Lute Suites for Guitar (Classical Guitar Series)

I bought this edition way back in the late 80's. It was well used and carted with me all over the country for over 20 years. The book binding started to give up the ghost about 10 years ago and the pages ended up in various locations. Tired of searching for missing pages, I decided to buy it again.Willard has done an excellent job of putting this edition together. It appears (just like my old one), to be printed on acid free paper,--which lasts a long time. The footnoting is extensive, typesetting is very clear and readable without glare, and any changes to the score is annotated in the footnotes. Fingerings are adequate, but can be changed for personal preference. They're a good starting point though. I have found Willard's suggestions work pretty well for me most of the time.The suites also contain pieces that are rarely played and make a nice change from the tired old CG repertoire war horses like BWV 998, the Bouree from the first suite, and BWV 999. Complexity of the pieces range from intermediate to advanced, moderate in length to long. The book should provide players with many years of challenging and rewarding music.

These works vary in difficulty and require a great deal of technique and understanding of the fingerboard. I have some reservations about the choices for fingering and hand positions for maintaining the continuity for voicing and tone. You will decide for yourself! It is a must for any guitarist and will enrich your love for the guitar, raising your level of appreciation and passion for the music of J.S. Bach.The publication needs to be re-edited for fingering errors as well as all the missing details for the examples in the last pages of each Suite (NOTES APPENDIX) referring to the original manuscript .

These pieces were originally written for the lute, an instrument with more strings and a shorter neck than the classical guitar. Obviously editing was necessary to make them playable on the guitar in some instances, for example some of the bass notes had to be moved up an octave. This was kept to a minimum and denoted in the score. Jerry Willard did an excellent of maintaining the baroque style these were written in, and although I don't necessary agree with all the suggested fingerings, he was very good about setting you up for where you needed to be next. A must have in one's classical guitar musical library!

Fingering choices are occ. idiosyncratic, but, overall, clear presentation, nice layout, wonderful pieces--pretty challenging for an old guitarist! Nice also to have notes on the original manuscripts.

An excellent and clear edition! An absolute necessity for any classical guitarist's library and collection of sheet music "must haves".

GREAT COMPILATION!!!!!!!!!!

These are by far the best copies of the lute suites I've seen. The engraving is clean, and the fingerings are helpful (although I change them from time to time).As most will complain, I would have preferred a spiral binding - but this is just nitpicky and I can make due with a paper clip to keep the book flat and open.

I recently attended a 40 hour session of master classes that focused on interpretation of Baroque music on the modern guitar. Most of the attendees were students at conservatories - the general consensus was that this edition is superb. There may be others as good, but this one is certainly up to standard. During the class, we often referred to this edition to correct errors in the other student's scores.Of course, any transcription for the guitar makes changes, drops some notes, looses some voices, etc. The maestro's opinion (a specialist in music of the period) was that the compromises in this edition are quite fine.Of course, one should always have as close to the original texts as possible for reference.

This is actually my second copy of this collection as I wore out the first one! It's an excellent edition of some of the finest music ever composed. Fingerings are (mostly) accurate/appropriate and the print quality is extremely high.

Fantastic value for money. Well printed and good transcription notes. It looses a star however for having a stiff binding that doesn't stay open on the stand without a great deal of creasing, and for several page turns in pieces which could have been fitted within two facing pages. When will music publishers realise that guitar playing requires two hands! Would it be so difficult to put a spiral binding on it?

This book provides a lot of fingerings that seem awkward and unjustifiable. Moreover, the binding makes it very difficult to keep the book open at a particular page - the pages keep turning by themselves. A far better investment would be in Frank Koonce's edition of Bach's work for the lute, which is also spiral-bound, making it much more practical and easy to use.

this was the only printed copy of this music I could find - not the same arrangment as the CD we have, but useful anyway

Das Buch ist durch seine Klebebindung mit flexiblem Einband für einen Notenständer ohne gute Halterung zwar weniger praktisch (am besten zum Üben fotokopieren), das Druckbild ist aber sauber lesbar, der Fingersatz hervorragend überlegt und fast durchgehend notiert.Nach jeder Suite gibt es ein paar ergänzende Takte zu Abweichungen, die der Autor vorgenommen hat, ich hätte aber gerne noch ein paar Erläuterungen zu den Stücken (mehr als vereinzelte Fußnoten) oder zur Notation gehabt, z.B. war mir die Barree-Notation "C(Bundnummer)" bisher nicht geläufig (und sie ist auch etwas unpraktisch, weil man die Anzahl der zu greifenden Seiten nicht sofort ablesen kann), sowas hätte man auf nur einer Seite abdrucken können, ohne den Preis des Buches hochzutreiben. Solche Details wird ein Profispieler zwar wissen, sollte man als Autor aber nicht voraussetzen; bin ich aus wissenschaftlichen Papern anders gewohnt.Das ist aber Gejammer auf hohem Niveau, als fortgeschrittener Spieler ließ sich der Inhalt gut erarbeiten, was mit Internetausdrucken freier Bach-Noten nicht möglich war, v.a. wegen des dort fehlenden Fingersatzes. Statt sich durch einzelne Takte zu quälen, lässt sich hier gleich eine Seite runterspielen und einüben.