Mark Phillips

Selections from Bach's Cello Suites Realized for Easy Classical Guitar Solo Mark Phillips

To "realize" a piece of music that has been only partially-or sparsely-notated by a composer is to add to it, generally by supplying harmonies. For keyboard parts in baroque scores, composers often wrote a so-called "continuo" part, which was merely a bass line with numerals written beneath certain notes (indicating intervals above those notes). Such a bass line is known as "figured bass." The keyboardist (usually a harpsichordist) fleshed out-realized-the continuo by adding intended harmonies indicated by the numerals, usually with the single-note bass line itself doubled by another instrument such as cello or bass viol. Here we've turned that type of realization upside down. Bach's six unaccompanied cello suites, even though they are mainly just single-note melodies, are a world of exquisite beauty for the cellist. But guitarists are capable of playing melodies along with harmonies and bass lines. Bach's cello melodies themselves imply certain harmonies, which in turn imply certain bass notes. By selecting only those movements most conducive to guitar, and by adding bass lines and harmonies implied by the melodies, we've fleshed out-realized-these pieces for easy to intermediate level classical guitar solo (in standard notation and tablature). Includes: Suite No. 1 - Minuet I, Minuet II, Gigue; Suite No. 2 - Minuet I, Minuet II; Suite No. 3 - Bourrée I, Bourrée II; Suite No. 4 - Bourrée II; Suite No. 5 - Gavotte I; Suite No. 6 - Gavotte I, Gavotte II