This website is a forum for all musicians who want to learn more about Bach's music, especially his solo string music. Working at the arrangements was a most thought-provoking and compelling project, for which we collaborated for eight years through an online correspondence consisting of close to 10,000 emails. Questions came up, thousands of questions, that would never have arisen if we were playing the pieces on the instrument for which they were written. The simple process of transferring the music, and occasionally adding or subtracting a note, demands that one be continually asking: “What was Bach's purpose here?” or “What did Bach mean by this?”

This website is dedicated to discussing some of those issues and to providing a forum for anyone interested in this magnificent repertoire, either as a violinist, a guitarist, keyboardist—or any instrumentalist for that matter—to learn about more Bach and how to approach his music.

There are videos, articles, and essays ranging from listening, interpreting, and arranging, to history, harmony and counterpoint. There is a page for each Sonata and Partita; there are also more general articles that deal with transcription, interpretation, and performance practice issues. Among other things, the videos address fingering concerns, and they discuss the occasional changes we have made to Bach’s music when adapting it for the guitar. One of the common themes also addressed in these videos is understanding the long-range arch of pieces, in a way that directly applies to performers (on any instrument).

Our Newsletter
Content is added to this website regularly via a non-promotional newsletter. You may think of these newsletter articles, essays, and videos as a "course" that is parceled out in small amounts so that you may reflect on the material for a couple of weeks. Some, but definitely not all, of the content will be specific to our guitar edition of the Sonatas and Partitas. Much of the information is meant to add to the performance notes at the beginning of the book, but anyone is welcome to follow the newsletter, whether or not they have our book.

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