But who reads musical examples anyway?

Thanks to Suzanne Bona for this lovely conversation on Sunday Baroque!

sundaybaroque.org/edward-klorman

WXXI Classical on Instagram: "It’s Bach’s birthday today so it seems fitting to share this snippet from an interview WXXI Classical host @monaradio did with Edward Kolman, who recently published a boo... 4 likes, 0 comments - wxxiclassical on March 21, 2026: "It’s Bach’s birthday today so it seems fitting to share this snippet from an interview WXXI Classical host @monaradio did with Edward Kolman, wh...

Thanks to WXXI Classical music director Mona Seghatoleslami for this lovely interview! www.instagram.com/reel/DWKClLZ...

I didn’t know you were from Wisconsin!

Bach for More—Violist Edward Klorman Offers a Valuable New Installment in Cello Suites Scholarship | Strings Magazine “I wanted to write a book that could be read by anybody who plays these pieces: Cellists. Violists. Bassists. Trombonists. Whoever!” says Klorman.

"Klorman's erudite but binge-readable work makes us reconsider Bach's work from a fresh perspective . . . This must-read book shows that Bach's Cello Suites will continue to have a hold on our imaginations for many years to come." tinyurl.com/yfz2wbc4

Local Olympians win gold; new book on Bach; drag queen Aggy Dune YouTube video by WXXINews

I had the pleasure of speaking about Bach Cello Suites today with fellow violist Mona Ann Seghatoleslami on WXXI news! It was an honor to have such a wide-ranging discussion on my hometown station.

🔗 www.youtube.com/live/JOMwbcf...

#ConnectionsWithEvanDawson #WXXI #Rochester

Looking forward to reading it!

I could have sworn this glitter article came out during pride, but apparently it actually came out around Christmas.

What Is Glitter? (Published 2018)

“What is glitter? … Glitter is made from glitter. Big glitter begets smaller glitter; smaller glitter gets everywhere, all glitter is impossible to remove; now never ask this question again.” www.nytimes.com/2018/12/21/s...

Didn’t Bach compose the WTC, Book 1, while in jail?

When I searched this morning for this link, I discovered that they are fans of one another!

Molly Lewis - The Swan (Live on Indie Rock Hit Parade) YouTube video by WXPN

This is very impressive! I heard an Australian whistler Molly Lewis live, opening for Weyesblood at a concert in Montreal. She whistles with beautiful phrasing and lyricism: www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-eT...

Cello Chat with Host Dr. Benjamin Whitcomb and guest Edward Klorman YouTube video by You Had Me at Cello by Dr. Benjamin Whitcomb

Thank you to Benjamin Whitcomb, professor at UW–Whitewater, for the opportunity to discuss Bach’s Cello Suites on his Cello Chats podcast!

youtu.be/eW123DJm7uk?...

Violist and author Edward Klorman on Bach's Cello Suites Happy new year, everyone!

Thanks to Evan Goldfine for a wonderful discussion on his Year of Bach substack and podcast!

Few! Err, I mean, phew!

Is “flush out” acceptable in hunting contexts?

Old 60's Commercial - Jolly Green Giant (Remastered) YouTube video by Mango Pictures

I thought the whole thing was "ho ho ho," but turns out there's a whole jingle!

'Ho ho ho, Green Giant' Audio Clip YouTube video by ceilingsoldier

Now do the Green Giant: www.youtube.com/watch?v=1m4m...

Keeping Up With the Bach Cello Suites » Early Music America In recent years, there's been so much new information on J.S. Bach's six cello suites that it can be hard to keep up. A new book is not only the newest (and therefore the most up-to-date) entry in the...

"Edward Klorman’s book is ... outstandingly comprehensive in scope ... I cannot praise this book highly enough and consider it a must-have for cellists and violists, as well as for any music lover who wants to learn more about the suites themselves." www.earlymusicamerica.org/web-articles...

Bach's Cello Suites: Once Dismissed as Curiosities, Now Hailed as Iconic Works <blockquote><i>"Compared with [J. S. Bach’s] six sonatas for violin without accompaniment, these violoncello solos are light and unpretending. Nevertheless, they are interesting, because they are Bach...

Bach's Cello Suites sat unpublished for 100 years; now they are nearly worshiped for their genius! How did this happen? Violist and musicologist Edward Klorman @eklorman.bsky.social presents a piece of this fascinating history.
www.violinist.com/blog/eklorma...

Very interesting, congratulations on completing your manuscript!

Congrats, Scott! What’s the project?

A Challenging Prelude The Prelude to Cello Suite No. 4 poses special challenges: E-flat major is a difficult key for intonation and resonance. Many measures begun with large leaps, requiring a cellist to navigate difficult string crossings from their lowest string to their highest. Musically, it can be challenging to have a feel for the Prelude’s shape. Since many measures look alike in the score. Since harmonies change so slowly (by measures instead of by beats), it can be difficult to develop a feel for the flow of the Prelude’s phrases toward arrival points. The following slide offers a “zoomed-out” map of the Prelude that may offer a new musical vantage point.

A Zoomed-Out Map The slide reproduces a musical example offering a harmonic reduction and formal overview of the Prelude to the Cello Suite No. 4 in E-Flat Major. The slide also includes a QR code to download the example in PDF format from the following URL: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/i8bhtn2vk27vusxscwwfe/ex2.13.pdf?rlkey=npmi0r0frytpifr2j0ajfi9oi&dl=0

Understanding the Story The “map”—known as a “durational reduction”—represents each measure of the Prelude as a quarter note. Playing through the reduction, either even just the bass line, can cultivate a sense of the ebb and flow of the Prelude’s phrases. Musicians may wish to flow through the sequences (such as in mm. 13–21) and may wish to take more time at important arrivals (such as the C minor cadence in m. 27, emphasizing the resonant open C string). An especially intense moment is the fermata in C-sharp in m. 49, which marks the breakdown of the Prelude’s established pattern. The freewheeling, cadenza-like passages that traverse a fraught, harmonically intense path that ultimately leads to a cadence in G minor (m. 62), where the pattern is restored. The Prelude’s final bars reenact the opening, but with an elaborate cadenza emphasizing D natural, which counterbalances the early emphasis on D-flat from the opening of the Prelude.

The Cello Suites at Your Fingertips Order a copy of Bach: The Cello Suites by Edward Klorman for your personal guide to these magnificent compositions! For more information, visit Bach-Cello-Suites.com. Follow on social media: Facebook: @BachTheCelloSuites Instagram: @Bach_The_Cello_Suites The slide reproduces an image of the cover of Edward Klorman’s book Bach: The Cello Suites.

🎻✨ The Prelude to Cello Suite No. 4: Finding the Story

The Infinite Lives of Bach’s Cello Suites Mead Witter School of Music Professor Edward Klorman explores the unlikely impacts of a famed composer’s most mysterious compositions.

Profile in Sift & Winnow (UW–Madison College of Letters & Science)
ls.wisc.edu/news/the-inf...

Two Types of Gigues in Bach’s Cello Suites Serving as a suite’s lively finale, the courtly gigue apparently originated in the jig of the British Isles. The French term “gigue” may originate in words for fiddles (similar to the German “Geige”) or possibly the archaic French verb “giguer,” meaning “to frolic, leap, or gambol.” Johann Mattheson wrote of “ardent, fleeting zeal” and “extreme speed or volatility.” Bach’s gigues are notated variously in 3/8, 6/8, and 12/8. A gigue in 3/8 (as in Cello Suite No. 2) tends to invite a weightier, possibly slower performance than one in 12/8 (as in Cello Suite No. 4). Whereas Bach’s keyboard gigues often feature imitative polyphony, his gigues for solo violin and cello generate excitement through other means such as virtuoso display.

The Italianate Giga and the French Gigue The brilliant style of the Gigues from Suites Nos. 4 and 6 suggest the Italian form of the dance, known as “giga.” The opposite stylistic extreme is found in the Gigue from Suite No. 5, the only true French gigue among the Cello Suites (comparable to the Gigue from French Suite No. 2, BWV 813). An elegant movement in its restraint, its nearly constant use of a dotted rhythmic figure is so steady that it is a prominent event each time freer rhythms appear to mark the modulations leading to cadences in each half (mm. 15–20 near the cadence in E-flat major and mm. 61–66 near the final cadence in C minor).

Examples: Cello Suite No. 6 (a) and Cello Suite No. 5 (b) This slide reproduces excerpts from the Gigues from Cello Suites Nos. 6 and 5.

The Cello Suites at Your Fingertips Order a copy of Bach: The Cello Suites by Edward Klorman for your personal guide to these magnificent compositions! For more information, visit Bach-Cello-Suites.com. Follow on social media: Facebook: @BachTheCelloSuites Instagram: @Bach_The_Cello_Suites The slide reproduces an image of the cover of Edward Klorman’s book Bach: The Cello Suites.

🎻✨ Two types of gigues in Bach’s Cello Suites

Saariaho - Sept Papillons for Solo Cello (2000) [w/ score] YouTube video by AdamMusicWorld | Adam Schreiber

youtu.be/8j0LcmdG1kI?...

From A to B YouTube video by Clarice Jensen - Topic

youtu.be/8NyYrwMnrdM?...

Imaginative new cello sounds inspired by Bach’s suites Composed around 1720, Bach’s Cello Suites have come to define how we think of the sound of the solo cello. Composers such as Clarice Jensen and Kaija Saariaho have continued to look to Bach for inspiration in imagining new sounds and colors in their unaccompanied cello music.

Clarice Jensen’s In holiday clothing, out of the great darkness (2025) The experimental cellist Clarice Jensen’s beautiful new album of ambient music features the acoustic cello lightly augmented with electronic effects. Her piece 2,1 faintly echoes the arpeggios of the Prelude to Cello Suite No. 1. A review from NPR writes that she “applies a tangy electronic pulse, which acts as a foundational drone and offers a stark juxtaposition to the creamy cello layers . . . With this album, Jensen reminds us how past and present can combinei n potent, emotionally charged ways – how Bach’s old school traditions and our new age of electronics can make arresting bedfellows.” The slide reproduces a black-and-white publicity photograph of Clarice Jensen, in all black, without her instrument, in an exaggerated pose leaning left and gesturing with her hand. It also reproduces her album cover, a graphic image of her face facing forward and in profile, fragmented with geometric shapes and patterns.

Kaija Saariaho, Sept Papillons (2000) Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho composed Sept Papillons (Seven Butterflies) for cellist Anssi Karttunen. One of her most popular works, it comprises seven short, imaginative movements that explore the colors of the unaccompanied cello using extended techniques. Many arpeggio passages across the cello’s four strings once again take their inspiration from the ringing, open sound of the Prelude to Cello Suite No. 1. The slide reproduces a score extract from Papillon VII (the seventh movement).

The Cello Suites at Your Fingertips Order a copy of Bach: The Cello Suites by Edward Klorman for your personal guide to these magnificent compositions! For more information, visit Bach-Cello-Suites.com. Follow on social media: Facebook: @BachTheCelloSuites Instagram: @Bach_The_Cello_Suites

🎻✨ Imaginative new cello sounds inspired by Bach’s suites

🔗 Links in the comments.

Flying Angel YouTube video by NU'EST - Topic

www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2RH...