"A proper guide, by which lovers of the harpsichord,
and especially those who crave instruction, are shown a
clear way of learning not only to play cleanly in two
voices but also, after further progress, to deal
correctly with three obbligato voices, and also to
create and properly develop good musical ideas; but,
above all else, to acquire a true cantabile style of
playing, and, with it, to get a good foretaste of the
art of composition."
Thus reads J.S. Bach's own description, provide...(+)
"A proper guide, by which lovers of the harpsichord,
and especially those who crave instruction, are shown a
clear way of learning not only to play cleanly in two
voices but also, after further progress, to deal
correctly with three obbligato voices, and also to
create and properly develop good musical ideas; but,
above all else, to acquire a true cantabile style of
playing, and, with it, to get a good foretaste of the
art of composition."
Thus reads J.S. Bach's own description, provided in a
paragraph-long preface to the volume that contains the
final 1723 versions of the pieces, of his Two- and
Three-Part Inventions for keyboard. His purpose in
writing them could not be made more plain -- and,
indeed, it was not as instructional material in some
general sense that he first conceived the pieces, but
rather as exercises specifically designed for his
12-year-old son Wilhelm Friedemann (the first versions
of the pieces are to be found in the 1722
Clavier-Büchlein for Wilhelm Friedemann). There are 30
pieces altogether, 15 Inventions in two voices and 15
Sinfonias in three.
The 15 Two-Part Inventions are written in the 15 keys
that were at the time considered to be standard for
keyboard use (remember that the Well-Tempered Clavier,
which explores all 24 keys, was a novelty made possible
only by the advent of more sophisticated tuning
systems). The original order of the pieces was rather
different than is the order in which one today finds
them -- it was Bach himself, however, and not modern
editors, who rearranged the pieces. The final key
scheme is as follows: 1. C major, 2. C minor, 3. D
major, 4. D minor, 5. E flat major, 6. E major, 7. E
minor, 8. F major, 9. F minor, 10. G major, 11. G
minor, 12. A major, 13. A minor, 14. B flat major, 15.
B minor.
Although originally composed for Harpsichord, I created
this arrangement of the Invention No. 10 in G Major
(BWV 781) for Viola Duet.
SHEET MUSIC