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Home > Composers Datebook > Bach's two- and three-part Inventions


	Podcast:		Composers Datebook
	Episode:		Bach's two- and three-part Inventions
	Category:		Health
	Duration:		00:02:00
	Publish Date:		2026-01-22 06:00:00
	Description:		Synopsis As kids, many of us received home-made presents: a sweater or pair of socks, perhaps, or — if you were unlucky — a crocheted bow tie you were forced to wear when Auntie came to visit. On today’s date in 1720, Johann Sebastian Bach started a home-made present for his 9-year old son, Wilhelm Friedemann. It was a collection of little keyboard pieces designed to teach him to play the harpsichord, pieces now known as Bach’s Two- and Three-Part Inventions. Here’s how J.S. Bach himself described these pieces: “Straightforward Instruction, in which amateurs of the keyboard, and especially the eager ones, are shown a clear way not only of learning to play cleanly in two voices, but also, after further progress, of dealing correctly and satisfactorily with three … all the while acquiring a strong foretaste of composition.” In the case of little Wilhelm Friedemann, it did the trick. Not only did he master the keyboard, he became a composer himself. Even just attentively listening to Papa Bach’s inventions can have its rewards, according to the late music critic Michael Steinberg, who wrote, “Bach has done such a good job at instilling 'a strong foretaste of composition’ that… they will make the hearer a better, … a more aware and thus a more enjoying, listener as well.” Music Played in Today's Program J.S. Bach (1685-1750): Two-Part Invention #6; Simone Dinnerstein; Sony 79597
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