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A review by evelynjlamb
The Cello Suites by Eric Siblin
2.0
This is not the book I was expecting. I am a violist and have played the Bach cello suites (up an octave) almost since I started playing. I love them because as a 10-year-old, I could get something out of them, and as a 32-year-old I can get something out of them. I never get tired of playing them. I was expecting a book that analyzed the suites musically to get some insight into how they are composed, how the movements of each suite are connected to each other, and so on. Siblin does give brief descriptions of some of the movements at the beginning of each chapter, but it's more to set the mood than to give any kind of analysis or insight.
I grew up with all manner of "Classical" music, including Bach, so I did not identify with Siblin as a pop music critic who suddenly discovered Bach. To be fair, I could tell as soon as I started reading the introduction that this book is not the book I expected, and I was not in the target audience, but I read it anyway. I did learn some interesting things about Bach, Casals, and the suites themselves (including the fact that they were viewed as exercises rather than performance-worthy pieces for a long time, which baffles me). The reference section will be useful as I try to find the book I was hoping to read, one that goes more in depth into musical analysis.
One frustrating aspect of the organization of the book itself is that the endnotes are not labeled so you know to look for them as you are reading the text. I didn't even know there were endnotes until I got to the end of the book. They had some interesting information in them, and it would have been nice to get that information in context at the time I read it. (Perhaps this was just my edition.)
I grew up with all manner of "Classical" music, including Bach, so I did not identify with Siblin as a pop music critic who suddenly discovered Bach. To be fair, I could tell as soon as I started reading the introduction that this book is not the book I expected, and I was not in the target audience, but I read it anyway. I did learn some interesting things about Bach, Casals, and the suites themselves (including the fact that they were viewed as exercises rather than performance-worthy pieces for a long time, which baffles me). The reference section will be useful as I try to find the book I was hoping to read, one that goes more in depth into musical analysis.
One frustrating aspect of the organization of the book itself is that the endnotes are not labeled so you know to look for them as you are reading the text. I didn't even know there were endnotes until I got to the end of the book. They had some interesting information in them, and it would have been nice to get that information in context at the time I read it. (Perhaps this was just my edition.)