Bach : Inventions & Sinfonias, BWV 772-801
Johann Sebastian Bach composed these thirty Two-Part and Three-Part Inventions for didactic purposes, namely the musical instruction of his own sons.
In these short Inventions and Sinfonias, Johann Sebastian Bach demonstrates his talent both as a pedagogue and as a deeply artistic composer of the Baroque era.
Bach's Inventions and Sinfonias remain as of today one of the groundworks of piano teaching.
The title page of the autograph of 1723 bears the following mention (in Bach's own handwriting) :
Sincere Instruction, in which lovers of keyboard music, and especially those desiring to learn to play, are shown a clear way not only (1) to learn to play cleanly in two parts, but also after further progress (2) to proceed correctly and well with three obbligato parts, and at the same time not only to compose good inventions, but to develop them well; but most of all to achieve a cantabile style in playing, and to acquire a taste for the elements of composition. Prepared by Joh. Seb. Bach, Chapel Master to His Serene Highness, the Prince of Anhalt-Cöthen. The Year of our Lord : 1723.
