Perspectives: Duets for Guitar and Ukulele volume I: Bach

The music of J. S. Bach is more popular now than at any other time in history. There are transcriptions of his works for a huge range of instruments, from the five string banjo to the harp and everything in between. This edition of duets is slightly different to most transcriptions as the goal of the authors was to arrange pieces of the repertoire for amateur musicians of varying degrees of proficiency without losing any of the integrity of the music. In all of the pieces contained in this volume, every note from the original manuscript has been retained and no others have been inserted. The guitar and ukulele take an equal status and the demands upon the players of both instruments are neither virtuosic nor simplistic. 

The choice of pieces covers a wide range of Bach’s working life, Invention No.4 and Sinfonia No.2 date from sometime around 1720. The Prelude No. 20 is from the Well Tempered Clavier book I from 1722. The Aria from the Goldberg Variations date from later in Bach’s life, being first published in 1741. The Sonata is C Major dates from 1731 and Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring dates from around 1723. The reader may notice that the layout is slightly different than usual too. After a series of trials and errors it was decided that the best way of presenting the music was to have the guitar take a whole page while the facing page was used solely by the Ukulele. It proved to be far easier for both players to read consistently and without confusion and the possibility of a momentary loss of place whilst also requiring only one musician to turn the page. We hope players will find this layout to be of benefit.