The First Lautensuite by J.S.Bach; It’s Four Transcription for the Classical Guitar

Transcription of a musical piece from an instrument to the other, is an age-old work in this field. We have scores from the Renaissance period that don’t have any specific orchestration therefore could be performed with any combination of  instruments. Also transcription of symphonies or operas for piano was common during the nineteenth century. We look over four editions of  Bach’s first suite for lute and its transcriptions for the modern guitar, and during introducing the piece , at first we estimate them generally, then compare every aspects such as pitch, fingering, positions on the fingerboard, tone register, and etc. The target is to present some factors to differentiate a reasonable edition to catch rational performance of pieces like this. However there are some inconsistencies that challenge the originality of the work. Such activities always have many disputable cases. Constantly there are some attitudes that assume such tasks as a futile work that doesn’t have any originality. However such disputes aren’t so many about the similar instruments. Though this is the modern guitar that we have in a huge number in the world. Reaching to a source for the classic guitarists that have been tired from classical period frames, absorbed them to the sounds of Baroque music. But the main issue is how to come to grip with such great pieces, and the course of using our modern instrument’ s capabilities. We have to lay hands on prestigious status of these masterpieces, instead of  letting them down. During the review of different  editions available, we find out that dealing with different perspectives on performance; techniques, musical expressions, tone color, and etc. to achieve a single view, makes it extremely difficult. When speaking about different transcriptions and editions we should not expect essential changes in the presentation of these works, but there are a lot of distinguishing details which illustrate different editors’ outlook to this piece; details such as using ornamentations, different tunes, and even changing the key – although this last case can not be applied in this particular piece- . Moreover, editors from several nations observe works differently because of their ideological differences. In the part of samples, we will study some of diverse opinions or agreements among four editions and occasionally differences from the original work, and we will consider results of their works based on aesthetic and technical reasons. However the samples are more than those we refer. In the course of this process in some cases we are compelled to refer even to the works out of this matter – for example transcriptions of the other pieces by the editors – and to consider basics of the editors’ attitude and works carefully, by using them. Ultimately we try to distinguish fine or inadmissible points of the editions. The editions are: Heinz Teuchert(1979), Julian Bream(1981), Ruggero Chiessa(1991), and Frank Koonce(2002).