J.S. Bach Invention No. 4 in D Minor

[1piano4joe]

Hi all,

I've done all the research, reading and listening I can stand. In some ways, it was a big waste of time. So, so many editions, interpretations and contradictions. Yes, I am somewhat enlightened but dissatisfied with the fruits of my labor. I will share some of my findings and disappointments for your consideration.

It seems there is no right or wrong way to play the inventions. I was looking for phrasing, articulations and tempo indications. I found them, alright enough. Too, too many of them in fact.

One video of this invention, in particular, was played all legato by Bachscholar on Youtube. Many people trash this guy and his playing. Be that as it may, I find his videos very useful! I am appreciative as well as grateful to anyone who takes the time to post a video. I find his fingering a perfect fit for my hand and I only wish I could play half as good as him.

Someone else played this surprise, surprise, entirely staccato!

I read many times over that "TRADITIONALLY", 16th notes are to be played legato and eighths staccato. Well, I heard many performances of this. However, some are the exact opposite with the eighths legato and the sixteenths staccato. Go figure...

...then come the interval people who play 2nds and 3rds legato. They play detached for larger intervals. More food for thought.  

Gould played this mostly staccato but slurred the first two eighth notes and detached the 3rd. He too, surprisingly to me, was also trashed. I wouldn't mind at all being able to play like that!

Additionally, my phrasing research was inconclusive. Phrasing included mostly single measure phrases in one edition while there were mostly two measure phrases in another. Variations on this were either one measure phrases and the first note of the next measure or two measure phrases with the first note of the third. Yet, these are all supposedly, acceptable and all neither right nor wrong. Okay, if they say so.

Furthermore, when the eighth notes are not legato, sometimes they're staccato and sometimes not! I've seen this notated both ways in two different editions and heard this invention performed both of these ways. It was like I could tell the edition the performer used to learn the invention.

The discoveries on tempo yielded some contradictory results. Play slowly and accurately was most often touted while some performances struck me as fiendishly fast.

Previously, I studied invention no. 8 albeit unsuccessfully. I thought this one might be a little bit easier to play and so started this analysis.

The culmination of my legwork was editions. Praise to Henle! No, Henle is not good for lesser accomplished pianists. Yes it is, it forces them to think for themselves. Alfred edited by Palmer is the most informative. No, it has too much information. What? ARE PIANISTS CRAZY? Why is it, that without exception, every single solitary aspect of pianism is controversial?

Thanks for reading, Joe.

P.S. Okay, I didn't mention the many different fingering possibilities I encountered but that is typical of many pieces and was to be expected.

P.P.S. My conclusion is that these inventions MUST be more about the two voices and how you interpret them must be secondary. Otherwise, why else would Bach write them this way?

P.P.P.S. I am considering using the traditional route myself where sixteenths are legato and eighths staccato. I personally, have several reasons for doing so. Firstly, I find all legato less musically interesting. Secondly, I am pretty sure that I couldn't play those sixteenths staccato at a decent tempo even though I do like that interpretation. At a very fast tempo, detached sixteenths start to sound almost but not quite legato. A truly interesting effect, well, maybe one day.  

[indianajo]

One of the beauties of JS Bach, is that a lot of notation hadn't been invented yet, or at least he didn't use them.  So unless one is going to conservatory, one has a lot of freedom to interpret your own way.  
The cut and dried schemes of doing things, are so dictorial IMHO.
This amount of freedom makes a lot of people insecure, but I like it.  
So, for articulation I follow Busoni in the G. Schirmer edition, the US standard until 1965.  At least in the flyover states.  
But for dynamics and rhythmic emphasis I'm my own man.  I'm doing #4 in a very ragtime inspired version, with a lot of synchopation.  I'm sure it would drive any conservatory teacher or contest judge to fury. Probably you, too.  I was a bit ashamed of it until someone on here pointed out that the inventions were written for variable volume clavier, not the mono-volume harpsichord.  
BTW, I spent four hours pay in 1971 to buy G Gould's LP of the inventions, which came highly rated in Audio magazine, or maybe Stereo Review.  I hated everything about it from the first time I played it.  I'm still convinced that the reviewers were listening with their eyes, not their ears.  Mr Gould was an impressive looking tall young man of European origin.  He was a very popular fellow in some influential circles for years, but not in my opinion.
One of the differences of when I learned piano, and these days, is that with the internet everyone is supposed to do a lot of research before they pick an interpretation.  I learned things off the printed page, and followed the printed notation on romantic stuff, but not JSB. The private teacher taught you her interpretation, and as long as Mother was paying $25 a month for four lessons, I listened to her.    If one could afford a recording when I was learning, one owned only one. The nearest music school library of scores was 180 miles away, a $40 bus ride.   Now, everybody for the price of a DSL line can have infinite interpretations delivered to their home by soundcaster or U-tube.  I think all that knowledge is like a straightjacket sometimes, or rails to control your mind with so it doesn't get too far off the beaten path. think and live a little, it probably won't get you an A in piano performance, but will express your inner self better.    
I played Inv #4 at the end of my only pipe organ lesson, as something I could remember without sheet music and not involving the pedals, which at 32, were all in the wrong position for someone that owns a Hammond organ.  The only instruction the teacher gave me was to ritard at the end, and he was highly shocked when I crashed #4 into the wall without using the brakes as I usually do.  Zip-crash.  It's my life, it is not an audition or  contest, and I don't care if I lose. It doesn't hurt the piano any to stop suddenly, gentle stops are for people whose wigs might fall off.  My hair is rooted firmly to my scalp.