J.S. Bach Suite No.1

First question, is the suite composed merely for the use of Cello? This is an ongoing battle…

There are many different kinds of edition appeared in the market for the Bach Suite, but basically it can be categories in to 2 categories: Scholarly and performance editions.

What’s the different? For me, the performance edition tends to place a higher emphasis upon their inspiration and emotions, and the poetry of the music. Scholarly edition tends to put a certain weight on the historical and theoretical accuracy.

Performance editions should be used with caution. Studying a performance edition is like having a lesson with a master who edited it and can be very interesting and useful. But it might lead the performer to fall in to a trap of having to interpret the music in the favor of a great master, rather than to what the composer intend to.

Quote from the master class with Jean-Marie Londeix, Bach’s Suite No.1 (Henry Lemoine Edition, transcribed and arranged by Jean-Marie Londeix)

Prelude
A piece of music which precedes something else; forming 1^st movement of a suite. The foundation notes should be emphasized all of the time, in a sense of the volume, but not the length. If the performer chooses to vary on the length, it should be in a more moderate way, and to do it with the consideration of the phrasing. Take the first eight notes; if we decide to play the first note longer, then the second note should not be too much different from the first, and so on until the fourth note, then the length of the note should be lengthen and back to the origin tempo.

Allemande
Dance, usually in 4/4 or 2/2, but sometimes in duple time, much used by 17^th and earlier 18^th century composers as the first movement of the suite, or the first after a prelude. It is serious in character but not heavy, and of moderate speed.

Courante
French dance, at height of popularity in 17^th century, which spread to Italy. With a mixture of simple triple and compound duple rhythms, the latter pertaining especially to the end of each of the 2 sections. In this Suite No.1, we can also interpret the courante as in running, and to count it in 6, rather than in 3/4.

Sarabande
Originated in Latin America, appearing in Spain in early 16^th century. Introduced to France and England in early 17^th century, where a stately version, in slow triple time, was preferred to the lively Spanish original. The 2^nd beat should be emphasized throughout the movement.

Menuet (Fr.), Minuet (Eng.), Menuett (Ger.), Minuetto (It.)
Dance in triple time, origin as French rustic dance and adapted by the court in the 17^th century. The performer should have an imagination of how the dance moving in small, dainty (delicate) step, which is the characteristic. It should have a clear 3 beat rather than the normal 3/4, with emphasize on the first beat.

Gigue
A lively rustic English, Scottish, and Irish dance type. Pieces in gigue style were absorbed into the suite as the customary closing movements.

Excerpt from the master classes of Jean-Marie LONDEIX, 2^nd Thailand International Soloist Saxophone Summer Camp 2008

For your personal reference, you can check on http://www.wimmercello.com/bachs1ms.html for a facsimile copy of the Bach's Suite No.1 in G Major, BWV 1007, believed to have been made by Bach's second wife Anna Magdalena.