Decoding the Bach Inventions
While we teachers often treat the Inventions as mere finger exercises, they are much more than that. Bach wrote them for his own sons to teach, yes, finger independence, but, above all, compositional and contrapuntal techniques. Each one is a little gem, with surprises, puzzles and jokes just waiting to be discovered.
Ferruccio Busoni's Bach: The Birth of Modern Performance Practice
This talk explores Busoni's influence on how we play and teach the works of J. S. Bach from several perspectives by comparing the various transcriptions of Bach's Chaconne in D Minor; discussing Busoni's understanding of trochaic vs. iambic rhythms and how these shape interpretations; looking at Busoni's editions of Inventions, Sinfonias and the Well-Tempered Clavier, which are still relevant and immensely helpful to today's teachers and students.