Customer Reviews

Mel Bay Presents J.S. Bach: Six Unaccompanied Cello Suites Arranged for Guitar (Thorne Brothers Trilogy) (Stanley Yates)

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I like Stanley Yates. I think hes a fantastic player and educator. I really like the sections of the book that go into great detail about transcribing Bach for guitar. I also like how at the end of each suite there is a dual staff comparison of the original cello and guitar versions of all the pieces. The problem is none of them are in the original cello keys which to me defeats the purpose of a cello/guitar comparison score. Furthermore, Yate's key choices for these suites are kind of a cop out in my opinion. Cello suite #1 in C seems very weak and anyone thats every played or heard it in D Major would most likely agree thats the key for guitar. Also Yates version of Cello suite #3 in G Major rather than A major was a bad choice. Luckily I have arrangements in the latter keys for both which I prefer.

Also #6 is missing key bass voicings which you will miss if you've ever heard anyone else play it on guitar or better yet cello. All in all a good bargain and its hard to find all 6 suites for guitar much less in one book so you could do alot worse and certainly pay alot more if purchased separately.

This book is a terrific adaptation of the Bach unaccompanied cello suites for guitar, and is a great value. Author Steven Yates supplies a guitar arrangement of each suite, which is followed by the same suite represented in "pseudo-grand staff" (original cello line on top and adaptation in bottom staff) so one can reference how the guitar version derived from the original. The overlay is admittedly in very small type, but it is really an added bonus to get the original cello lines as well. The music is followed by a useful and interesting set of chapters with commentary on historical context, procedures for arranging such pieces for modern guitar, style, interpretation, etc. All in all, I can't think of what more you could want from a book of this nature. Highly recommended.