J.S. Bach: Six Unaccompanied Cello Suites Arranged for Guitar

I think this edition of the Bach's cello suites arranged for the guitar is an extremely valuable resource for classical guitar students and performers. It includes a written guide (with bibliography) to arranging, interpreting and performing Bach's music on guitar that is informative, non dogmatic, and clearly and intelligently written. Also in this edition are comparison scores of the original cello music and the guitar arrangement. Even though any serious student of Bach's music probably already has the original cello suites, this feature that Stanley Yates has included facilitates measure by measure comparisons and is a welcome addition.Regarding the arrangements themselves, Yates makes some unconventional choices that might surprise a guitarist who is already playing these pieces in other keys. I have played the first suite (in G Major) for many years in D Major, the preferred choice of most guitarists. I have to say it was a bit awkward bringing myself to read through the music in the C Major that Yates has chosen. Once I got over my resistance (created largely by force of habit) I was quickly convinced by the resonance of this key as well as how naturally the music fell under the fingers.I find the key choices as well as the detailed fingerings make all the music in this edition relatively easy to play, at least for my hands. I think Bach's music provides enough challenges without having to deal with difficult or uncomfortable fingerings and it is really amazing how beautifully and easily the music flows in this edition.I think that whether or not the guitarist decides to use these arrangements or even if one is working on their own transcriptions that this book is certainly an invaluable resource that should not be ignored.We are fortunate as well since, unlike so many others who have published arrangements of Bach transcriptions, Stanley Yates has recorded a CD of three of the six unaccompanied suites. It is not only a great reference for those learning this music but also a sublime listening experience!

There is nothing I dislike about this book. The author is an expert at transcribing Bach and provides comparison original scores for you to see exactly what he's done. If you don't like something he's done you can go ahead and embellish these cello tunes any way you like. I will say that if top 40 radio existed in the time of Bach he would have dominated the pop charts. The man rose above the purely technical and created music of a sublime nature. With the amount of music he composed in his 65 year lifetime he must have been composing away from any instrument. He heard these complex melodies in his head and then wrote them down. Buy this book for yourself, your kids and your grandkids and never sell it !

Adds to the repertoire

Excellent edition & the performance section in back of book is outstanding (reads like a dissertation).No tablature in this edition, however; would have been 5-stars if it included tab.

I like it but only 4 stars because mine apparently didn't come with the CD and this wasn't really expressed clearly anywhere on this page. One review talked about how great it was with the CD and another just simply stated it didn't have a CD. I wasn't given the option when purchasing and I would have liked access to the digital files for reference. It seems nearly impossible to find this audio online anywhere aside from hunting down a seller who definitively states "CD included".

Looks good to me. I dont mind having a few of them for that matter.

For someone who is not a classical guitarist but does play seriously, this is great. No tab, but fingerings are given. Several passages ( eg the end of prelude to suite I) are quite different than the cello part. For suite two the ending of the prelude is really nice. There's a lot of music here and it is put together clearly. The front matter/back matter talk briefly about Bach ( could be more..) and then about the music and arranging it for guitar. interesting stuff. Overall, exactly what I wanted

If you play classical guitar, you gotta learn the Bach Cello suites. And this Mel Bay collection has everything you need to learn them. An excellent purchase.

For some strange reason the arranger has chosen to play some of the suites in keys which do not bring out the best sonorities of the guitar. For instance instead of arranging the 5th suite in A minor, he chooses Gminor, which means having to tune the 6th string to D and the 5th to G.Also, instead of playing the 1st suite in D major which is the most popular key, he has arranged the suite in C. This means that in many cases the guitaristic possibilities of timbre are compromised. Other than that the added harmonies are fine. I would recommend arrangements by Breab, Segovia and Koonce.

This is worth the price as it gives good transcriptions with fingering The original cello score is shown in notation with the guitar and compared to the guitar transcription at the end of each suite. At the end of the book there is a big section on how to approach this style of music and how the slurs trills etc would have been used and applied.

This book has a lot of interesting information, although I think it would have helped to give a bit more detail in some places. As someone who does not (yet!) know a lot about this music and the music of the time more generally, I find myself having to google a lot of terms and concepts that are mentioned but not explained.The music is nicely laid out and most of the fingerings so far make sense, but I'm only up to the first suite so can't say anything about the rest!Would recommend.

Quest'opera a mio modestissimo avviso merita di far parte della biblioteca personale di un chitarrista classico.Innanzitutto la rilegatura è a spirale fattore molto importante per mantenere il libro stabile durante il suo utilizzo tenendo anche conto delle sue 192 pagine, in secondo luogo Stanley Yates è considerato un autore molto talentuoso specialmente per quanto riguarda le trascrizioni.IL LIBROL'opera comprende le Sei Suite per violoncello solo di Johann Sebastian Bach trascritte per chitarra classica (BWV 1007 → 1012). La parte finale (circa quaranta pagine) comprende in lingua inglese un notevole lavoro critico in qui vengono esposti fattori riguardanti la trascrizione, la prassi esecutiva, gli abbellimenti, il fraseggio ecc ... .Le trascrizioni non sembrano particolarmente difficili quindi partendo dal presupposto che comunque sia sempre di bach si parla, anche l'amatore può pensare di cimentarsi allo studio di una di queste bellissime composizioni. Una cosa da menzionare ad esempio è la scelta delle tonalità in special modo della BWV 1007 in cui Yates ha scelto il DO maggiore (quella famosa di Duarte è in RE maggiore) e la BWV 1009 in cui invece ha preferito il SOL maggiore al LA maggiore sempre di Duarte.La cosa che mi ha veramente colpito è che dopo la trascrizione ditteggiata dell'intera suite viene riportata la comparazione sempre dell'intera suite con l'originale per violoncello su doppio pentagramma. Addirittura per la BWV 1011 di cui esiste anche una versione per liuto barocco (BWV 995) vi è la tripla comparazione.Mi ritengo molto soddisfatto

Lo compré por la suite en G para cello de Bach. La transcripción para guitarra en este libro está en C y yo tocaba una en D, por lo que no me sirvió para recordar la pieza