Inventions / Reinventions
On his new album Inventions / Reinventions, pianist-composer Dan Tepfer performs each of Bach’s beloved 15 Two Part Inventions interleaved in chromatic sequence by 9 of his own free improvisations in the “missing” keys to create a new full, and fully transporting 24-key experience, a 55-minute mix of the timeless and the contemporary. 300 years ago in 1723, Johann Sebastian Bach initially composed his Two Part Inventions as keyboard exercises for his eldest son, Wilhelm Friedemann Bach. While remaining essential studies for burgeoning musicians, these pieces have also long been cherished by generations of music lovers, and recorded by iconic pianists. Tepfer captured Inventions / Reinventions in nighttime recording sessions that he engineered himself in an intimate salon next door to the Paris apartment where he grew up. His improvisations explore the narrative structure Tepfer divined in Bach’s inventions, where the hero, a musical idea, starts off in the home key, goes through wild harmonic adventures through foreign keys, and finally makes it back home. What Tepfer finds fascinating is that Bach plays out this dense musical narrative in just a couple minutes. Dan’s longer, free improvisations get at what he hears as Bach’s powerful subsurface, the mechanisms at play deep below. Tepfer sees classical and jazz, which most consider to be so different, as two sides of the same coin. Playing Bach alongside his own free improvisations is a meditative journey for him, and he hopes “when people who listen to the album hear music that was composed 300 years ago juxtaposed with music that was just improvised in the 21st century, they feel the kinship between the two.”
Release date: March 17, 2023
Track List
1. Invention in C Major, BWV 772
2. Invention in C minor, BWV 773
3. Improvised Invention in Db Major
4. Improvised Invention in Db minor
5. Invention in D Major, BWV 774
6. Invention in D minor, BWV 775
7. Invention in Eb Major, BWV 776
8. Improvised Invention in Eb minor
9. Invention in E Major, BWV 777
10. Invention in E minor, BWV 778
11. Invention in F Major, BWV 779
12. Invention in F minor, BWV 780
13. Improvised Invention in Gb Major
14. Improvised Invention in Gb minor
15. Invention in G Major, BWV 781
16. Invention in G minor, BWV 782
17. Improvised Invention in Ab Major
18. Improvised Invention in Ab minor
19. Invention in A Major, BWV 783
20. Invention in A minor, BWV 784
21. Invention in Bb Major, BWV 785
22. Improvised Invention in Bb minor
23. Improvised Invention in B Major
24. Invention in B minor, BWV 786