How to play allegro BWV 1003 for classical guitar according to baroque standards – Francesco Braggio
The following research considers classical guitar as an instrument which properly fits with transcriptions. Since Renaissance, music for other instruments was already transcribed for the family of the guitar, as Luys Milan states in el Maestro. The evolution of guitar during the XX century increased the harmonic possibilities of the instrument and one of the consequences has been the boom of transcriptions from whatever instrument.
The relatively recent tendency in playing Baroque music in philological way, together with the will to play the music by Bach on the guitar, led to the main question: how to make a transcription of the Allegro BWV1003 for classical guitar to play the piece in the most suitable way according to the Baroque standards.
After consulting specialized literature about Baroque aesthetic and performance practice, such as Quantz Performing flute, or Robert Baroque Music: Style and Performance and specifically about Bach’s life and his way of composing/transcribing such as Cheung Bach the Transcriber: his Organ Concertos after Vivaldi or Hii Bach’s Method of Transcription, it has been shown that technical features for violin can be successfully transferred on guitar, starting from articulation and fingering used in Baroque music and then managing the violin implied counterpoint of Allegro BWV1003 on guitar itself. A contrastive analysis between the guitarist Manuel Barrueco transcription and mine led to the conclusion that realizing counterpoint whenever is possible reduces Allegro BWV1003 to a mere accompanied melody which is not faithful to the Baroque standards.
Therefore, in order to transcribe Allegro BWV1003 for classical guitar according to Baroque standards is important to do not add too many notes but only complete those harmonies idiomatically necessary on the guitar as Bach himself does in his own transcription of the piece BWV964.
How to play allegro BWV1003 for classical guitar according to baroque standards
