Johann Paul Von Westhoff, Suite in C Major

Suite in four movements. Transcribed and arranged for solo guitar by Alan Grundy.

This work by Johann Paul Von Westhoff is historically significant in the development of compositions for solo stringed instruments in European classical music. It is taken from - Six Suites for Solo Violin - published in Dresden in 1696 (but possibly composed in the early 1680s), and predates the masterpieces for solo strings of J.S. Bach by over 20 years.

These works by Von Westhoff lay in obscurity for over 250 years until Peter Várnai announced their discovery in 1971 in Die Musikforschung. I have included copies of the original scores for those who wish to compare them with my transcription; furthermore, his unconventional use of an eight-line stave is worth viewing. He presented them in this unique manner to show the contrapuntal structure he was striving to create; however, this made them difficult to read, and other composers who followed did not adopt this system.
In my transcription, I made only minor adjustments to the original score to make it feel more natural on the guitar.

Alan Grundy 2023

Product: PDF or Print on Demand
Pages: 16 pages
Level: Intermediate
Order number: BE-240119
ISMN 979-0-706836-73-7

Listen to Alan Grundy playing the full Suite in C:

And here the individual movements:

Itle, Three Preludes

Itle, Three Preludes

M. C. Itle, Three Preludes