I went through a phase a few years back where I was regularly listening to the Pablo Casals recordings of the Bach cello suites. They were on the USB stick with music I had in my car, and for some reason the memory of listening to them that stands out is that of making my way home from Kapiolani Park after yoga class. Driving along Paki Avenue, listening to the mellow cello suites as the moon was coming out, looking up through the sunroof of my Honda at the moonlight filtering through the intricate silhouettes created by the canopy of Monkeypod trees lining the avenue, an amazing textured design.
Recently, I decided to arrange part II of the Bourrée from Bach’s Cello Suite 4 (BWV 1010) in Taro Patch tuning. Rather than the usual Open G, I used a capo on the 2nd fret to play the piece in Open A which helped make some of the stretches a little easier. This arrangement is based on Stanley Yates’s excellent arrangements of the cello suites for guitar (Mel Bay). In further adapting it for Taro Patch, I decided to use various fingerings and add some harmonics in place of fretted notes – things that one wouldn’t normally do, but which were part of the fun of playing this piece in an open tuning. Hope you enjoy.