Customer Reviews

Bach's Cello Suites: Analyses and Explorations (Vol. 1 & 2) (v. 1 & 2)

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I do not play cello; nor do I have any background in music theory. Rather I have been trying to learn classical guitar and eventually the Prelude to the First Cello Suite was assigned. I found about a half dozen different guitar transcriptions that all varied and I could not understand why nor put together enough understanding of the piece to make it more than many measures of moving notes to try to memorize - and forget about being able to do any nice phrasing or dynamics. So I jumped at the chance to purchase this when I saw it for sale.

What Dr. Winold has done in this pair of books - one text, the other annotated musical examples keyed to the text and including all six suites in their entirety (note to guitarists - in bass clef and in the original cello keys, of course!) - is provide a miniature course in music theory and composition. He walks through each suite movement by movement and defines the overall structure of the dance forms Bach used for the suites; he compares what is here by Bach with other music of the same time frame; he goes over how musical tension can be created and then resolved within the music; he describes how groups of notes can be repeated in a piece and ways that the patterns can be varied as phrases are developed; he shows how various harmonies and counterpoints are implied rather than fully stated since the cello can typically only play one note at a time. (It is in how they convert this implication of harmony for cello into the multiple notes that a guitar can play at once that the guitar transcriptions all seem to differ - with precedent since Bach did the same thing when he transcribed such music to lute or keyboard.)

I find it fascinating. The books may be a broad overview of music theory with not quite enough material to fully cover any one topic, but there are enough references to additional information that it enables you to get excited about something here and then go learn more - and not so much info presented that you forget that you started looking into all this to better appreciate what are really some wonderfully sounding pieces of music!

If I knew how I'd send a thank you note to Dr. Winold for the month of pleasure I've had with these books.

I purchased this book to aid in my graduate theory project. I am a cellist and a graduate of Indiana University. Dr. Allen Winold was my music theory/history professor freshman year. His wife, Helga Winold, was my private teacher all four years. I knew from the moment I saw this book on Amazon that nothing would compare. It is the most clear and thorough analysis of the suites that I have encountered. The book is divided into two volumes in order to appropriately reference the compositional material without trying to squeeze it all in one place or fragment it. I highly recommend this book to all cellists, especially if you are studying the suites.

This text was purchased in preparation for graduate school studies. These ideas and analysis are perfect for everyone, especially a non-cellist preparing to play the work on the marimba.

Dr. Winold gets to the point. He provides a clear history of the works and creates a lucid picture of what Bach might have wanted to hear.

He presents ideas about interpretation that makes the journey of studying these pieces a joy.

I only wish this book had been available 25 years ago. If you are playing these works this book is a must have in your library.

As a beginning cellist just learning the Cello Suites, these books gave me good insight into the background of the composer & his milieu whilst writing them, as well as a thorough analysis of each movement. I figure with these books and years of practice, I may be able to speak with some knowledge of the Suites.

If you're a cellist or music student and want to know an awful lot about the Bach Cello Suites, Winold has the answers for you.

Any cellist studgying the Suites needs this book. There is only so much technical anlysis you can do on your own when learning the Suites. This is a very comprehensive examiniation of the Suites, well illustrated with muscial examples and anlysis for all the movements in all the Suites. Be on your guard, you will need a strong working knowledge of music theory in order to understand most of what is discussed. And you cannot browse the book, you need to spend a lot of time (sometimes at the piano) studying the musical examples. But there is a rich, rich reward to anyone who will invest the time. I've been studying the suites on and off for 25 years. After buying this book as a gift for many of my friends, I bought it for myself, and almost instantly found new meaning in movements I thought I had well figured out. If you are studying the Suites, this book is a must have.