My Bad Obsession with BWV 1007

I spend a lot of time working out my own versions of classical music. Whether this is hubris or insanity, I am in no position to make that call: I just know that I tend to hear things differently in my head. Getting that out through my hands can be quite a long-term process.

On a piano, everything rings out beautifully clear. While dynamics take a long time to gain fine motor control over, once players achieve that kind of competence the lyrical range of a grand piano is pretty unparalleled in the known Universe. I am of a like mind with David Rawlings about the beauty of guitar coming from the constraints and limitations of the instrument. I want a version of the Prelude that emphasizes all those broken sweet spots.

Most available transcriptions of Bach's gorgeous masterpiece are like this craptastic paint-by-numbers job: Prelude from Suite No. 1 for Cello (BWV1007). George Lin has created a great teaching piece, but my problem is the chord forms it follows are exactly the kind of brain-dead folk music voicings I am trying to flush out of my frontal lobes completely.

One of the finest renditions of this classical piece came from the late great Michael Hedges, a gentle giant and one of my all-time favorite musicians. I dig the wide fingering and high-register scream of his opening bars here, and actually seeing this performance was a welcome surprise. I inherited by admiration for Hedges from my father and thus grew up listening to this arrangement in awe, thinking it was all done on 6 strings. It turns out to be some sort of massive harp guitar contraption:



His rendition is apparently in EGDEAD -- here's a tabulature version for your perusal -- and it's safe to say that alternate tunings figure heavily into an equally impressive version of the Prelude, this one courtesy of composer Simon Nield, who really makes this motherfucker sing:



For a serious left hand workout, guitarists should definitely try out this absurdly clean transcription by Jacques Bono: Cello Suite for Bass. Here's a short, impressive performance of said marathon from Professor Bono himself: