The Six Bach Suites for Solo Cello have been a staple of every cellist’s diet ever since Pablo Casals rescued them from relative obscurity and help showed the world what wonderful works of art they are. Over the years, many cellists have published editions of the Suites in order to best convey their style of interpretation.

Why yet another edition? And why a second cello part? I certainly do not hope to improve on Bach. The suites are complete works of art without any additions at all. But, I have found over the course of teaching Bach, that I often love to show students the harmonic motion of a movement by playing a bass line along with the regular solo part. In a piece of music with only one line, it is often difficult to know what harmony is implied underneath. And, as I have found with this project, there are often different possibilities that can be explored.

As for the bowings in this edition, I have chosen to use accepted bowings from today’s performance practice. I expect everyone, including myself, to have the pleasure of penciling in their changes as they feel needed. As well, I hope that people will use the new second cello part as a starting point to create their own line that might be even more interesting than the one I present.

Above all, this edition is meant for enjoyment. I have already had the pleasure of performing some of these movements with other cellists and my students also have enjoyed it when I play along with them at lessons as they seem to feel less “exposed” and are forced to listen and play at the same time. So, to all the cellists (and other bass clef instrumentalists!) have fun with these and I hope that they might inspire you to hear these wonderful solo pieces in a new light.

-Anthony Arnone