A Comparative Study Of Music Score And Performance Of Bach’s French Suite BWV815

This paper,taking Bach’s French Suite No.4 BWV815 as an example,compares the spectrum of The French Suite published by different publishers and the performance of four pianists,thus providing scholars with a better theoretical support to achieve a more profound understanding on this suite.After a brief overview of Bach and "French Suite",this paper makes a systematic comparison between the music scores of four different versions published respectively by the People’s Music Publishing House,Shanghai Music Publishing House,Shanghai Education Publishing House and Germany Baerenreiter Publishing House.The specific comparisons and analyses mainly focus on the induction and ordering of each version,speed,music notes,pedal and the tone line on the playing method,grace note,strength and fingering,and other issues.Concerning the differences of various versions,we find out that some versions are more concise with less notes,while some others are more comprehensive,even including a variety of different fingering for you to choose and reference in the version given by Shanghai Music Publishing House.Considering that the French Suite,as a moderately difficult work of Bach,will be played by scholars of different degrees,these findings can enable scholars to properly choose the music version for their own purposes.The second comparison is carried out between the performance versions played by four pianists,in particular their performing characteristics,including Glenn Gould,Andras Schiff,Ingrid Haebler,and Святослав Теофилович Рихтер.The analytical research is mainly concerned with such factors as duration,speed,strength and style etc.and it is demonstrated that every performer’s choice of score and playing is different,with Richter’s having the longer length and the full repeat.In other aspects,especially on the graces and improvisation,different performers have their own choice and processing,some choosing not to grace note playing and some adopting a large number of decoration and impromptu.In addition,the magnitude of the different processing speed,can present a different style of music,which deserves a reference.To sum up,this research can be a theoretical guidance in the analysis of Bach’s works.