Da Camera 38: album of pieces from J. S. Bach n. 1

During the years that I have been a recorder teacher at the Municipal School of Music and Professional Conservatory of Sabadell, I have always suggested that students perform the music of J. S. Bach. This composer is a mainstay of learning every instrument and all kinds of adaptations of his works are commonplace. In addition to there being a considerable amount of recorder arrangements available for newer students, I realised that for the first years of the professional degree there was not much J. S. Bach music material to work with at a medium difficulty level, before being able to access his sonatas. The two albums presented in Da Camera 38 and 39 are the result of all these years of work to provide a repertoire of Bach’s music to 1st to 4th year students of the Conservatory. Hopefully, they can also be of use to other students.

Typically, arrangements of the works of J. S. Bach for recorder are derived from the conversion of pieces from the Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach or the Inventions in flute duos or trios. The albums here are intended for instrument class work and systematically offer arrangements of works for solo flute accompanied by harpsichord. There are dances from the Suites for orchestra, the Six Little Preludes BWV 933-938, two inventions, a fantasia for the organ and pieces derived from cantatas and the same aforementioned album.

With the exception of the Fantasia super “Nun Komm’der Heiden Heiland”, in the other pieces the arrangement has been formed from the orchestra parts, the low voice has been treated as the basis for a continuous bass to develop its harmony or, simply, a polyphony of inner voices has been created for the right hand on the harpsichord. The objective of all of this has been to transform these pieces into a concert repertoire for the solo flute.