Air on the G String

Not to be confused with "Air" from Johann Sebastian Bach's Orchestral Suite No. 3.

"Air on the G String", also known as "Air for G String" and "Celebrated Air", is August Wilhelmj's 1871 arrangement of the second movement of Johann Sebastian Bach's Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D major, BWV 1068.[1][2][3][4][5]

The arrangement differs from the original in that the part of the first violins is transposed down so that the entire piece can be played on just the violin's lowest string (the G string, hence the name). In performance, that part is generally played by a single violin (instead of by the first violins as a group).

  1. ^ French 2014, II, p. 71.
  2. ^ Höweler 1939, pp. 47–48.
  3. ^ Works by August Wilhelmj: list at the International Music Score Library Project
  4. ^ "Victor matrix B-13892. Air for G string / Jan Kubelík". Discography of American Historical Recordings. Retrieved 2020-10-03. Contains several audio versions of this recording.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)
  5. ^ "Search Results for BACH, J.S. (arr.Wilhelmj)". CHARM. Retrieved 2020-10-03.