„The greatest difficulties proceed not from the awkwardness of fingers,
as many imagine, but from want of the proper attention.”

Jean-Baptist Besard, Thesaurus Harmonicus, Köln 1603

 

 

André Burguete

The Lute Works of Johann Sebastian Bach


Johann Sebastian Bach and the Lute

As a composer for the lute, Johann Sebastian Bach was an outsider. Yet within his relatively slim oeuvre for this instrument he gave a stimulus which might have saved – had it been adopted and developed – the lute itself from disappearance. The greater musical flexibility of an instrument strung with single courses throughout (the Angélique), ingeniously combined with the advantages of an extended d minor tuning, brought a type of lute into being, far ahead of its time, which quite likely would have been in a position to fulfil the musical demands of the approaching Classical and Romantic periods.

The tablatures here offered are the results of 25 years theoretical and practical research. It is not a case of intabulation of a score in the usual sense, rather an attempt to follow, step by step, and with utmost precision, the path of Bach’s hand over the lute’s labyrinthine fingerboard. The process of deciphering the structures of playing technique that lie behind Bach’s notation, by their very nature, include a reconstruction of exact playing positions.

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Works and Reconstructions


The intabulations provide the final proof that Bach’s compositions for lute were not only fully intended for this kind of instrument, but are devised with attention paid to the finest details of playing technique. Furthermore, they are supremely suited to the lute, enabling absolute fidelity to the musical text.

Connoisseurs of baroque lute tablatures will recognise, on playing through these reconstructed intabulations, perhaps with a certain surprise, how the composer’s “esprit geometrique” reigns in the conception of his lute works, with an even greater perfection than in his compositions for violin, organ and keyboard. This should not, however, lead to the conclusion that J.S. Bach had at his command a sovereign technique comparable to the leading lutenists of his day. It is, on the contrary, precisely his lack of practical routine, to which we can ascribe the equal concern he places on both the perfection of the composition and the possibility of the instrument to sustain each and every note exactly for its written value.

Such touching perseverance, the insistence on the practicable faithful performance of every bar, might have easily led, in a lesser composer, to a decline in musical quality. The consummate balance between inspiration of genius and elegance of execution provides us, in the case of Johann Sebastian Bach, with the most perfect solo pieces the 18th century lute repertoire can offer.

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Publications

Johann Sebastian Bach and the Lute in the 18th Century

Surveys of the lute in the eighteenth century have so far tended to concentrate on the person of the Dresden court lutenist Sylvius Leopold Weiss (1684-1750) who, as extraordinary performing personality and one of the most fertile composers for the instrument, can be said to have truly dominated the century.

The comparatively slim oeuvre of J. S. Bach for the lute has been preserved no less than have been the works of Weiss, yet has not managed until today to be made fully playable.

The reason for this is basically the false assumption that the instrument which Bach used was in principle the same lute model for which Weiss composed his works. The performance of Bach’s compositions on such an instrument is admittedly possible, but only in a manner that produces an unsatisfactory sound and requires a defacement of the original notation as it has been preserved; not to mention the arrangement of these pieces for guitar, which is more comparable to amputation.

Closer examination has shown, however, that the range of lute instruments which were made use of in Bach’s time was considerably wider than had been hitherto recognized. Particularly one instrument, known as an “angélique”, prevalent at the time for use in domestic music making and which, in contrast to the lute used by Weiss was strung throughout with single strings, has not until now received the attention due to its considerable role in the musical practice of the period. Once such an instrument has been retuned in a particular pattern – deviating from the usual scheme – then the complete lute compositions of Bach can be played on it: not only, for the first time, absolutely faithful to the notation, but in an elegant, flowing and euphonious, completely convincing manner.

The author unites the qualifications of a practicing lutenist and musicologist in one person. The forthcoming publication, gathering the results of twenty-five years of research, is part of a publishing project which will also include, in addition to an illustrated text volume, the reconstruction of Bach’s tablature and fingerings which have not survived, as well as “uncertain” lute compositions by J. S. Bach. Further information can be found in the first volume of the publication series listed below, which is available free of charge on the following website:

www.musica-longa.de

 
  Musica Longa  
Vol 1 Johann Sebastian Bach's compositions and
arrangements for the lute / text volume (104 pages)
ISMN 979-0-700120-80-1
Edition A4
Vol 2 • Suite e-minor, BWV 996
• Prelude c-minor, BWV 999
introduction, piano score with lute part
ISMN 979-0-700120-82-5
Edition A3
Vol 2a • Suite e-minor, BWV 996
• Prelude c-minor, BWV 999
lute part
ISMN 979-0-700120-83-2 Edition A3
Vol 3 • Suite c-minor, BWV 997
introduction, piano score with lute part
ISMN 979-0-700120-84-9
Edition A3
Vol 3a • Suite c-minor, BWV 997
lute part
ISMN 979-0-700120-85-6 Edition A3
Vol 4 • Prelude, Fugue and Allegro Es-major, BWV 998
introduction, piano score with lute part
ISMN 979-0-700120-86-3
Edition A3
Vol 4a • Prelude, Fugue und Allegro Es-major, BWV 998
lute part
ISMN 979-0-700120-87-0 Edition A3
Vol 5 • Suite g-minor, BWV 995
introduction, piano score with lute part
ISMN 979-0-700120-88-7
Edition A3
Vol 5a • Suite g-minor, BWV 995
lute part
ISMN 979-0-700120-89-4 Edition A3
Vol 6 • Fugue g-minor, BWV 1000
• Suite E-major, 1006a
introduction, piano score with lute part
ISMN 979-0-700120-90-0
Edition A3
Vol 6a • Fugue g-minor, BWV 1000
• Suite E-major, BWV 1006a
lute part
ISMN 979-0-700120-91-7 Edition A3
Vol 7 Ensemble works with lute
• Italian Concerto, BWV 971
(reconstructed first version for violin and lute)
• Johannes-Passion, BWV 245, Arioso Nr. 31:
„Betrachte, meine Seel“
• Matthäus-Passion, BWV 244, Aria Nr. 57:
„Komm, süßes Kreuz“
introduction, piano score with lute part
ISMN 979-0-700120-92-4
Edition A3
Vol 7a Ensemble works with lute, BWV 971, 245, 244
lute part
ISMN 979-0-700120-93-1 Edition A3
Vol 8 Unsecured lute compositions
lute tabulature and transcription
ISMN 979-0-700120-94-8
Edition A3

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Seminars and Demonstration

There is now the opportunity available for organising lectures and demonstration concerts on the subject of J.S. Bach and the lute in the 18th century.

mail@liuto-forte.com

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André Burguete

André Burguete is of Spanish-German descent and was born in St. Petersburg in 1951. He grew up in Dresden, studied lute and guitar with Roland Zimmer in Weimar, Counterpoint with Walter Heinz Bernstein in Leipzig and was a guest auditor at the musicological lectures of Hans Grüß. From 1989-1997 he directed the "Institut für Lautenmusikforschung - Akademie Weiß" in the Parc de Schoppenwihr near Colmar (France).  André Burguete is mainly active as a soloist and is one of the known interpreters in his field. He was awarded the Regio Music Prize in Basel in 1991, the "European Prize for outstanding cultural Achievement" in Oxford in 1995 and the "Prix Européen de l'innovation pour les Ins-truments de musique" in Paris in 1999 for the development of the Liuto forte, a lute for the 21st century. Since the age of twenty, André Burguete has devoted himself to playing the historical lute, researching its history and developing its repertoire. Many years of practical experience with original instruments of the 18th century made him familiar with their advantages as well as their limitations. The limitations they impose on a musical creative will trained on the 19th and 20th centuries became more and more oppressive over the years. Faced with the choice of giving up the lute or following the example of the great lutenists of the past and adapting the instrument to his time, André Burguete decided on the latter. A major impulse was his study of lutes with single strings in the 17th and 18th century, especially the presumed instrument of Johann Sebastian Bach. He thus became the initiator of the development of the "new lute" (liuto forte), which is enjoying growing popularity among players all over the world.

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Contact

André Burguete
Wägnerstrasse 18
D-01309 Dresden
E-Mail: mail@liuto-forte.com

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Imprint

Angaben zum Betreiber dieser Web-Seite (Diensteanbieter nach § 5 TMG):

André Burguete
Wägnerstrasse 18
D-01309 Dresden
E-Mail: mail@liuto-forte.com

Responsible for the contents of this website
André Burguete, Wägnerstrasse 18, D-01309 Dresden

Texte
André Burguete

picture credits
Caspar Netscher, Drei musizierende Damen, Städtische Sammlungen Wetzlar (Photo: Axel Schneider, Frankfurt/M)

Webdesign
michaelkaden.de, 2011

Translations
Ruskin Watts (EN)
Christian Meyer (FR)
Greet Schamp (NL)

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