Exposition

Arranging works of J. S. Bach for guitar (2015)

Hrvoje Hleb, Enno Voorhorst

About this exposition

Name: Hrvoje Hleb Main subject: Classical guitar Research coach: Enno Voorhorst Research question: What changes must/can one make when arranging J. S. Bach´s works for guitar? Summary of results: Even though J. S. Bach never composed or arranged anything for guitar, through his own arrangements for other instruments, he left us some sort of study example of what changes we can make when arranging his music for guitar. In his arrangements, Bach did not hesitate to change the original key if it was needed to make a composition playable or more suitable for the chosen instrument. If he was arranging for an instrument able to play more voices, he would often compose new voices, and similarly, the other way around. In the vast majority of cases he would have kept the original rhythm, harmony and melody, but if there was a just cause, he would have changed even that. By following his example, we can do the same when making an arrangement for guitar, but it is important to find the balance between staying close to the original and making it sound natural on the guitar. To capture both of those, would be ideal, but on the guitar we are often forced to make compromises. What to sacrifice and where the line of balance is, is personal, but some things must be respected. One must keep the core idea and character of the movement, to stay in style and to make it suitable and natural sounding for the guitar. In my presentation I will show some examples of what I did in my arrangement of Bach´s second Sonata for violin solo BWV 1003 with explanations as to why I made certain changes and also I will play some recordings of creative solutions of other arrangments. Biography: I was born in January 28th 1989 in Vinkovci, Croatia. I started playing guitar at age of 8, and attended music school in Vinkovci. Aged 18 I enrolled at the Music academy in Zagreb, from which I graduated five years later with the class of Darko Petrinjak. During my studies I participated in masterclasses with Ana Vidović, Zoran Dukić, Aniello Desiderio and Carlo Marchione.
typeresearch exposition
date01/01/2015
published28/05/2015
last modified28/05/2015
statuslimited publication
share statusprivate
licenseAll rights reserved
urlhttps://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/135681/135682
published inKC Research Portal
portal issue3. Internal publication


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