Abstract
The literature of Bach Suites, BWV 1007-12, arranged with supplemental piano accompaniment, forms two main temporal categories, fortuitously delineated by Alfred Dörffel's critical edition of the Suites (without piano) for the Bach-Gesellschaft in 1879. The first category consists of arrangements of the full set of six Suites, published or unpublished, by bona-fide composers with direct links to Bach reception in the nineteenth century. They are from the early history of Bach Suite editions; the last in this category was published circa 1871. The second category consists of printed editions post-dating the Dörffel edition, and contemporaneous with a flood of new Bach editions dating from around the same time.
The first category is the central focus of this treatise. The set by Robert Schumann is represented in a modern (1985) edition of Schumann's arrangement of Suite No. 3 by Joachim Draheim and in quotations from his arrangement of Suite No. 1 in an article by Edgar Stillman Kelley written in 1893. The other two sets——by Friedrich Wilhelm Stade and Karl Georg Peter Grädener——are among the early handful of Bach Suite editions ever printed. This treatise consists primarily of a study of the stemmatic relationships between the versions of the Suites with piano accompaniment and the earlier sources that preceded them. Consequently, it begins with a summary of the early manuscript and print history of the Suites. Characterizations of aspects of the contemporary environment for reception of Bach's unaccompanied string literature augment the discussion, and the study includes descriptions of the piano accompaniments. The treatise closes with a brief argument for the value of these accompaniments as practical materials to supplement study of the Suites.
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