# Hmm trivial question on Bach

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hmm-trivial-question-on-bach/177168>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [May 24, 2003, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hmm-trivial-question-on-bach/177168 "2003-05-24T03:01:13Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Neonfish07](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Neonfish07](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neonfish07)\
**Post date:** [May 24, 2003, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hmm-trivial-question-on-bach/177168/1 "2003-05-24T03:01:13Z")

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My friend estimated that there are over 20,000 individual notes in the Bach cello suites (1-6), I don’t think he’s even close!

How many notes are actually in the Unaccompanied Suites for cello?  
😉

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**Author:** ![Rysdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7cd45c/32.png) [@Rysdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysdad)\
**Post date:** [May 24, 2003, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hmm-trivial-question-on-bach/177168/2 "2003-05-24T03:23:02Z")

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Jesus. I did a search for “Bach Unaccompanied Suites Cello Sheet music”, and I came up with [this](http://icking-music-archive.sunsite.dk/scores/bach/cello_suites/).

I looked at the first gif. I ain’t about to start counting that many notes, but it’s a long weekend, and if _you_ don’t have anything to do, have at it.

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**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\
**Post date:** [May 24, 2003, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hmm-trivial-question-on-bach/177168/3 "2003-05-24T03:38:52Z")

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I’m not about to go counting them either, but 20,000 doesn’t sound at all unreasonable as an estimate. There are 36 movements in all, and the prelude to the third suite alone (88 measures, most measures containing 12 notes) adds up to over 1,000 notes (counting each note of the double, triple and quadruple stops in the final measures separately).

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**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\
**Post date:** [May 24, 2003, 11:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hmm-trivial-question-on-bach/177168/4 "2003-05-24T11:19:29Z")

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I’m not sure the preludes are typical of all movements, however; the sarabandes will probably have much fewer. Plus, are we counting repeats (and repeated Bourees and Menuets and so forth)?

Even without repeats and with a lower average note/mvt number, though, 20,000 probably isn’t too unreasonable. But I’m still not going to count them for you.