Hi,
Can anyone offer an insight as to aproximate gradings for the Bach 2 and 3 part inventions? And also, any decent editions of said pieces?
Thanks,
HC

I have two editions of the Two-Part:

Augener (I think - it's old and I can't just put my hand on it) and
a much more recent Associated Board one edited by Richard Jones.

I think the AB ed scores quite highly on clarity of layout on the whole. There are some fingering and ornament suggestions, and just a short introduction of a couple of paragraphs at the beginning.

Level of difficulty I guess is somewhere between grade 4 and grade 6. I have a grade 6 pupil who has done a couple in the past six months, and she hasn't found them exactly easy.

Ah ok, also the Anna Magdelena Notebook, and also the little preludes?
Thanks

I recently did Grade 6, and have tried a few of the 2-part inventions. My edition is an Urtext 'G. Henle Verlag'. There's some fingering, a quite length introduction (in three languages) and some comments on specific pieces at the end.

I've tried nos. 1, 4 (I found the trills really hard, but the rest was all right), 6, 8, 13 and 14. I should probably have a go at some more, but I'm not the greatest fan of Bach - playing it, I mean, not the actual music. Because it's contrapuntal, if there are fast twiddly bits in the RH, they occur in the LH as well, and that hand for me isn't as flexible. (I don't think I've explained that very well...)

I dont think any of the two part Inventions are as easy as Grade 4 ! I'd have said min Grade 5-6, and some are Grade 7. The 3 parts are 7 - 8.
Sorry dont know about the Anna Magdalena.

Ok, thanks, im about grade 4ish, so the inventions are a bit out of reach.

I am working towards grade 3 piano and I think the Anna Magdalena is OK. I can manage most of the pieces without too much swearing.

As for the 2 part inventions I am currently plodding with no. 4, nowhere near up to speed and nor will I be for a good few years but I think there's merit in attempting them even if your not quite the required grade. If nothing else it give my fingers a good work out

Lois

Haha, ok thanks
I think i may have played some of the AMB notebook before now i think about it, is there something with this sort of theme?

Does anyone know what this is?
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1423421...;pf_rd_i=468294

Anna Magdalena has pieces roughly grades 2 to 6.

Some of the 2 part inventions are pretty straightforward, I think.
I haven't tried all of them, but from the ones I've learnt.. no. 8 is probably the easiest to get the hang of, it's a pretty good finger workout too lol. No. 3 is quite easy too. I love no. 15, it's rather trilly though and took a lot more practise.

This is from a file where they list the gradings of many of the best-known works and these are the 2-Part Inventions:
Grade 4 Bach Invention 01
Grade 5 Bach Invention 02
Grade 6 Bach Invention 03
Grade 5 Bach Invention 04
Grade 6 Bach Invention 05
Grade 6 Bach Invention 06
Grade 6 Bach Invention 07
Grade 5 Bach Invention 08
Grade 6 Bach Invention 09
Grade 5 Bach Invention 10
Grade 7 Bach Invention 11
Grade 7 Bach Invention 12
Grade 5 Bach Invention 13
Grade 5 Bach Invention 14
Grade 7 Bach Invention 15
.......................
I'vew got nothing about the more difficult Three-part Inventions.
Bye for now

Musette in D starts something like this, except that it's in 2:4 and the first crotchet should be A followed by 4 descending semiquavers. (It's in 2 sharps, of course.) Sorry, I can't use your clever images to show this in manuscript form.

Ah yes, thats it.

postscript to Anna Magdalena - my little grade 3 pupil came along this afternoon with the first three lines of Prelude no 1 (WTC) learnt. Off pat. ; S

I didn't even know she'd looked at it.

Invention 01 was a set grade 4 piece many years ago - which fits in with Juan Carlos's list, and I thought Musette was an exam piece too, as I've definitely learnt it and there was a time when I only learnt exam pieces ()

I have the Anna Magdalena and it's lovely - because of the range of difficulty you can play something whatever mood you're in, and so many of them are familiar.

Yes, Musette was set for grade 2 a few years ago - I had a pupil who learnt it. Rhythm was not his strong point, and we had great fun making up nonsense words to the quaver - semiquaver rhythms.

I think the A-M book is lovely too. Such good variety, and not a book you're going to 'grow out of ' quickly. This was one reason I picked it to give to my student to mark her grade 3 success. I thought she might amuse herself in the holidays with a couple of the easier ones - and grow into the more difficult ones.

I did this too! It was the purple book - *goes to check the syllabus year* - 2005-6.

I didn't think they would go lower than Grade 5 (2 part, not the sinfonias) played properly but someone just proved me wrong. I have played most of these, usually from a Berenreiter ed. with trill instructions, and it isn't easy to make them sound like music (not suggesting Bach was a bad composer at all!). My favourite two part inventions are 13 and 6, lovely tunes, 13 being quite the dark moody one. The D major one is also quite nice. Compositionally it is odd how they are paired, with spaces being left between the strict-canon inventions vs the more creative two-part writing.

Surely it would depend on your chosen speeds as well? I play no.6 quite a lot faster than heard as it sound better to my ears, and no.1 and no.2 (C major and minor respectively) are almost always played slow, I suspect because of the almost strict canonic imitation.

I remembered that there was one year when the Invention no. 1 was offered in the A list of the grade 4 examination pieces.

I give the No 1 and 4 for students in Grade 4 to 5 levels. The rest of it i give them after their grade 5 exams. (Nos. 13, 8, 14... etc)

For grade 1 to 2s, i use the Anna Magdalena Notebook & also the Kleines Preludes... Those offers very good music as well as a sound base for teaching good technics & musical aspects.

Not at all: I would have thought that for someone who is grade 4-ish some of the inventions are right on the mark.


I have a list which gives the same gradings - but if you look elsewhere on the same list it is clear that it goes from grade 1 to 10, not 8 so I'm not sure where it is derived from. Suffice to say that when I first encountered the Inventions and Sinfonias (known at the time as 2 & 3 part Inventions) in 1973, no. 11 was a set piece for grade 5.

Edit: apparently grade 1-10 are Canadian