Phrasing in Bach Inventions

[faa2010]

I am re-learning Bach Inventions 1, 4, 7 and 8 for an audition in a month. (Well, 7 is an option)

Someone told me that some of my problems are the phrasing and the rythym.

Do you have some tips (apart of a good metronome) so I can get the right phrasing and rythym?

Is there a problem if I play the Inventions slower?

I am open to many suggestions.

[landru]

Here are some random thoughts as I've played a few of them.

• Play the 16th notes legato and the 8th notes detached
• Determine what is the core "idea" phrase in the invention. This phrase is the building block for the whole invention - it could be as small as three or four notes or even a couple of measures.
• The right hand and the left hand are equal partners - play the 16th notes the same volume in either hand
• Tend towards getting louder as the melody as a whole increases in pitch and getting softer as the melody decreases in pitch (not a hard and fast rule, but it is a rule of thumb)
• The wonderful thing of Bach's music is that it still sounds wonderful at slow speeds - use that for your advantage when working on phrasing.
• If you can, try to keep the same fingering for the same melodic ideas even if they are on different notes. This really helps in memorizing
• For Bach, separate hands practice really helps in hearing the different voices and then playing them.
• Cement your fingering so that your hand's muscle memory can help you when you are playing them faster

[andreslr6]

It all depends really, for me, Bach is open to a million of possibilities, but you will often encounter  certain ideologies or groups that will instantly disqualify a different approach, either because that's how they were or weren't educated, or simply because they don't like it.

Phrasing is linked directly to articulation. I stand on the side that says and strongly believes that phrasing and articulation is completely open to each individual's point of view, idea and concept that one has of X piece. Also, for me, articulation also serves for contrasts as well. Bach's music has a very characteristic texture that it can become, at some point, repetitive and in need* of this contrasts, and the piano has the advantage of having a super clear difference between legato and staccato, non-legato, etc. I must admit, I do get extremely bored when I hear someone playing Bach ALL legato, or ALL staccato, etc. The possibilities and combinations are extremely numerous. Bach rarely wrote any phrasing and articulation marks because those were to be improvised by the performer. So, you can say that they are open to each individual's interpretation, but they do require analysis and a good reason for existing. The previous post is a good point of reference for you to start experimenting with the possibilities.

The same goes with tempo, I only remember the concertos having tempo indications, none of the inventions nor sinfonias have tempo indications. Same story with ornaments.

And if you find an edition that does have phrasing, articulations and tempo markings, those were most probably written down by the romantics.

In conclusion, everything is valid as long as it is coherent and has an idea, not just a random sequence of notes that make you say "Huh?".

* I do not mean that it sucks, but rather that it's incomplete without them.