Modern lute posts adapt Baroque repertoire

Jozef van Wissem and other social-media users this week pushed a familiar early-music repertoire back into online circulation, using short posts and clips to point listeners toward lute works associated with Johann Sebastian Bach, Georg Philipp Telemann and Silvius Leopold Weiss. A May 18 X post cited van Wissem by name and linked to excerpts and recording notes, part of a small but persistent stream of online sharing around Baroque lute music. Van Wissem’s own site says his latest album, “This is my blood,” was released on May 1. Apple Music describes him as a Dutch lutenist and composer who “adapts and improvises” from older music and performs in settings ranging from churches to rock festivals. ### Why are Bach, Telemann and Weiss showing up together in lute posts? Johann Sebastian Bach, Georg Philipp Telemann and Silvius Leopold Weiss sit close together in the late Baroque repertoire, but they occupy different places in the lute tradition. IMSLP’s catalog of Bach’s lute pieces lists works including BWV 995, 996, 997, 998, 999 and 1000, showing the core body of music modern players usually cite when they refer to “Bach on the lute.” (jozefvanwissem.com) Silvius Leopold Weiss was a German composer and lutenist whose surviving output runs into the hundreds of pieces, often grouped as sonatas or suites, according to IMSLP and other reference material surfaced in search results. Telemann also appears in lute-related catalogs and manuscript attributions, including Suite in A major, TWV 32:14. ### What does “adapting” Baroque lute repertoire mean here? (imslp.org) Apple Music says van Wissem “adapts and improvises from music written for his instrument” and has made Baroque-period music accessible to 21st-century audiences. That description is narrower than a straight historical-performance claim: it points to reworking older material in recital, recording and presentation, rather than simply reproducing a scholarly edition note for note. (imslp.org) Danijel Jurišić, a lutenist who publishes Bach intabulations online, describes one common method directly. On his “Bach on the Lute” page, he says some works were originally written for lute while others are transcriptions from violin, cello or keyboard, and that his aim is to stay close to Bach’s musical language while making practical versions for baroque lute. That is the same broad territory social posts usually mean when they talk about modern players “adapting” Baroque repertoire. (music.apple.com) ### How modern is van Wissem’s version of the lute tradition? Van Wissem’s current public profile is built as much around contemporary circulation as around old repertory. His official site lists a video page, current tour dates and the May 1 release of “This is my blood,” while Apple Music lists a March 20, 2026 single and recent albums including “The Day The Angels Cried” and “The Night Dwells in the Day.” (danijeljurisic.com) Discography listings also show that van Wissem’s recorded output stretches well beyond strict Baroque repertory, including solo albums, film scores and collaborations with Jim Jarmusch. That helps explain why a post about Bach or Telemann can travel in contemporary music feeds: the performer attached to it already moves between early instruments, experimental composition and film-adjacent audiences. (jozefvanwissem.com) ### Why does Weiss matter in this cluster of names? Weiss remains one of the central composer-performers of the lute’s late Baroque repertoire. A recent YouTube program note surfaced in search describes him as a key figure in late lute music with a legacy of more than 800 pieces, while IMSLP’s works list shows the scale of the surviving catalog. One reason Weiss appears alongside Bach in online posts is the long history of overlap, attribution disputes and transcription. (discogs.com) IMSLP notes that Weiss’s Lute Sonata in A major, SC 47 was formerly attributed to Bach as BWV 1025. That kind of repertorial crossing is part of why modern players and listeners often encounter the three names together. (youtube.com) ### Where are listeners being sent next? Van Wissem’s official site now directs listeners to his video page, news page and tour listings, and it identifies “This is my blood” as out on May 1. Apple Music lists his most recent release as the March 20, 2026 single “Praise Shall Sound From Shore To Shore Until The Sun Shall Rise And Set No More.” Those are the clearest next stops for anyone following the new round of lute posts back to the performer and the recordings themselves. (imslp.org) (jozefvanwissem.com)