Interview with

Musicologist/Bach Scholar

Dr. Andrew Talle

Johns Hopkins Alumni Association Excellence in Teaching Award, 2010

Bach seems to have been personally driven.
He wanted to explore the musical ideas
that he came up with to the absolute utmost.

Bach is alone amongst his contemporaries
in having written suites just for solo cello,
for four string or five strings,
and with those limited resources,
somehow creating the sound of an orchestra.

Bach’s music does survive well
when you transcribe it for other instruments. 
One of the earliest copies we have of the cello suites
is actually made by an organist, not by a cellist.

So music for violin was being transcribed for lute,
music for the cello was being transcribed for the organ. 
There was a lot of transcription happening at the time.

Bach seems to have valued hard work above everything else. 
That is, Bach had his own standards, which were completely separate
and shockingly different from any of the other composers
who were writing around the same time.

Andrew Talle Webpage