Despite the sophistication of the Inventions and Sinfonias, and their value as teaching pieces of performance and compositional technique, these works were not published in Bach’s lifetime, but rather in 1801, 51 years after his death. The “simple” version we are all presently accustomed to comes from this 1801 publication (Neue Bach Ausgabe), though we now are aware of other handwritten copies, including by Johann Sebastian Bach himself. Begun as teaching pieces for his own son, Wilhelm Friedemann, they were likely finished in Leipzig, where he moved in 1722.

Perhaps “finished” is not quite the right word, as Bach continued to tinker with them. It is evident to me that as teaching pieces, personal instruction by Bach would have been invaluable to his pupils, as improvised ornamentation would have been encouraged, hence the varying versions that have come down to us. It is my opinion that the simpler versions were kept as such to allow for the freedom to exercise one’s own taste in regards to ornamentation (within reason). Unlike Francois Couperin, who was annoyed at anyone’s altering of his text, Bach expected it.

In the pupils’ versions I am working from I find it interesting that in many, suggested ornamentation of the main subject only appears at the beginning. I would think the student was expected to extend the logic through the entire piece, though in my performance, I mostly stick to the text, so that you, the listener, can hear what was passed down to us. In a few cases I do carry the ornamentation a bit further, (see above) but am pretty discreet. In several of the later Sinfonias, the students’ ornamentation is heavy throughout, as is also true in Bach’s final versions.

The two most radically different works, in Bach’s hand, are Invention #1 with triplets, and Sinfonia 5, highly ornamented in the French style. In the case of Sinfonia 5, I wonder if my simple performance is even remotely correct. I suspect not.

In this performance, I also do not play every conceivable ornament. Sinfonia 12, for example, has some appogiaturas in the subject (appearing only once), that I personally don’t care for, though I suppose one could get used to them, and maybe even like them if they were carried out in all voices. The same holds true of an appogiatura in the opening subject in Sinfonia 14, which to me sounds like an interruption. It all eventually boils down to taste.

on: Magnatune

Listen to Track No. 31