Annotated Bibliography: Bach

Annotated bibliography of the solo cello works of J. S. Bach

Resource 1:
Butt, J. 1999. Bach Cello Suites. Early Music, Vol. 27, No. 2, Instruments and Instrumental Music pp. 340 342 Oxford University Press http://www.jstor.org/stable/3128691 Accessed: 6th of July. 2011 John Butt wrote an article in the Early Music magazine about two latest recordings on Bach’s cello suites, at that time, performed by two well-known cellists, Paolo Beschi and Jaap ter Linden. They represent two distinctly different approaches to the Bach’s work. Paolo Beschi has brought out much aggressive quality of the piece, while Jaap ter Linden is somewhat subtle and gentle. The article contains how differently both performers undertook the sections of the
Work, in terms of articulations, techniques, and choice of tempo. It does not contain any background history of how two cellists got influenced by the Bach, at their time. Recording artists, Cellists, Educators, and librarians will find a great fascination in this article.

Resource 2:
Jarvis, M. 2011. Written by Mrs Bach: The amazing discovery that shocked the music world. HarperCollins Publisher, Australia. Author provides evidences that support the argument of Johann Sebastian Bach may not be the real composer of the world famous cello suites, and the real composer is he’s second wife, Anna Magdalena.
Martin Jarvis is an associate professor of music at Charles Darwin University and artistic director of the Darwin symphony Orchestra and awarded the order of Australia Medal for services to music. The intended audience is the musicians “who seek only the truth”, historians, and educator in music fields. Author’s suspicions arise from the music calligraphy between Mr. and Mrs. Bach. Contains history background information on Anna and the world she have lived in at that time. Background information on the Bach and his wife, interesting information’s but no solid evidences, only the hypothesis of ‘could have been’s. Lack in the analysis on the
piece.

Resource 3:
Ledbetter, D. 2009. Unaccompanied Bach: performing the solo works. Yale University Press, USA. David Ledbetter is an academic researcher at Royal Northern college of Music, and in his book he explains, in depth, to convey that all of Bach’s unaccompanied works, follow and interrelate each other, musically. He supports his ideas by interpreting the concepts of structure and harmonics, and then applying it to interpret the Bach’s work. His book also contains historical backgrounds, commentaries, and analysis of suites, sonatas, and different instrumentals. Hence recommended to any readers that wish to generally deepen their understanding on these works, such as researchers, tertiary students, musicians, and educators. The book has, also, some sources and terminologies, and, overall, will provide theoretical guidance to the research about the solo cello works J.S. Bach.

Resource 4:
Siblin, E. 2009. The Cello Suites: J.S Bach, Pablo Casals and the Search For a Baroque Masterpiece. Allen & Unwin, Australia. A Former music critic, Eric Siblin goes on a quest of finding out about the story behind the each of 6 Cello suites.
It’s a well constructed fiction-based narrative, divided into sections of the suites, which contains bit of “biography, music history, and literary mystery” aspects. This book is essential for cellists, historians, and Bach enthusiasts who would want to know how the cello suites came to alive and influenced the Pablo Cascals, and the consequences followed afterwards. It does not contain analysis of the piece however it will definitely provide deeper understanding of the suites, as it provides under what conditions and minds he was in when Bach compose these
pieces.

Resource 5:
Strother, L. 2011. The Cello Suites of Bach and Britten: history, form, and performance. http://wesscholar.wesleyan.edu Accessed on: 3rd of July. 2011.
Lucy Strother is a bachelor graduate of Arts department at Wesleyan University. In her theses, she compares the work of Bach and Britten on the solo cello suites. This thesis is intended for academic scholars of music, fellow students, and cello performers as it provides the comparison between a composer from baroque period and another composer from relatively modern period, and focuses on the history background, instrumental suite itself, and also, unlike other resources, on the performance of the actual suites. It aids with readers to develop deeper understanding of the differences between Bach’ work compare to other composers, in both modern and classic time.