To friends, colleagues, and students of Carl Schachter: we have compiled a website with photos, videos, and over 60 contributions from those whose lives were touched by his teaching and musicianship. Thank you to everyone who contributed!
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In Memory of
Carl Schachter
1932–2026
![[This slide contains still images of characters from Blood+ and Neon Genesis Evangelion playing Bach’s Cello Suites.]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:7nqk3quyjajojmuvmfdsuojo/bafkreicxesgcoycs7djqtcv4joukga2plndwm2nwshibft5buya5pjzreu)
![Viola da Gamba: Harmonic vs. Melodic
The French viol player Jean Rousseau (1644–99) distinguished between the “harmonic” style (jeu d’harmonie) of viol playing and the “melodic style” (jeu de mélodie). In the former, the viol conveys both melody and harmony, sometimes through chords and double stops, as well as through registral leaps that distinguish the bass line from the upper voices. In the latter, the viol plays the melody and requires extrinsic accompaniment.
Whereas Rousseau advocated the melodic style, Sieur de Machy (fl. c. 1660–90) considered a viol player playing only melodies to be comparable to “a man who plays perfectly on the harpsichord or organ, [but] only with one hand.” In practice, the distinction between the two styles was sometimes blurred, as some collections were composed to be playable either solo or with continuo accompaniment.
Music in the pièces de viole tradition—either by French composers or by Dutch and German composers who inherited and extended it—was likely part of the musical atmosphere at Cöthen while Bach composed the Cello Suites, given the influence of French music and culture on German courts and the presence of the outstanding gambist Christian Ferdinand Abel.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:7nqk3quyjajojmuvmfdsuojo/bafkreihgxr5gt572lduhqcmkxualvi3h4aad55mnsie2gbgmmfppyfof6q)
![A Gavotte en rondeau by Sieur de Machy
[An excerpt from a musical score for solo viola da gamba is reproduced here.]
This Gavotte en rondeau from Sieur de Machy’s Pièces de violle (Paris, 1685) exemplifies de Machy’s harmonic style, in which the viol expresses melody, bass, and accompaniment. The texture and style might remind some cellists of the Gavotte from Cello Suite No. 6. It is conceivable that, in composing suites for unaccompanied cello, Bach developed an original synthesis of the German solo-violin tradition and of French pièces de viole.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:7nqk3quyjajojmuvmfdsuojo/bafkreidqzy4g7lpygdrvbso6jp5v47k4c7nrzsgm3gw33nkm6pnkvgn2by)
![More on Interpretive Style
Occasionally, critics offered more nuance about the emotional quality of a cellist’s interpretation. An 1865 review of a performance by Louis Lübeck contrasts the special qualities of his sarabande to his dryer, perfunctory approach to other movements: “Mr. Lübeck performance three violoncello pieces by Seb. Bach clearly and correctly. However, it was not until the Sarabande—which, in contrast to the proud character of this Spanish national dance, was much closer to our [German] way of feeling and looking at things due to its almost modern, rapturously elegiac and soulful melody—that he succeeded in achieving a deeper and more emotional involvement and a greater warmth of tone to a highly commendable degree, which the audience appreciated through rich applause.”
Hugo Becker, writing in his cello treatise of 1929, complained of a sentimental, emotionally charged style of Bach performance, railing specifically against the continuous vibrato that was increasingly in vogue among a younger generation of players: “The whining, effeminate Bach playing of many over-sensitive cellists often has an intolerable effect. Serious classical music cannot bear any erotic vibrato; it needs a feeling for style, nobility, and dignity, without any loss of warmth. It is a sign of weakness of a performing artist if his means of expression in vibrato are exhausted.” Evoking unsettling, fascist overtones about degeneracy and effeminacy, Becker’s remarks paint a clear picture of an Apollonian ideal in Bach performance and of changing aesthetics at the dawn of the recording era.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:7nqk3quyjajojmuvmfdsuojo/bafkreif7sxl4qgek6dzprxkwc4fzmkxoyric4anlvk7ico6xorxxqsf7pm)
![Telemann’s Gulliver’s Travels Suite: An Extreme Comparison
An exaggerated instance of this principle can be found in G. P. Telemann’s “Guilliver’s Travels” Suite, TWV 40:108. Telemann represents the giants of Borbdingnag with a gigue notated in 24/1: [An extract from the first edition of Telemann's Gigue is reproduced here.]
By contrast, he represents the diminutive Lilliputians with a chaconne notated in 3/32: [An extract from the first edition of Telemann's chaconne is reproduced here.]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:7nqk3quyjajojmuvmfdsuojo/bafkreigaxntwc4afbwoxpagzrr2n2hubpguj3tuddczr6z2apsbahpp7oe)
![Tempo Markings Traceable to Bach
Cello Suite No. 5 exists in a version transcribed for lute known as the Suite in G Minor, BWV 995. In the autograph manuscript of the lute version, the Prelude’s fugal section is marked “très viste” (very fast). This is the only tempo marking that survives in the composer’s hand. [An excerpt from Bach's autograph manuscript, showing the marking "très viste," is reproduced here.]
The florid Allemande from Suite No. 6, written with a time signature of “C” and using extensive thirty-second notes, is designated “Adagio” in a manuscript copy by J. P. Kellner (Source B) and “molto Adagio” in two later anonymous copies (Sources C and D) both made from a manuscript belonging to C. P. E. Bach. This tempo marking is likely authentic to the composer, who is the only person who could have influenced the exemplars for all of these manuscript copies.
Kellner indicated “Presto” for the Prelude from Cello Suite No. 3, which is composed mainly in sixteenth notes. Since this tempo designation is found in no other source, it is uncertain whether it is Kellner’s invention or whether it may have been present in his source.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:7nqk3quyjajojmuvmfdsuojo/bafkreiaw5swpz3dyworzctg6nnozfohn7nph7zp37t7v56xilz5omfdav4)
![Henri Honegger and Max Oróbio de Castro
Honegger—a student of Julius Klengel, Pablo Casals, and Diran Alexanian—played the complete cycle in 1946 in London’s Cowdray Hall and, over the next decade, toured the program across England, the Netherlands, and the United States. A critic reviewing the Cowdray Hall cycle expressed doubts about the six suites as a suitable recital program. But other reviews were more enthusiastic: a pair of 1949 recitals in The Hague were hailed as a “clear, compelling presentation of the composer’s intentions,” rather than a “Romanticized Bach” or a “quasi-spiritualized” and “sterile” one. A review of a 1955 cycle in Wigmore Hall found that his “outlook is so musicianly that his renditions always give genuine satisfaction.” His 1959 box set, recorded over two days, has recently been reissued on CD.
Oróbio de Castro, a student of Isaäc Mossel and Casals—performed the suites in Amsterdam and The Hague in 1948–50. A reviewer from The Hague described his concerts as “an initiative that requires not only craftsmanship but also artistic courage.” Another generally positive review of the same concerts characterized his Romantic style of playing as “representing more the emotional life of a nineteenth-century [composer] than that of Bach or his contemporaries.”](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:7nqk3quyjajojmuvmfdsuojo/bafkreiaawfpvmntw6wm7be3gbdbl7lllq5uabpwi7iipwtgnewxx44hw74)
![Mixed Reviews
Starting around 1860, when the Cello Suites first began to be performed in concerts, critical and audience reception was mixed. For many listeners, music for cello alone seemed like curiosities somewhat resembling études more than concert repertoire.
In 1868, when Alfredo Piatti performed three solo-Bach movements at the Monday Popular Concerts in London, a critic for The Musical World wrote: “Compared with the six sonata for violin without accompaniment these violoncello solos are light and unpretending. Nevertheless, they are interesting, if only because they are Bach’s. The first and last (in C major) are little better than exercises for the acquirement of mechanical facility, more suitable to the studio than to the concert-room, for which they were clearly never intended; but the second (in G minor [sic]) is melodious and replete with sentiment.”
The American composer Edgar Stillman Kelley, who got to know Suite No. 1 through Robert Schumann’s now-lost piano accompaniment, described what he regarded as the deficits of the unaccompanied version: “[The Allemande], in its original [unaccompanied] form, is the least interesting of the entire suite, being for the most part a series of scale passages with an occasional arpeggio and now and then a trill.”](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:7nqk3quyjajojmuvmfdsuojo/bafkreicifwemo3vbu73a6zdpmetwd6ecfvbwyim4ldmwozixau6v3b2c7y)
![“Underhand” Cello Bow Hold
Most cellists active during Bach’s lifetime would have played with an “underhand” bow hold that today is used mainly by viola da gamba players. The modern, “overhand” bow hold gradually became the standard cello technique by around 1800. This transition is evidenced by written documents along with drawings and paintings of cellists.
Charles Burney, the British music historian who in the 1770s heard two of Europe’s finest cellists, Antonio Vandini and Markus Heinrich Graul, remarked that both of them “hold the bow in the old-fashioned way, with the hand under it.”
J. J. Quantz remarked in 1752 that “some [cellists] move the bow as it customary on the viola da gamba, that is, instead of a down-stroke from left to right for the principal notes, they make an up-stroke from right to left, beginning from the tip of the bow.” Any cellist curious to explore baroque bows and approaches to slurring and articulation might do well to also experiment with reviving the bow hold that was most widely used during the period.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:7nqk3quyjajojmuvmfdsuojo/bafkreifg4f2nwix53whju5ga3hpcz44onwguqztqdxdj4z2ivn7kynd3he)
![Manuscripts and Editions
All but one of the manuscript copies specify “à cinque cordes,” indicating that Cello Suite No. 6 was composed for a five-string cello tuned in fifths. But starting from the earliest editions published in the 1820s, many editions have omitted information about the original instrument for this suite and provide fingerings to execute it on a modern, four-string cello, making recourse to “thumb position” to navigate the high passages. Some editions mentioned the five-string conception of this suite but nevertheless provide fingerings conceived for a four-string cello.
[The slide reproduces an excerpt from a manuscript copied by Anna Magdalena Bach. The excerpt reads “Suitte 6.me a cinq accordes,” which translates as “sixth suite for five strings.” The excerpt also shows the tuning of the five strings, notated in bass clef: C-G-D-A-E.
Below, the slide also reproduces an extract from a published edition edited by Robert Hausmann, dated circa 1891. The excerpt it labeled “Suite VI,” with an indication in German reading “Für ein fünfsaitiges Instrument geschrieben,” which translates as “written for a five-string instrument.” The excerpt also shows the tuning of the five strings, notated in bass clef: C-G-D-A-E.]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:7nqk3quyjajojmuvmfdsuojo/bafkreicnumqpc6iskltrhjluy7cjpxdko4ca7yinbuifpp7c2dp5372fma)
![Counting Hemiola Effects: Courante from Suite No. 5
[The slide reproduces a musical score excerpt comprising the first half of the Courante from Cello Suite No.5 in C Minor. The excerpt uses a variety of note values, primarily dotted-quarter notes and eighth notes, with some double stops and three notes chords. Articulation markings such as slurs and dots are included, as well as two trills. The movement is notated with a time signature of 3/2. In measures 1 through 5, annotations have been added to indicate a counting of three half-note beats per measure, aligning with the time signature. In measures 6 through 11, annotations indicate a "slow count, quasi 3/1," with a counting of three whole-note beats every two measures. In measure 12, the final measure of the excerpt, the annotations indicate a "fast count, quasi 6/4," with three quarter-note beats every half measure.]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:7nqk3quyjajojmuvmfdsuojo/bafkreideluqvuonfbnemd45su2tp3w4qmsudru2xrot4v3lpnc4rgo5dhi)
![The Earliest Works List
The obituary includes the first list of J. S. Bach’s output. The easy task was listing the handful of published works: the Clavier-Übung, Goldberg Variations, canonic variations on Vom Himmel hoch, the Schübler Chorales, Musical Offering, and the posthumously published Art of the Fugue.
The more difficult task listing the vast quantity of unpublished music. Focusing on the most notable compositions, they wrote that “the unpublished works of the late Bach are approximately as follows:
(1) Five full years of church pieces, for all the Sundays and holidays;
(2) Many oratorios, Masses, Magnificats, several Sanctus, secular cantatas, serenades, music for birthdays, name days, and funerals, wedding cantatas; and also several comic vocal pieces;
(3) Five passions, of which one is for double chorus;
(4) A few double-chorus motets;
(5) Many free preludes, fugues, and similar pieces for organ, with obbligato pedal
(6) Six trios for the organ with obbligato pedal;
(7) Many preludes on chorales for the organ;
(8) A book of short preludes on most of the hymns of the church, for the organ;
(9) Twice twenty-four preludes and fugues, in all keys, for the clavier;
(10) Six toccatas for the clavier;
(11) Six [English] suites for the same;
(12) Six more of the same, somewhere shorter [i.e. the French Suites]
(13) Six sonatas for the violin, without bass;
(14) Six of the same for the violoncello;
(15) Various concertos for one, two, three, and four harpsichords;
(16) Finally, a mass of other instrumental pieces of all kinds and for all kinds of instruments.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:7nqk3quyjajojmuvmfdsuojo/bafkreiccllyh442avxo6ogztvdzjlxqn77wy62szucmkbwrqvyp5vl5roy)
![Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin
Bach’s title page for his Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin is labeled “Libro Primo” and dated 1720. Bach was then employed as Capellmeister and director of chamber music in Cöthen, a position that afforded the time and creative freedom to complete some of his most ambitious instrumental projects.
While accompanying his patron, Prince Leopold, to the spa in Carlsbad (Bohemia) in May–July 1720, Bach copied out his Sonatas and Partitas from earlier composing drafts into the beautiful, calligraphic final manuscript. The paper used for that manuscript was produced near Carlsbad, establishing precisely that the Sonatas and Partitas were completed during that trip.
But what about the Cello Suites?
[The slide includes a facsimile of the title page from Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin. It reads: Sei Solo a Violino senza Basso accompagnato. Libro Primo. Da Joh. Seb. Bach. Anno 1720.]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:7nqk3quyjajojmuvmfdsuojo/bafkreibcnulsg3v5cw65dk5ytmwzhyrxrpcoayz2ttmqo7ih7up3zkvity)
![Ferdinand David
The earliest violinist known to perform the Cello Suites on violin is Ferdinand David (1810–73), concertmaster of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and professor at the Leipzig Conservatory. Around 1866, David published an edition of the Cello Suites transcribed for violin with piano accompaniment intended for students at the Leipzig Conservatory to use as preparation before learning the Sonatas and Partitas.
David performed three movements from Suite No. 5 at the Leipzig Gewandhaus for a New Year’s concert in 1865. An enthusiastic American critic hailed wrote that the suites “are true poems.” But the influential Leipzig critic Yourij von Arnold was less impressed, holding that the Cello Suites “can arouse no great interest (unless it were historical).”
David’s vision of the Cello Suites as appropriate repertoire for advancing violinists may have influenced Shin’ichi Suzuki, who studied in Berlin in the 1920s. The four movements incorporated into the Suzuki violin method have been studied by hundreds of thousands of violin students worldwide.
[The slide reproduces the title page of Ferdinand David’s edition of Bach’s Cello Suites, transcribed for violin with piano accompaniment. It also reproduces one page of the violin part, showing the Allemande from Suite No. 1, transposed to D major and written in treble clef.]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:7nqk3quyjajojmuvmfdsuojo/bafkreigxrn4kpladz6s6iddo5m34sombhtzyv4wx4777hmsy2sorgtxdjq)
![Violin Albums
In the past decade, at least four professional violinists have released albums of the Cello Suites transcribed for violin.
[album covers: Rachel Podger, Johnny Gandelsman, Jorge Jiménez, and Tomás Cotik]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:7nqk3quyjajojmuvmfdsuojo/bafkreicwvwkykq4fyt5wkk3dg2ajgprxi2ok7tv7csxhkepzm5aj75iuvy)
![Bach probably conceived of his solo music partly as training repertoire:
"[My father] understood to perfection the possibilities of all stringed instruments. This is evidenced by his solos for the violin and the violoncello without [accompanying] bass. One of the greatest violinists told me once that he has seen nothing more perfect for learning to be a good violinist and could suggest nothing better to anyone eager to learn, than the said violin solos without [accompanying] bass."
- C. P. E. Bach](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:7nqk3quyjajojmuvmfdsuojo/bafkreiaawz55qj6v5c2l2hs6rgtc3akjpmox4ee5mmrm7be5tdrwknuq7m)
![Announcing Bach: The Cello Suites. [Picture of the book's cover.]
The New Cambridge Music Handbooks series will publish Edward Klorman's guide to the Bach Cello Suites in September 2025. Available now for pre-order in all formats.
This book is ideal for all musicians, teachers, and music-lovers seeking to deepen their relationship with Bach's Cello Suites.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:7nqk3quyjajojmuvmfdsuojo/bafkreigmwtq4to7waoz46hl3tchbitk5h6ilgxqcvohejcp2qsrjqgcpuy)
