BACH FOR ALL a project involving over 40 musicians, composers and instrumentalists. Bach's great pages transcribed and revised by well-known Italian musicians and teachers. A unique editorial work for the concert performer and the student, born UNDER THE GOOD STAR OF ALDEBARAN EDITIONS.
AC How was the Aldebaran Editions publishing house born?
D.C. “Bach for all?… Yes. I like it!…". It's done! We also convinced the last councilor. Let's start with this new big and ambitious project!
We are gathered around a table. With me, Beppe Bornaghi and Luigi Radici [ed. Clapasson, Bornaghi and Radici are the three founding partners of the publishing house]. We come from different artistic backgrounds but we share a dream: a “new” Publishing House, which gives space to promising young musicians (composers and performers) and figurative and plastic artists. The intent is to create a dialogue between the artistic disciplines by seeking synergistic potential and new expressive horizons.
Thus was born ALDEBARAN EDITIONS. A little for fun, a little for passion. Based in Rovato (Bs), on the slopes of Monte Orfano in Franciacorta, a land of wines, harmony and artistic and landscape jewels. The name of a star, Aldebaran, the luminous eye of the constellation of the bull. "We want those who work with us to feel, peacefully, under a lucky star"!
AC Why create a Bach for All project?
D.C. Johann Sebastian Bach has always represented an obligatory step in the formation of a musician and at the same time a point of arrival for the good and wise performer. This is not the place to dwell on the importance of Bachiana's work in the daily growth of any instrumentalist or cantor. Instead, I want to highlight how, unfortunately, it is not possible for all instruments to have original works by JS Bach. Either because they didn't exist yet (this is the case of the sax), or because the instrument was not so popular at that time.
Bach's work is particularly suited to the practice of transcription by virtue of that abstraction which, as you well know, led him to compose works where no instrumental destination is even mentioned (this is the case of the Art of Fugue).
Hence our idea of transcribing for all instruments those scores that made JS Bach's name great, both as a teacher and as an author of concert works.
AC But the transcription of the works is nothing new. What are the strengths of this project?
D.C. We are perfectly aware that we are certainly not the first to face such an operation. The transcription of works for another instrument was a very popular practice already in the Baroque period. Just think of the famous keyboard transcriptions by JS Bach himself of the Antonio Vivaldi Concerts, of the works of Georg Philipp Telemann or of Alessandro and Benedetto Marcello.
In the following centuries, Bach's works were in turn subject to transcription and elaboration by famous and great musicians (to name a very famous one, La Ciaccona dalla Partita n.2 for violin, masterfully transcribed by Ferruccio Busoni for piano). But we would never stop talking about transcriptions and elaborations ... Liszt and symphonic works, Ravel with Musorgsky, Mozart with Trade, etc.
One of the major difficulties in this operation lies in transcribing parts written in the low region for instruments in high range (or vice versa). For example, transposing the cello suites to the flute, or the parts entrusted by Bach to the left hand of the keyboard to an acute instrument.
Once again, JSBach himself, with his famous transcriptions, shows us the way and teaches us good ways of operating: like the Sonatas a tre for two flutes and harpsichord, or the sonatas for viola da gamba, transposed for different instruments.
We therefore believe that an operation of this kind is fully legitimate in order to make available to all instrumentalists, for private and public use, such a noble and high literature.
At this stage, we wanted to ask for help from well-known teachers and musicians who, in the role of revisers, once the composer in charge has made the transcription of the score, refine any progresses, phrasing and embellishments.
The starting point is always the original version (urtext) of JSBach, at least where it still exists, or the one more contemporary and close to him (in particular the versions of his son Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach or his wife Anna Magdalena), so as to give back to the musician and interprets an objective and realistic vision of the author's original version.
AC Which works does the Bach For All catalog consist of?
D.C. Hence the Bach for All catalog opens with the Two-part inventions and the three-part symphonies written by JS Bach for his son Wilhelm Friedemann. Originals for keyboard, the right and left hands play passages of the same difficulty, proposing, in turn, the same musical idea. Very useful for learning to play together; suitable for students from the third course onwards. Bach, in these collections, does not follow an order of difficulty but, on the contrary, of tonal structure. It is therefore up to the teacher to identify the Inventions or Symphonies most suitable for their pupil within the work. JS Bach's Inventions and Symphonies represent a great contribution to the heritage of duets and trios, alas, not always of high beauty and quality.
Let's read what JS Bach tells us about these two great works: "Effective method with which it is presented in a clear form to harpsichord enthusiasts and especially to those who are eager to learn, not only how to play correctly with two voices, but also how, as the student progresses, one can make good use of three obligatory voices and thus obtain not only good inventions, but also be able to perform them well and above all acquire the art of the cantabile and the taste for composition " .
Another milestone of Bach's work is certainly the large corpus of Corali.
It is useless to underline the didactic importance and the sublime beauty of these pages. Any quartet can try their hand at reading simple chorales in homorhythmic form or immerse themselves in the fantastic world of figurative chorales, that is, those counterpoint re-elaborations that characterize Bach's Cantatas and Passions. Particularly suitable as a didactic tool, for students from the third year onwards and for ensemble music classes, at the same time they represent a precious concert heritage - a treasure chest of Beauty and Harmony - for every prestigious instrumental team.
In the catalog you can also find the transcripts of Suites for cello, the Sonatas and Partitas for violin, the extraordinary Italian Concert and many others (Upcoming releases expected by December 2015). All the works in the catalog are presented in an elegant and well-finished graphic design, by the graphic / artistic studio Radici of Bergamo.
D.C. Our journey continues, at full speed, guided by the star of Aldebaran, towards new horizons. We look forward to your advice, suggestions, proposals. We would like that with time Aldebaran Edition could become an art workshop where they could make music together and share experiences and riches.
