Suite BWV 997 — Double, transcription for guitar

About this work

The Double that closes Suite BWV 997 takes the gigue’s energy and drives it through a tighter pattern. Its notes move quickly, but they are not a display attached afterwards: they extend the accents, bass line and harmonic directions of the preceding dance.

On the guitar, separate the framework from the decoration first. Play bass notes and phrase endings, then restore the intervening notes without losing that map. The right hand should remain even while giving enough definition to each change of voice.

Practise fast groups together with their arrival note, never as fragments that stop just before the cadence. A slightly restrained tempo preserves articulation and the feeling of dance. Once everything is secure, the impression of speed will come mainly from continuity rather than from forcing every semiquaver.

What the document containsContents: the final Double from Suite BWV 997, transcribed in A minor for guitar across two pages, with a listening MIDI.The LilyPond engraving comes from Mutopia and is in the public domain. LesPartitions.info checked the voices, pitches and playback, then reviewed both pages.