Invention 12 BWV 783 is in the key of A and is a movement that communicates purpose and intention. The music editor suggests that keyboard players should learn the movement in the first instance without the ornaments in place being played indicated in the sheet music score. What is important in delivering the intention of the music and the music only really becomes alive at the tempo of 68 dotted quarter note or dotted crotchet notes to the minute. At the same time it would be lovely to know what the tempo this invention was in Bach’s own time when there was no vision of the piano as becoming the keyboard instrument of choice The PlentyMusic principle when it comes to adding ornaments to music scores is to follow and imitate current modern performance practice. The edited music score has suggested fingering in place although when it comes to playing the more complicated trills keyboard players will need to refer to the sheet music video score on the PlentyMusic YouTube channel to work out appropriate fingers to use for he playing of these ornaments. The Bach Inventions are generally intermediate level movements when played on a keyboard instrument. Many keyboard players whether pianists or harpsichordists approach this invention as if they are playing a virtuoso work which in many ways is surprisingly because the movement was composed well before the time that this concept was suggested attributed to describe the playing of N. Paganini. The principle behind J. S. Bach’s two part inventions is to take a musical idea or motive and then process it following the rules of good contrapuntal writing using the compositional processes of the baroque and at the same time referencing the closely related keys in the journey. Inversion, repetition, sequence, transposition, rhythmic augmentation/diminution amongst processes are evident in Bach’s inventions as most other music of the baroque period. J. S. Bach composed 15 Inventions in a collection dating from 1723 intended to introduce keyboard players to composition techniques of the baroque. They are excellent pieces for developing a sound and secure keyboard technique. There is opportunity to distribute the weight between the hands to give prominence to the entries of thematic material. Pianists will find it rewarding to listen to performances of this invention on streaming platforms particularly on the piano to get a sense of how important an aspect of piano playing this is. A plain score is attached to the edited music score.
