J C Bach song

[Alexander Dunn]

An English guitar question. In reviewing the score for Bach's song  'Blest with Thee my Soul's Dear Treasure' (ca. 1780), the score is in Eb, with appended parts for an arrangement for two German flutes in G, and then the vocal melody with text in F, with the word 'Guitar' printed above. There is no guitar part. Thoughts?

http://imslp.org/wiki/Blest_with_Thee,_My_Soul%27s_Dear_Treasure,_W...(Bach,_Johann_Christian)

[Jelma van Amersfoort]

Hello Alexander,

The part that says 'guitar' is in fact the guitar part, or rather, the guitar arrangement. Parts for English guitar are often (just) melodic and have the words of the original song written in. They look very thin to us, but that is how they were published. Compare for instance with 'Durandarte and Belerma' which you can find here. There are many other examples.

Jelma

[Alexander Dunn]

I suspected as much. Thank you for the clarification!