Bach, Lute Suite No. 1, BWV 996
The first question that arises when talking about one of Bach’s Lute Suites is whether in fact Bach wrote any suites for lute. That doesn’t mean that Bach didn’t write this suite (he did, around 1712), but rather that the suite was not intended for the lute. So how did a half dozen or so of Bach’s works come to be considered lute suites and why do we hear them almost always played on the lute or guitar?
Recall that Bach was not particularly famous in his lifetime. Many of his works survived as unpublished manuscripts. It all lay mostly forgotten until Mendelssohn revived interest in Bach’s music in 1829. A complete catalog of Bach’s works, the Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis (BWV), was not published until 1950, 200 years after his death. It categorized Bach’s music according to genre and designated BMV 995-1000 as works for lute. But prior to this catalog, various copies had been made of Bach’s manuscripts and distributed haphazardly, sometimes with titles added by the copyist.
Only BWV 995 has an explicit designation of lute on the autograph copy. But that suite is a transcription of one of the cello suites and includes notes outside the range of the lute. Indeed, none of the works supposedly written for lute can be played on the lute without some rearrangement or special tuning, and this seems incompatible with the meticulous care that Bach showed in other genres.
BWV 996 was subtitled by the copyist “aufs Lauten werck,” which most likely means it was intended for the keyboard instrument known as the Lautenwerck or “lute-harpsichord.” The instrument had gut strings instead of metal ones, and Bach had two such instruments listed among his possessions at the time of his death. The lute suites are much like Bach’s keyboard suites, with a somewhat thinner texture suited to the Lautenwerk, but not thin enough to be well-suited to the lute. There are no surviving Lautenwercks from Bach’s time, and they exist today only as recreations of what they might have been like.
But the lute suites have entered the repertoire for lute and guitar. Lutists and guitarists are not about to give them up, and there really is no reason why they should. Maybe someday proponents of the Lautenwerck will claim dominance, but that day is likely a long way off.
This video offers some bonus material: a brief look at the Monastery in Celanova, Spain where the recording was made.