Case study: Sylvius Leopold Weiss, Courante from Suite XVII in F minor

The idea of transcribing this suite came from Konrad Junghänel's CD «Ouvertures and Suites». Weiss's music, masterfully played by Junghänel, struck me so much that I started researching it. A dear friend, Carlo Carulli, owned Ruggero Chiesa's transcriptions of the manuscript held at the British Museum in London. I borrowed them: the manuscript included two of the four suites on the CD, No. 17 in F minor and No. 21 in G minor. The third is one of the best known and most played, the D minor suite from the Dresden manuscript.

At the time (1995) I had an eight-string guitar kindly lent to me by luthier Nazzareno Massimiliani of Frosinone and, instead of transposing from F minor to E minor, the closest and easiest key for the guitar, I decided to keep the original key.

I started tuning the instrument differently and after many attempts reached the final solution, from the first string: F, B, G, D, B♭, F, E♭, C. I also learned to read directly in the new tuning, without a tablature alongside.

Of course I had to make compromises, with eight strings against the thirteen courses of the baroque lute, but the suite comes across thoroughly and quite faithfully.

I gave the instrument back to its owner after a couple of years; in that time I recorded this suite together with No. 25 in A minor («L'Infidèle») and the D minor suite from the Dresden manuscript on the eight-string guitar, and No. 21 in G minor on six strings. I recorded them on a cassette deck to capture the work so far; the plan was to refine and finish it on a ten-string guitar, which I have owned for a couple of years.

Listen to the transcriptions

From Suite XXV «L'Infidèle» you can hear the Courante and the Entrée, recorded in 1995 on the eight-string guitar. That study also led to a composition of mine, the Toccata in the style of S. L. Weiss.