Johann Sebastian Bach showed great interest in, and kept up with, all the innovations in instrument construction, while he himself inspired the building of some interesting musical instruments. Bach’s (presumedly) favourite instrument, the organ, in addition to possessing an original colour palette, can also imitate the pitch of other instruments (some organ stops have names that sound quite familiar, for example the flute, oboe, trombone or viola da gamba). According to one eyewitness account, one example of an instrument that mimicked the sound of another, and, in addition, was built according to Bach’s own ideas, was the “lute harpsichord”, whose tone could trick even professional lutenists. This was the instrument before which Johann Sebastian Bach might have sat when he took part in a friendly duel of musical improvisation at a private gathering at the house of the Leipzig cantor in 1739. His rival was Silvius Leopold Weiss, a virtuoso of the “true” lute from Wrocław. Bach would not have been Bach if he had not written down at least one of the lutenist’s works and rearranged it, with numerous modifications, for an entirely different line-up (we are talking about his Suite for Violin and Continuo BWV 1025; Weiss’ work was of course a suite for solo lute).
Although Bach also composed pieces for the lute, Lute Suite in G Minor was not originally intended for this instrument. It is a creative arrangement of an earlier Suite No. 5 for solo cello. Out of the whole cycle of six suites, this one stands out through its unusually melancholic, even meditative character. In its original arrangement for lute, it acquires a new hue due to a completely different form of sound production than in the case of the cello. Smooth cantilenas played with a bow in a strict legato technique change here into pearly processions of separated notes. Completely different in character is Suite in C Major by the Silesian lutenist, who makes excellent use of the vast possibilities of his instrument and demands from the musician considerable virtuosity, if only in the highly impressive finale of the cycle.
Bartłomiej Gembicki