Project Bach
Every movement from Bach's unaccompanied cello suites performed on acoustic guitar.
The idea behind Project Bach is that I'll play and record every movement from Bach's unaccompanied cello suites on acoustic guitar. There are six suites, each containing six movements, so I'm faced with the challenge of 36 pieces.
For each movement, I will make a high quality audio recording, to be published on this website. These recordings can be downloaded for free. I'll also put the sheet music up here, containing the guitar arrangement I played, in both standard notation and guitar TAB. Finally, I will make a video of each piece, and publish these on my YouTube channel.
For me, it's the ideal way to concentrate on studying these wonderful pieces. I'm doing this first and foremost for my own pleasure, but, of course, if there's anyone out there who enjoys this, that's great. Will I succeed in finishing the entire project? I honestly don't know… but I'll sure do my best.
Now for some credits… I'm going to use one guitar for this project, a custom made Spanish guitar built by Frans van Oosterhout in 1993. As a source for the guitar arrangements, I used the book "J.S. Bach: Six Unaccompanied Cello Suites Arranged for Guitar" by Stanley Yates, but I didn't follow it to the letter; I made lots of changes to the arrangements, trying to keep it as close as possible to the original cello parts. I listened a lot (and I do mean a lot) to two recordings while studying the suites: performances on cello by Jean-Guihen Queyras and performances on the lute by Nigel North. They both helped me more that I can say in understanding and appreciating the true genius behind this music. The music itself, of course, was written by the man himself: Johann Sebastian Bach. How cool is that?
Anyway, I hope you enjoy the music, and that you'll join me on this journey.
The table below contains all available suite movements. Red entries are finished and clickable, white entries are work in progress and will appear in the (near or distant) future.
suite |
movement |
sheet music |
recording |
video |
Introduction |
||||
Suite 1 (BWV 1007) |
Prelude |
mp3 audio |
||
Allemande |
mp3 audio |
YouTube video |
||
Courante |
mp3 audio |
YouTube video |
||
Sarabande |
mp3 audio |
YouTube video |
||
Menuet 1 |
mp3 audio |
YouTube video |
||
Menuet 2 |
||||
Gigue |
mp3 audio |
YouTube video |
||
Suite 2 (BWV 1008) |
Prelude |
mp3 audio |
YouTube video |
|
Allemande |
pdf in standard notation |
mp3 audio |
YouTube video |
|
pdf with guitar TAB |
||||
Courante |
pdf in standard notation |
mp3 audio |
YouTube video |
|
pdf with guitar TAB |
||||
Sarabande |
pdf in standard notation |
mp3 audio |
YouTube video |
|
pdf with guitar TAB |
||||
Menuet 1 |
pdf in standard notation |
mp3 audio |
YouTube video |
|
pdf with guitar TAB |
||||
Menuet 2 |
pdf in standard notation |
|||
pdf with guitar TAB |
||||
Gigue |
pdf in standard notation |
mp3 audio |
YouTube video |
|
pdf with guitar TAB |
||||
Suite 3 (BWV 1009) |
Prelude |
pdf in standard notation |
mp3 audio |
YouTube video |
pdf with guitar TAB |
||||
Allemande |
pdf in standard notation |
mp3 audio |
YouTube video |
|
pdf with guitar TAB |
||||
Courante |
pdf in standard notation |
mp3 audio |
YouTube video |
|
pdf with guitar TAB |
||||
Sarabande |
pdf in standard notation |
mp3 audio |
YouTube video |
|
pdf with guitar TAB |
||||
Bouree 1 |
pdf in standard notation |
mp3 audio |
YouTube video |
|
pdf with guitar TAB |
||||
Bouree 2 |
pdf in standard notation |
|||
pdf with guitar TAB |
||||
Gigue |
pdf in standard notation |
mp3 audio |
YouTube video |
|
pdf with guitar TAB |
||||
Suite 4 (BWV 1010) |
Prelude |
pdf in standard notation |
mp3 audio |
YouTube video |
pdf with guitar TAB |
||||
Allemande |
pdf in standard notation |
mp3 audio |
YouTube video |
|
pdf with guitar TAB |
||||
Courante |
pdf in standard notation |
mp3 audio |
YouTube video |
|
pdf with guitar TAB |
||||
Sarabande |
pdf in standard notation |
mp3 audio |
YouTube video |
|
pdf with guitar TAB |
||||
Bouree 1 |
pdf in standard notation |
mp3 audio |
YouTube video |
|
pdf with guitar TAB |
||||
Bouree 2 |
pdf in standard notation |
|||
pdf with guitar TAB |
||||
Gigue |
pdf in standard notation |
mp3 audio |
YouTube video |
|
pdf with guitar TAB |
||||
Suite 5 (BWV 1011) |
Prelude |
pdf in standard notation |
mp3 audio |
YouTube video |
pdf with guitar TAB |
||||
Allemande |
pdf in standard notation |
mp3 audio |
YouTube video |
|
pdf with guitar TAB |
||||
Courante |
pdf in standard notation |
mp3 audio |
YouTube video |
|
pdf with guitar TAB |
||||
Sarabande |
pdf in standard notation |
mp3 audio |
YouTube video |
|
pdf with guitar TAB |
||||
Gavotte 1 |
pdf in standard notation |
mp3 audio |
YouTube video |
|
pdf with guitar TAB |
||||
Gavotte 2 |
pdf in standard notation |
|||
pdf with guitar TAB |
||||
Gigue |
pdf in standard notation |
mp3 audio |
YouTube video |
|
pdf with guitar TAB |
||||
Suite 6 (BWV 1012) |
Prelude |
pdf in standard notation |
mp3 audio |
YouTube video |
pdf with guitar TAB |
||||
Allemande |
pdf in standard notation |
mp3 audio |
YouTube video |
|
pdf with guitar TAB |
||||
Courante |
pdf in standard notation |
mp3 audio |
YouTube video |
|
pdf with guitar TAB |
||||
Sarabande |
pdf in standard notation |
mp3 audio |
YouTube video |
|
pdf with guitar TAB |
||||
Gavotte 1 |
pdf in standard notation |
mp3 audio |
YouTube video |
|
pdf with guitar TAB |
||||
Gavotte 2 |
pdf in standard notation |
|||
pdf with guitar TAB |
||||
Gigue |
pdf in standard notation |
mp3 audio |
YouTube video |
|
pdf with guitar TAB |
||||