announcing J. S. Bach Suite IV with piano accompaniment

This article is an expanded version of the Editorial Notes that can be found in the published edition, available at this link. A scrolling-score video of this piece follow here below:

EDITORIAL NOTES

The Six Suites for unaccompanied cello by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685—1750) are not new to receiving a piano accompaniment, the most famous (and mysterious) one being by Robert Schumann (1810—1856). Among the cellists who decided to walk this path, Carlo Alfredo Piatti (1822—1901) stands out with his arrangement of the First Suite, BWV 1007—already published as ASE 0032—, and of the Fourth Suite, BWV 1010, object of this edition.

This creation belongs to the generous list of works which Piatti decided not to bless with an opus number, leaving them as free album leaves in his production. Both offer a chance to listen to these Suites from a different perspective, that of XIX century’s men who freely arranged any melody they deemed worthy, without the constraints we seem to feel today. Furthermore, this allows us to look at how Piatti approached these pieces, what sources he had access to, and what he decided to change in the cello part. Overall, this is a unique opportunity to travel back in time to see how these works were perceived, and what reaction they stirred in composers and listeners alike.

The sources

Two sources of Piatti’s arrangement of Suite IV, BWV 1010, in E-flat major, survive to this day, both in manuscript form. The first is the autograph from Piatti’s hand, and contains only the full score. The second, judging from the handwriting and from the signature in the top right of the first page, is a fair manuscript copy from the hands of Rosa Piatti-Lochis, Piatti’s daughter, and includes a separate cello part as well. Contrary to what one would normally expect, the fair copy contains an abundance of inexplicable errors compared to the autograph, making the creation of this modern edition a strenuous task.

The cello part has been thoroughly analysed and compared with the five main sources of these unaccompanied works. All relevant changes and all comments can be found in the Critical Notes at the end of this volume. The few clear omissions have been corrected in square brackets, while the slurs whose endpoints’ positions were unclear have been marked in dashed typeface. The most interesting addition by Piatti appears in the Bourrée 2°, where he adds chord notes not found in any other source.

About this edition

This edition comes in a main volume, containing the full score and the Critical Notes, and in a separate cello part, faithfully based on Piatti’s one.

My deepest thanks go to the Biblioteca Musicale “Gaetano Donizetti” in Bergamo—and to its curator, M° Fabrizio Capitanio—, for granting me access to these most precious manuscripts. Being allowed to be in direct contact with the same paper where Piatti’s hand penned these notes was an emotion impossible to describe.

The Editor

Michele Galvagno

Saluzzo, May 27th, 2023