Josef Mazan

J. S. Bach ranks among the greatest composers in European music history. We are very fortunate that Bach composed for the lute. Transcriptions of his lute works are among the finest music one can play on the guitar. At the same time, however, as is often the case, they are also among the most difficult.

Bach maintains a perfect balance between the fundamental aspects of music: melody, harmony, and rhythm. The melodies are always worked out with counterpoint of the highest quality. But the harmonic language is also more than above average. The work with rhythm employs gradation (a wide palette of note values, from half notes to thirty-second notes) as well as Bach’s favorite hemiolas and other metric subtleties (melodies presented syncopated, outside the regular beats).

Bach’s music must be approached differently from other repertoire. The main problems that a guitarist must solve are:

the absence of traditional guitar fingerings

frequent changes of harmonic rhythm

frequent modulations

a contrapuntal musical language

Good preparation for playing counterpoint is the ability to play a two-voice canon from memory. Dux on top, comes below. Try, for example, the Czech canon „Pásla ovečky v zeleném háječku“ (She Grazed Sheep in a Green Grove): the theme here is two measures long. We repeat this exercise in order to gain the ability to actively control at least two different contrapuntal segments in the mind. This will later prove very useful to us, especially when interpreting a fugue.

I would like to share my experience with interpreting Bach. I have something to say about it: for my master’s degree graduation concert at HAMU in Prague, I arranged Bach’s Concerto in D minor, BWV 1052, which is now quite popular on YouTube. The first piece I played in Japan was Bach’s Chaconne. Over the following years, besides other Bach works, I performed all three of his lute fugues there.

Initial phase of practice:

First, I recommend thoroughly analyzing the piece being studied. Find the theme and all the places where it appears. Whether in its original form, or in diminution, retrograde, inversion, etc. The theme is characterized by its fingering, which has a fundamental influence on phrasing. Tracing the theme in all the places where it appears makes it possible to decide on the correct fingering. From that, the phrasing of the other passages, subordinate to the theme, then derives.

Middle phase:

The next step is to play and simultaneously sing selected melodies, using the names of the notes. In this way the theme is stored more deeply in our memory. Prof. Štěpán Rak recommends omitting from the fingering the voice that we sing. That is an extraordinarily effective method of the highest difficulty. My method is simpler; the same fingering as in normal playing, plus singing the selected voice, whether it is the bass, tenor, alto, or soprano.

We learn in small sections. It is excellent, from the very beginning, to occasionally transpose the chosen passage. In this way we gain insight into the contrapuntal work as well as into the harmonic plan.

We practice in small sections, in such a way that there are no mistakes in them. We store the practiced sections in memory: it is customary (and a requirement for examinations at music schools and at competitions) to play Bach from memory. In time, the moment comes when we already know the individual sections: then it is appropriate to connect them and practice larger sections.

Final phase of practice:

We now play the piece as a whole, without mistakes, at the correct tempo. Previously we played the piece in small sections, and then corrected mistakes. Now it is time to play it as a whole, from beginning to end. We remember the mistakes. They are valuable places that show us where the piece still needs to be practiced.

The mistakes must be corrected. There are three methods for doing this. Ideally, we carry out all three in sequence. Sometimes, however, the first one alone may suffice.

We put the sheet music on the stand. We play through the piece, or the selected part of the piece, from the notes. In this way we gain certainty about what the tonal material in the piece is.

Another way is to play the selected passage with closed eyes. We look with our inner eye at a mental projection of the guitar, the fingers, and the fingerboard. This helps especially with leaps, which now cannot be checked with the eyes.

The third, most difficult way is in fact a focused meditation. We put the guitar aside and sit down calmly. We close our eyes. In our imagination we play, and at the same time we hear everything with our inner ear.

But that is still not enough. It is easy to get lost in Bach. This is because understanding what is happening in his works requires a deep study of both counterpoint and harmony. Music schools try to help with this, but mostly not very successfully.

One of the more demanding ways of practicing is playing simultaneously with harmonic analysis. Just as we sang the theme with the names of the notes, now we say out loud what is happening in the composition. Now we are in D, now we modulate to A, we are in A, and through a diminished chord to E, now we are back in A. This method adds a deeper perspective. Thanks to it, we do not get lost, and during playing, what we said while practicing comes back to us. We know where we are. We are no longer just playing some fingering, but we understand the music in greater depth.

However, I do not recommend this exercise too close to a concert. Speaking and playing at the same time fragments one’s attention, which does not matter during practice, but it may not be a good idea right before a concert. Fingering errors could arise, and in the heightened emotions before a performance they could become fixed in one’s playing.

It also holds true that before an important concert, one needs to „play in“ Bach at less important events. In this way we gain self-confidence, without which it is hardly possible to play Bach. The piece thus passes through the fire of public performance, and thereby settles. That is why I do not recommend practicing only at home. It is an irreplaceable experience to play a piece before an audience.