Re: Typesetting a Bach Ornament; Sarabande, French Suite 5

[Andrew Bernard]

Hi Sam,

On 23/05/2016, 5:43 AM, "lilypond-user on behalf of Sam Bivens" wrote:

I want to mimic the given edition as closely as possible;


Do you want to do that or do you want to get close to what Bach wrote? If you 
look at the Bach autograph of this piece, available in the Digital Bach 
Archive, you will see not only no nachschlag there but hardly any phrasing 
slurs, and definitely not the dotted one in your sample image. The ornament in 
your edition is an editorial insertion, and cobbled together with type punches 
they had lying around I suppose. For myself, as a harpsichord player and 
student of Bach, I’d prefer to set from the autograph manuscript where 
possible. Of course, then you must become musicologist and editor yourself, but 
there is something to be said for that. And I am not keen on propagating 
incorrect editorial decisions and misconceptions through further typesetting of 
them.

Of course, there are a lot of MSS of this work by various copyists, available 
in the same archive. I have not checked them all. But if Bach himself is 
leaving out the ornament signs it means he expects you to be a good enough 
musician to understand what to do without being told – as per normal in 18c 
music.

Here’s the Bach Digital Archive:

https://www.ilab.org/eng/documentation/275-bach_digital__johann_sebastian_bachs_autograph_manuscripts.html

Attached is the fragment in question from the autograph.

Andrew

Sarabande BWV 815.jpg
Description: JPEG image