Hi Sherry,

“Sonatas” or “Sonati”? The Oxford Dictionary of Music uses Sonatas for plural.

J S Bach would have said “Sonate” for singular and “Sonaten” For the plural form. Sonata is Italian by origin, though the word may have been first used by French or German composers when Italian was the language in vogue among musicians. I have been told, that in Italian, an object ending on ”a” has the “a” changed to “e” to indicate the plural form.

Bach is easy to transcribe without much change to the original music. I also think that a somewhat mechanical interpretation of the music suits Bach’s music and other music of his time.

I have transcribed several Bach arias for Margaret. I am never given much time to do it. Attached are files of the well known Bach aria “Bist du bei mir” or “With you beside me”. Margaret sang it at church just before Easter this year. On this occasion, I did some research about the music for a short introductory announcement, to be given before the performance. It turned out that this is not music written by J S Bach. The music was found in a note book of Anna Magdalena Bach, dated 1725. Anna Magdalena was Bach’s wife, a very accomplished composer in her own right. The actual composer now is assumed to be a German composer of the name Gottfried Heinrich Stoelzel (1690 – 1749).

The .not file
<center><table border=1><tr><td>BistDuBeiMir.not
BistDuBeiMir.not (93.6 k)</td></tr></table></center>


The Gerritan .studio file
<center><table border=1><tr><td>BistDuBeiMir.studio
BistDuBeiMir.studio (28.8 k)</td></tr></table></center>



Best wishes,

Herbert