Overview

Because Bach notated his lute suites as keyboard music (that is, in standard notation on a grand staff rather than in lute tablature), it is almost certain that he composed these suites not for the lute, but for the lautenwerck (lute-harpsichord), a baroque-era keyboard instrument that sounded like a lute because its strings were gut rather than metal. As such, the music, while idiomatic for keyboard, is in many instances awkward (or impossible to play) on the lute (or on the guitar). Consequently, in existing editions of Bach's lute suites for solo guitar, the music has been simplified or altered to make it playable. But with two guitars (one basically covering the treble part of Bach's original score and the other the bass part), the music is at the same time comfortable to play and faithful to the original. This edition for guitar duet (in standard notation and tablature) includes eight selected movements: Gavotte I (Suite in G Minor, BWV 995), Gigue (Suite in G Minor, BWV 995), Allemande (Suite in E Minor, BWV 996), Bourrée (Suite in E Minor, BWV 996), Prelude (Suite in C Minor, BWV 997), Sarabande (Suite in C Minor, BWV 997), Gigue (Suite in C Minor, BWV 997), Prelude (BWV 999).