V. (Bach) - Sheets and Tablatures
The recording "V. (Bach)" (Øra Fonogram, 2016) is the artistic outcome of my research project "Transcribing Johann Sebastian Bach's Lute Music For Guitar Bouzouki" (2015)[1]. I've slowly arrived at a personal way of playing this material, simplified to fit my small, four-course guitar, and I've tried to maintain a Nordic folk music approach throughout. Some music written for other instruments has been added as well. Consequently, the results deviate quite a bit from the direction of the process documented earlier, and things have kept changing even after the recording, which took place in August of 2016.
These sheets and tablatures correspond as closely as possible to the music on the record, which is accessible through the most common streaming and download services. The conventional sheet music attempts to show what my arrangements actually sound like, irrespective of instrument, but with significant visual simplifications that belie polyphonic richness; this particularly concerns the duration of bass notes, and individual voice-leading within the music. The ear will hopefully compensate for this when the music is sounded. The tablatures, on the other hand, start from my default tuning (bottom to top F - C - G - D), occasionally using a capo to alter the keys, which adhere to Bach's original ones (I use the capo to maintain access to open strings, an important feature in traditional fiddle music). If you play an instrument within the CBOM (Cittern-Bouzouki-Mandolin) family of plucked folk instruments, the tablatures can work with the fingerings represented here in whichever key you find suitable, or maybe you even have access to the tunings listed here on a different part of your instrument than I do - if, say, you play a five-course instrument.The important thing is to work in an essentially fifths-based tuning.
Some of the movement titles are Norwegian-language approximations that are commonly in use among musicians in my part of the world.
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Arranged and performed by Andreas Aase
Produced by Jo Ranheim and Andreas Aase
Mastered by Karl Klaseie
All work conducted at Øra Studio, Trondheim
Supported by Nord Universitet, Levanger, Norway
[1] https://www.researchcatalogue.net/profile/show-exposition?exposition=85891