Three-part Inventions (Inventions and Sinfonias)

Description

Piano — Johann Sebastian Bach originally called the three-part inventions Fantasies, then Sinfonias; the term 'three-part inventions' derives from Bach's first biographer, J. N. Forkel. Bach intended these compositions for his son Wilhelm Friedemann, and he collected them in the Clavierbüchlein he kept from 1720. The manuscript reached its definitive form in 1723, and Bach wrote the following preface for it: ''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.'' (translated by James Goodfriend)

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