I recently did the Bach Suite I, BWV Minuet I for my lesson. Not very well, but I really liked it. We used, Bach Six Suites for Violincello solo, BWV 1007-1012, Bärenreiter, edited by August Wenzinger, copyright 1950 by Bärenreiter-Verlag Karl Vötterle GmbH & Co. KG, Kassel, 30th Printing 2017. It is a lovely produced book.

It stays with the manuscript as much as possible. The slurs and bowing marks that agree are marked as regular slur lines. Any slurs that are added because they believe they were there, or are added for “taste” are dotted slurs.

According to the preface, the editor knows his editing is one of many possibilities. Because there is no complete written copy from Bach. It was done to get the cellist’s interest in pursuing Bach’s suites. What can be better than that?

I don’t think there is a right or wrong. There is no complete copy of how Bach did it.

It is also, baroque. They did not use the same bow we use. My instructor showed me how a baroque bow is held with his bow, as much as he could. I doubt that even if you had Bach’s actual copy that you could duplicate it with the cellos and bows of today, unless you had the instrument and bow from that time, and even then, you could not duplicate it without sounding somewhat mechanical because the feeling that Bach had when writing it was INSIDE Bach. It is only an opinion, I have no music education and am going by what I have been told, read, and believe “art” is - to me it is interpretation to get your and others’ juices flowing. A way for the originator to express his or herself, knowing others may take it further because you got their juices flowing. I don’t think there is a right or wrong in art. I think that art, in any form, is the one “activity” done by humans that should be stress free.

I don’t know exactly what Gordon was asking in his original post, but I think it was was about playing the suites as written by Bach. I think that even if you had the exact written copy by Bach, you would not be able to duplicate it. Your bowing may duplicate the slurs, up strokes and down strokes, etc as Bach did them, but you are not Bach. There are nuances to his bowing, and your bowing that will make it different. I think that if a cellist tries to “duplicate” another, it comes out as forced. I have Yo Yo Ma playing all the suites on CD. He is a great cellist, is it an exact duplicate of Bach? No, can’t be. But, why is it great? Because Yo Yo Ma is playing them the way he can. I also have them being done by violist, Lillian Fuchs. It is very interesting.

I think when there is a different editing done, it is because it is what that person is feeling, (s)he feels the slur at that moment, based on how Bach is making her or him feel. Is that wrong? No. Art is emotion and that emotion(s) is what Bach brought to that editor or performer. Art, in any form, reaches out to people. It reaches out and affects that person. That affect differs for each person enjoying, or not enjoying that art. That creates the interpretation.

I see no problem with editing a piece of Bach to make it easier for a student, or someone who has peeked, to be able to play and enjoy his work. I doubt Bach or any composer would object to their pieces being edited so others who are not as advanced to be able to play it as written, can enjoy it and play it.

Since there is no full written copy by Bach, nobody can really say what was right or wrong. Any edited copy that is said to be Bach’s version is, at best, that editor’s interpretation. Even if there was a written copy, how many pieces, not only Bach, have been edited to meet someone else’s taste?

I am not sure if any of this is what Gordon was asking, exactly, but this is what I thought, as a non-music educated person, when reading the original post. It was funny it came up shortly after we finished the Bach Minuet I from the the Suite BWV 1007.

I would say not to be concerned about whether it is exactly as Bach intended. Nobody knows exactly what Bach intended, 100%.

I don’t want to change the direction of Gordon’s original post, so, @Gordon Shumway, feel free to reply with a direction change. You just got me to thinking.