Starkweather Bach Suites Edition 2025

This new version of the pdf edition has no editorial fingerings or slurs. The slurs in the score reflect the frequently inconsistent markings in the earliest two copies, those of Anna Magdalena Bach and Johann Kellner. It is intended for the more advanced cellist who has already learned to play the suites and has fingerings and bowings in mind, or for the more inquisitive cellist who wishes to make their own choices informed by the five earliest copies.

Starkweather Bach Suites Edition 2025

This 616 page edition includes all five early sources for the suites, reproduced and aligned for comparison and study. The accompanying score only shows slurs that reflect markings in the A. M. Bach and Johann Kellner copies.

$75.00

Bach Six Suites Edition

Johann Sebastian Bach
Six Suites for Violoncello Solo, BWV 1007-1012 Manuscripts Edition
David Starkweather, editor

The autograph manuscripts of J.S. Bach’s Six Suites for Violoncello Solo, probably written in 1720, have been lost. Fortunately, we have contemporaneous copies by Johann Peter Kellner in 1726 and Anna Magdalena Bach in 1727. There are three other sources from between 1750 and 1824.
This comprehensive 614-page edition uses modern computer technology to compare 6 separate sources line-by-line by vertically aligning them. Differences between these sources are clearly marked for the reader, thus greatly facilitating comparisons. Please see the preview pages below for examples.
Navigation between these sources and a score (included in the edition) is simple. For example, clicking any page number will take you from the comparison of sources page to the score in the corresponding passage of the music. Clicking the page number again will take you from the score back to the source comparison.

Bach Suites manuscripts edition

This edition has fingerings and bowings marked in the modern score. It is a 614 page pdf with hyperlinks to easily move from score to manuscripts. Sources A, B, C, D, E, and H are aligned for comparison.

$75.00

This edition is designed to work well with the 12.9" iPad Pro and similar tablets, as well as laptop and desktop computers. Also recommended: a bluetooth foot pedal for page turns, and an Apple pencil for editing.

Hyperlinks in Bach edition

The pdf hyperlinks include clicking on the page number of each page to navigate instantly back and forth between the manuscripts and the score. The concluding Interpretation of the Sources has many hyperlinks to examples in the manuscripts.