Piano Video Lesson: How to Play Bach's Two Part Inventions - Part 3

Hi, I'm Robert Estrin, and this is virtualsheetmusic.com with the continuing series on how to approach Bach's Two-Part Inventions. These are wonderful pieces. You know, I studied Two-Part Inventions when I was a child, and yet, revisiting them is always a great pleasure, and while advanced and intermediate students can play Bach, so can seasoned professionals. It's great to have a wealth of top-notch music available to students who are not yet on an advanced level, yet this music, you'll gain so much from studying it.

So we talked about how to delineate subject from counter-subject, and that's really the lesson on these pieces, is because you want to be able to hear both parts distinct from one another. One hand is playing a subject while the other hand is playing the counter-subject, and vice versa. Sometimes, both hands are playing subjects or counter-subjects. So how do you bring them out? It's with the phrasing.

So now we have No. 4, the D minor, and I'm going to show you the subject and show you the counter-subject so you can hear for yourself.

So you have that nice legato sixteenth notes as the subject, and the counter-subject...

And here, once again, you can hear how by delineating the phrasing, playing the sixteenth note subject legato and the eighth note counter-subject staccato, you can hear every note beautifully. Listen to how it works together.

Now, once again, as you continue on, you can do your own dynamic scheme. You can try many different things, but the key is delineating with the phrasing so you can hear the individual lines and how they interplay. It's absolutely beautiful, brilliant writing on Bach's part.

Now the Two-Part Inventions are a great way to get exposed to Baroque music and counterpoint in general because after you leave the Two-Part Inventions and you study other pieces of Bach, you're going to have three-, four-, even five-voice fugues. So you'd better get used to finding out how to delineate two parts, one from the other, if you're going to approach three, four or more voices happening simultaneously because remember, with counterpoint, and in fugues in particular, you're not playing melody and harmony, you're playing simultaneous melodies. And the secret, and the trick is to be able to bring them all out so the listener can follow any one or several at the same time with their ears, and it's only possible by having different quality of sound to them, which you can achieve with your phrasing.

Thanks so much for joining me, and look forward to more videos on many different works. I'm Robert Estrin, here with virtualsheetmusic.com.

Automatic video-to-text transcription by DaDaScribe.com

Thank you for your comment, question or request!

Comment/Question deleted successfully.

Post a comment, question or special request:

Comments or questions must be between 3 and 10,000 characters long.

You may: Login  or  

Otherwise, fill out the form below to post your comment:

Add your name below:


Add your email below: (to receive replies, will not be displayed or shared)


For verification purposes, please enter the word MUSIC in the field below

---