Happy Wednesday! This week we have Bach’s first cello suite, probably his most popular cello suite. See if you can recognise any bits of it.

BRONZE

1. Which is your favourite movement? Can you explain why using 5 different describing words? How is this movement different to some of the others?

2. True or False: This music only really uses the high notes on a cello.

3. Is it easy or difficult to clap along to all of this music? Why do you think that might be?

4. List 5 ways in which this week’s piece - a solo suite - is different from last week’s concerto. Now list 5 ways in which they are similar.

5. Listen to the 3rd Movement (Courante) again and, as a couple of weeks ago, draw a character that this music might represent. What would they be like? What might they say?

SILVER

1. Which musical features tell you that this suite was written in the Baroque period?

2. Which performance techniques in this video show you that the performer is not playing in an ‘historically accurate’ way and is using their own interpretation of the music?

3. How far do you agree that although there is only one instrument playing here, the composer successfully uses different musical voices, which interact?

4. List 5 cello/string instrument specific performance techniques used in this piece.

5. Write a short solo movement for your instrument - keep in mind some of the things Bach does to showcase the instrument here.

GOLD

1. How far do you agree that there are no recurring themes in this suite, and that each movement is essentially a completely separate piece?

2. Listen to the first movement again, and try to keep track of how many times the music modulates to or passes through a key that is not G major

3. Draw a ‘structure map’ of the movement labelled ‘Minuets I and II’.

4. Research some other examples of solo cello suites written by other composers (Benjamin Britten would be a good start). What similarities and differences strike you when comparing them to this early/pioneering example of a solo cello suite?

5. In the final movement, you can see the performer shifting up some of the cello’s lower strings. Why do you think he does this, instead of using the higher strings available to him?