Product Description
Sam Bateman made this arrangement in 2012, when he was still in high
school. (Year 11, to be more precise.) It is an arrangement of the one
of Bach's most famous works, for an ensemble consisting of a violin,
guitar and (5-string) bass guitar. (If you happen to own
the more common 4-string bass, however, you may play any notes
written below the low 'E' string, an octave higher.)
Actually,
this is an updated version - the original arrangement contains no
dynamics, since Sam wanted to stay true to the original organ piece. The
idea was so that the musicians themselves could decide how loudly to
play. There were also no slurs in the original arrangement, since, while
he knew what slurs are for (to indicate legato), he mostly knew about
them from piano - and because the piano is a keyboard instrument (and,
unlike the synthesiser, it lacks a pitch bender), true legato is
impossible, and is merely emulated by playing tenuto over multiple
notes, so he wrongly assumed it wasn't that important. Although
he played the violin when he was younger, he doesn't recall learning to
play legato, and it wasn't until he started taking saxophone lessons
that he understood what legato truly meant. On top of that, the first arrangement had too many countermelodies crammed into the guitar and violin parts, which, in this version, have been either removed or transferred to the bass part, to allow for much easier playing.
So, anyway, when Sam
uploaded the arrangement to YouTube, he received a lot of criticism - and received further advice from his arranging teacher - so
he's taken the criticism and improved the arrangement as needed. And
here it is, the new and improved 2017 version! Enjoy.
Also, I
would like to point out that much of the dynamics for this arrangement
are taken directly from Jakub Kowalewski's arrangement of the piece for
string orchestra, which you may find at the Petrucci Music Library, at
the following web address:
http://imslp.org/wiki/Toccata_and_Fugue_in_D_minor,_BWV_565_(Bach,_Johann_Sebastian)
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