The Bach Cello Suites are deservedly famous, but if you are looking to branch out to other solo cello music I recommend listening to Zoltan Kodály's Sonata for Unaccompanied Cello. After the Bach Cello Suites it is probably the most important piece in the solo cello repertoire. One of the unusual features of the piece is that it calls for the bottom two strings to be tuned down half a step which gives the cello a darker timbre.
When tuning down those two strings, would the player need to "relearn" the positions of fingers on the strings when playing? Or would they play at the same positions and ignore the conflict in expected and actual sound?
The linkage between hand position and visual location on the staff is so hard to relearn for someone that only plays one instrument that the music is written so that notes to be played on the B string (the C tuned down) and the F# string (the G tuned down) are written with incorrect pitches.
That is, an actual D# played on the actual B string is written as an E on the staff.
It's weird to learn the Kodaly this way, but the piece is hard enough that, at least in my case, I basically have to memorize it to have a fighting chance. I still haven't performed it for a real concert after 20 years of thinking about doing so.
This also creates some ambiguities, since you can play many notes on either the F# string or the D string. But context is enough to tell what Kodaly meant.
Relatedly, the fifth Bach suite is also written for an alternate tuning ("scordatura"), with the same "wrong note" approach to notation (at least in modern editions). The A string is tuned down to a G, giving you beautifully transformed resonances for the key of C minor.
> This also creates some ambiguities, since you can play many notes on either the F# string or the D string. But context is enough to tell what Kodaly meant.
I found that sticking to the edited score's III/IV markings gets you in the right zone–there's enough other things to figure out haha.
The music is notated as if there had been no detuning so that you can use the natural finger positions. (For example, a note that is notated as a C would actually sound as a B.) The trade-off is that it makes some of the intervals look wrong, but you do get used to it.
Bach's 5th cello suite also uses this technique where the A string is tuned down to a G. (The technical term is "scordatura.")
Interesting! On the guitar when alternate tunings are used, the pitches are written as they sound.
I wonder if maybe the difference is due to the fact that alternate fingerings are very common for guitar (because of having more strings spaced closer together). So notating pitches assuming a specific fingering doesn't make sense.
Plus I don't think the mapping from the staff to muscle memory for guitar is nearly as strong because we have frets.
Hey, Joe! This is one of my favorite cello pieces -- so hauntingly beautiful. I've probably listened to Janos Starker's performance dozens of times, but I also liked Inbal Segev's version. Parts of it seemed brighter somehow.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phygv_Et9sQ