Bach's Cello Suites, Volumes 1 and 2: Analyses and Explorations

by Allen Winold

J. S. Bach s Suites for Unaccompanied Cello are among the most cherished and frequently played works in the entire literature of music, and yet they have never been the subject of a full-length music analytical study. The musical examples herein include every note of all movements (so one needs no separate copy of the music while reading the book), and undertakes both basic analyses harmonic reduction, functional harmonic analysis, step progression analysis, form analysis, and syntagmatic and paradigmatic melodic analysis and specialized analyses for some of the individual movements. Allen Winold presents a comprehensive study intended not only for cellists, but also for other performers, music theorists, music educators, and informed general readers.

Genres: Music

278 pages, ebook

First published January 1, 2007

Reviews

[Kalliope · Rating 5 out of 5]

Whoever wants to grab J.S. Bach’s Six Cello Suites by their horns, sorry, by their necks, should consider this book (two volumes).

Allen Winold is an Emeritus at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. In his introduction he states that he is aiming three different types of audiences: Cellists, Music Teachers, and the serious Aficionados. This aiming at a threefold audience, in music, is not an easy task. Technical aspects of music are not so intuitively available as is, for example, painting.

He starts with the historical aspects of the six Suites. Bach (1685-1750) wrote them during the time he spent in Cöthen (1717-1723) when he worked only for the Court (Prince Leopold). His output was therefore mostly secular. While in Cöthen he also composed the famous Brandenburg Concertos and the First Book of the Well-Tempered Clavier (WTC).

I particularly enjoyed the discussion of the origins of the Suite form in music. Deriving from the French “suivez” (to follow) it referred to a set of dances that followed each other and can be found from the Renaissance onwards. The main dances were the Allemandes, the Courantes, the Sarabandes and the Gigues. But before the actual dances they were “Pre-played” by the Prelude, and then an additional dance of various possible types could be included in the middle. This six-part structure is the one followed by Bach.

Then Winold does a most interesting thing. Instead of studying each Suite separately, he cuts across them and groups the various movements, or dances, and studies their “family”.

The introductory Preludes are not as famous as the 24 from his double WTCs which inspired Chopin, Debussy, and Shostakovich amongst others. The Allemandes, a happy dance with a binary form and elaborate melodic character, are very characteristic of Bach. He always included them in all his Suites (the French and English for keyboard as well). The Courantes, as their name says, are fast, for the triple meter invites a more dynamic dancing. They have more élan than those dances with duple meter. Winold focuses on their rhythm (with hemioles and agogic emphases). The Sarabandes are close to my heart since I am enchanted by the word Zarabanda, which manages to conjure up the exotic out of my own country. These dances used to be fast but evolved into languid and very moving compositions. Bach wrote more Sarabandes than any other dance. Before the closing Guigue, Bach included what Winold calls the Optional Dances (Minuets, Bourrées, Gavottes – French names for the Dances) to add variety.




Throughout his study, Winold intersperses different aspects of technical material. For those interested in Harmony these are of great value; they could almost stand alone. For example, he gives us Bach’s rules for the composition of a Thorough Bass. Since Bach did not leave a music treatise, what little has been found (mostly through the testimony of his pupils, like his children) is a treasure. Or he explains what is the Schenkerian analysis, after the Austrian musicologist Heinrich Schenker(*), who wrote a now famous analysis on the Third Suite Sarabande . Or he explains the concepts behind Species Counterpoint (originating in the treatise by Johann Fux which also inspired Debussy).

In difference to his Violin suites, no copies in Bach’s hand have survived of the Cello scores. There is the myth that Pau Casals “discovered” the works. Winold tells us, however, that Mendelssohn, Brahms, Becker and Raff had already dealt with them. What Casals did was to renew the interest in these pieces. But Winold does not even mention him.

The Second Volume has the scores, again grouped by Dances and not by Suites. Some he provides with Harmonic reduction.

This book is not difficult reading; just slow. It should be tackled by sections and accompanied by a fair amount of listening. After all, Casals spent decades studying them.

I have several recordings: Casals, of course, although I do not listen to these ordinarily because the quality of the older recording gets to you after a while; Yo-Yo Ma’s; and then Rostropovich in DVD format. This last one is a strong recommendation. Rostropovich plays them in the beautiful Romanesque Abbey of Vézélay, and it includes documentary material, with Rostropovich discussing on a piano the intricacies and beauty of the pieces. I also have an absolutely enchanting rendition of the first three suites played in a Theorbo, one of my favorite string instruments.




And a few years ago I listened to Natalia Gutman, a pupil of Rostropovich, performing the full set in two consecutive days. She played them with her eyes closed throughout the entire time while symbiotically embracing her beautiful, lamenting and resonant instrument.

Unforgettable.


-----

(*) And now that I am also reading in parallel Stefan Zweig, I find there is a link between these two figures.

http://www.schenkerdocumentsonline.or...

[Bekah Wilhelm · Rating 5 out of 5]

Definitely for the experienced cellist. I recommend for teachers since starting a student on their first cello suite can be challenging. Winold provides great tips on how to approach studying the suites.

When I was in school studying I always did Roman numeral analysis for whatever movement I was working on. I then recorded the piano chords and sang/played cello over them. The volume II of this book provides all of that information including a piano part for many of the movements. This is a great relief for me! I will continue using this book in my studies even after reading the text.

[Coenraad · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is not quite fair to say that I have read this work: I skimmed and thumbed through the Kindle version. Not because it is weak or bad or because of anything negative: I am simply not part of the book's target group.

Allen Winold has created a detailed musical analysis of Bach's beautiful cello suites, looking at the harmonic and melodic building blocks. As he indicates himself, his work will prove invaluable to -amongst others - a cellist studying the suites or a teacher who must lead a student through the work.

In my Kindle copy I highlighted often: definitions of terms, characterisations of the different dances and the meaning of their names, and some well-formulated observations about the study of music. Despite the technical analysis being beyond me, the book contained value for me. I found the book while preparing a talk about Eric Siblin's book about the suites, and was impressed to find Winold's book in Siblin's bibliography.

Hoewel die hoogs tegniese en presiese analise van Bach se beeldskone tjellosuites té vakwetenskaplik vir my is, was daar tog waarde om die boek te lees: termdefinisies, beskrywings van die danse en interessante opmerkings oor musiek en die studie daarvan.