Inventions and Sinfonias
The Inventions and Sinfonias, BWV 772–801, also known as the Two- and Three-Part Inventions, are a collection of thirty short keyboard compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750): 15 inventions, which are two-part contrapuntal pieces, and 15 sinfonias, which are three-part contrapuntal pieces. They were originally written as "Praeambula" and "Fantasiae" in the Klavierbüchlein für Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, a Clavier-booklet for his eldest son, and later rewritten as musical exercises for his students.
Bach titled the collection:
Forthright instruction, wherewith lovers of the clavier, especially those desirous of learning, are shown in a clear way not only 1) to learn to play two voices clearly, but also after further progress 2) to deal correctly and well with three obbligato parts, moreover at the same time to obtain not only good ideas, but also to carry them out well, but most of all to achieve a cantabile style of playing, and thereby to acquire a strong foretaste of composition.[1]
The two groups of pieces are both arranged in order of ascending key, each group covering eight major and seven minor keys.
The inventions were composed in Köthen; the sinfonias, on the other hand, were probably not finished until the beginning of the Leipzig period. The autograph fair copy is dated 1723.[2]
Media
| Key | Invention | Sinfonia | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| C major |  | No. 1, BWV 772 |  | No. 1, BWV 787 |
| C minor |  | No. 2, BWV 773 |  | No. 2, BWV 788 |
| D major |  | No. 3, BWV 774 |  | No. 3, BWV 789 |
| D minor |  | No. 4, BWV 775 |  | No. 4, BWV 790 |
| E♭ major |  | No. 5, BWV 776 |  | No. 5, BWV 791 |
| E major |  | No. 6, BWV 777 |  | No. 6, BWV 792 |
| E minor |  | No. 7, BWV 778 |  | No. 7, BWV 793 |
| F major |  | No. 8, BWV 779 |  | No. 8, BWV 794 |
| F minor |  | No. 9, BWV 780 |  | No. 9, BWV 795 |
| G major |  | No. 10, BWV 781 |  | No. 10, BWV 796 |
| G minor |  | No. 11, BWV 782 |  | No. 11, BWV 797 |
| A major |  | No. 12, BWV 783 |  | No. 12, BWV 798 |
| A minor |  | No. 13, BWV 784 |  | No. 13, BWV 799 |
| B♭ major |  | No. 14, BWV 785 |  | No. 14, BWV 800 |
| B minor |  | No. 15, BWV 786 |  | No. 15, BWV 801 |
| These (Inventions) are MIDI representations of Bach's music, and do not convey how a human pianist would perform them. |
All Sinfonia performances above were played by Randolph Hokanson. Additionally, here is another version of Sinfonia No. 8 (BWV 794) for clarinet, oboe and cello: and, another version of Sinfonia No. 15 (BWV 801) is | |||
References
- Goodfriend, James (2015). in Glenn Gould Remastered: The Complete Columbia Album Collection. New York: Sony Classical. p. 136.
- 30 Inventions – RISM. Retrieved 2020-04-09.
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External links
- Inventions, Sinfonias: Scores at the International Music Score Library Project
- Mutopia's editions of Bach's Inventions and Sinfonias
- History and analysis of Bach's inventions Archived 2012-01-20 at the Wayback Machine
- Bach – Inventions (
43:26 minutes) at BBC's Discovering Music: Listening Library - Graphical Motif Extraction of the Inventions and Sinfonias