have used this Bach/Gounod composition to arrange the piece for the guitar. The spiritual and ethereal qualities of the work have inspired many instrumental arrangements, including works for violin and guitar, string quartet, piano solo, cello, and even trombones. In my arrangement, both the piano and vocal parts are woven together musically so that they can be played on a single guitar in a way which expresses the delicate interplay between them.

Lily Afshar

ARR-31962©p MMXIV Archer Records, LLC

lilyafshar.com | archer-records.com

Guitar: 1992 Thomas Humphrey Millennium

Lily Afshar’s Bach arrangements on this CD are published in Essential Bach Arranged for the Guitar by Lily Afshar, by Mel Bay Publications, Pacific, Missouri, 2013.

“This work was supported in full or in part by a grant from The University of Memphis Research Grant Fund. This support does not necessarily imply endorsement by the University of research conclusions.”