Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner My recording of 'Invention No.15'

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What do you think?

Critics needed.

oh man... it sounds like 415... everything down a semitone. Do you have some audio edition thing to pull it up? I can hardly listen to it...

The perfomance is good. Just watch out with the theme, cause sometimes sounds too much like (note per note). Think more on phrasing...

yeah i agree with the theme part on both hands. be careful with that, dont' drown it out. parts that repeat (sequence) make sure you differentiate them, make them sound different so they dont' sound the same all the time. Can do even better on the mordents =))

good job!
i wish i know how to upload a file like that

Yeah! A=415! More power to you!

It's a very clean, very four square rendition - your ornamentation is very well done. Overall, it lacks an easiness and a natural musically shaped impetus. I feel there is a tremendous concern for accuracy over a musical conception. You are lucky, however, as you are now in a position to begin the real work of making music, safe in the knowledge that your notework is down. Best wishes!

I agree with that. Try to ever so subtly make it breath a bit more with articulation and shaping of phrases. definitely keep the idea of metronomic time as you are doing, don't phrase it by romanticizing it (ie. Glenn Gould type thing) but rather with dynamics and articulation. Like the first 3 notes of an ascending left hand motif could be every so slightly legato, with more articulation between the third and fourth (for example, don't necessarilly apply that statement to this piece) you have to really think about how you want every phrase to be and make sure it comes out as you intended.

How much hands seperate work did you do? I feel like each voice could *sing* a bit more. Try singing each of the voices.

Try to "explore" the vast area between stacatto and legato a bit more.. this is very stacatto, all the notes are very clean and crisp, but just a *bit* too crisp .. i'm not saying it should be legato of course, this is baroque music after all. But the notes should be just a wee bit "rounder" on their edges - let the keys push your finger back up (w/o slowing down!) rather than popping your fingers up off the keys as it sounds like you might be doing - like at the top of each of those ascending left hand motifs, your last note "pops" off, rather than having a certain roundness to it that some of the others do. And when the left hand then makes the leap back down to the start of another ascending motif, be aware of how your finger falls on that first note going up, depending on how you want to present the phrase, think about "is this note coming from where I just was, or is it leading to where I am now going?" and articulate it as such.

The Inventions have a "magical" sort of quality to them where the way a motif is first presented, and then inverted and reversed upon itself etc, it creates a sort of musical dilemma where you can only hear one thing at a time, kinda like those Escher drawings. That is the intention, so it's important not to bring one voice out over the other with dynamics or accents, they should be kinda weaving around each other. Read This Great Thread on the pianoforum.net for an awesome discussion of this.

The notes are all there! Nice!

Also, I'm not sure about the ritardando in the last few bars. of course this is subjective.

how did you do that? a digital piano I presume, what kind?

keep up the good work!
-Paul

oh by the way, should you choose to check out that pianoforum.net link I posted above, be careful, that guy Bernhard is pure genius with a massive wealth of knowledge, and he posts a TON of incredibly useful and eye opening thoughts with regards to all things piano. You can easilly get wrapped up reading for days at a time Definitely read around for his methods of piano practice.. My practice and learning has increased in efficiency by probably 80% following the methods he talks about.

Thank you guys for your opinions
In fact this is my first Bach piece

But:
1) what do you mean by '415'?

2) do you think that my tempo is a bit too slow?

N.B. I recorded this using a mono microphone connected to a laptop, my piano is a hoffmann (not digital)

i hate 415

Well.......what does that mean? Anyone?

Bassio, I'm not in a position to judge since I'm a beginner, except it sounds nice, especially your ornamentation. I see what the others mean by making it "sing" more, since I'm dealing with that issue myself.

western instruments are tuned with A = 440Hz. He was saying it sounded like A was tuned to 415Hz, thereby making it sound like "everything down a semitone".

being an acoustic piano, I think this means that either somewhere in the analog to digital conversion of your recording process the sound was affected, or in fact your piano is tuned to A = 415Hz (the piano is in tune with itself, but the entire thing is out of tune with accepted standards for what A should equal) When was the last time the piano was tuned? It's unlikely every string would go out of tune the same way, but unless there was a specific reason for it, I don't see why any normal tuner would tune the piano to A=415hz.. I asked if it were digital, assuming an acoustic would be properly tuned, because some digital pianos allow you to adjust the temperment.

I think Mr.Bubb said
Because the piano did not exist during Bach's time. He was playing a Harpsichord most likely, which could, and (likely was?) tuned to A=415hz, which it could be argued makes the performance on an instrment tuned this way, "more authentic".. But whatever :rolleyes:

Congradulations, not bad!

I didn't think it was too slow. I thought even it was just a touch too fast, but again, this is hugely open to interpretation. Try it around 60. Are you working with a teacher? It's very important to have a good teacher who can guide you, especially with Bach.

-Paul

You mean he's not in pitch - as in 440?

see what I posted above yours simultaneously

(it's not "him" it's his piano, or, my better guess is the data manipulation in his recording process)

Yes, the piano is a half-tone low; it's also out of tune.

actually i set the tuning of my piano to +453. It really sounds authentic like that.but then again, i also have an excellent harpsichord on my piano (Yamaha Clavinova CLP950)

Well i haven't plucked my piano since i bought it 6 years ago

could this be the reason or is it the technician's fault?

Like someone said I'm assuming during the recording process the data was slowed down thus lowering the pitch and the tempo

What do you mean, you haven't "plucked" your piano since you bought it six years ago? I'm not sure what this word means in this context.

If you're saying you haven't had it tuned since you bought it, then it's no wonder it's flat and out of tune, and it's not your technician's fault. I'm surprised it's not more out of tune than it is. However, only if your technician told you never to have the piano tuned would I blame him.