Lute Suite in E minor, BWV 996

Musical structure#

The work consists of six movements: #Präludium: Presto #Allemande #Courante #(Sarabande) #Bourrée #(Gigue)

Instrumentation#

Bach wrote his lute pieces in a traditional score rather than in lute tablature, and if the work is intended for the lautenwerk, it would have been played on a keyboard. No original script of the Suite in E minor for Lute by Bach is known to exist. However, in the collection of one of Bach’s pupils, Johann Ludwig Krebs, there is one piece (“Praeludio – con la Suite da Gio: Bast. Bach”) that has written “aufs Lauten Werck” (“for the lute-harpsichord”) in unidentified handwriting. Nevertheless, it may be played with other string instruments, such as the guitar, mandola, or mandocello, and keyboard instruments (such as piano), and the fifth movement (the bourrée) is especially well known among guitarists.

See also#

• Bourrée in E minor, other uses of the fifth movement bourrée from this suite in classical and popular music