“…To Bach and his Baroque contemporaries, the written score was not a definitive, sacrosanct object. Rather, it was a living, breathing organism, a wellspring for ‘good inventions.’ As the Hamburg theorist Johann Mattheson famously said, ‘It is fine to borrow from an existing piece of music, as long as the loan is paid back with interest.’ It is my hope that these arrangements will help to free up the performance of Bach’s Cello Suites, and further enliven the music in the spirit of exuberance in which it was created.”

– George B. Stauffer New Brunswick, New Jersey Fall 2024