Bach: Badinerie from Orchestral Suite Nº 2: For Cello Duo

Originally for solo flute and string orchestra, the flute part is given here (transposed down two octaves) to the top cello voice. The second cello part is unchanged from Bach‘s original. For a perfectly democratic distribution of both the difficulties and the protagonism, the solo part can be shared by simply swapping voices (lines) at the repeats. The easier version is simply transposed down one tone (into A minor) but apart from that it is identical to the “harder” version.

In order to notate the piece as it actually sounds, several radical modifications have been made to Bach‘s rhythmical notation (time signature and barlines). These notation changes only affect the ease of reading and phrasing for the player and do not change how the music sounds. Bach starts the piece with an upbeat but in this arrangement, the liberty has been taken of displacing the beat so that Bach’s upbeat is now the downbeat. Also, whereas Bach notates the entire piece with a constant 2/4 time signature, in this arrangement, bar 32 has three beats. My apologies to Bach.