Bach: Two and Three Part Inventions for the Piano

I finally decided to retire my 40+ year old of Schirmer's Vol. 16, which was crumbling and tattered. This copy seems to have gone through the photo-copy process more than once, rather than being a print from an original. And like a photocopy of a photocopy, it is much less crisp. Where the sixteenth-notes' double-bars used to be crisp, in some pages it just looks like a very fat eight-note bar. I can understand avoiding the cost of doing a new page layout--- it would have to be pains-takingly faithful to the original to please everyone-- there is technology they could have used to extract and clean up the score as vector art.Also, it seems to be printed (or pages cut) with the content placed too high-- almost no margin at the top, and too wide a margin at the bottom.On the bright side it still says "Printed in USA", and I hope that is true.So while I am still happy to have a fresh new copy of this edition, I'm a little disappointed in the quality of the reproduction compared to my old printing.

I have a 45 year old imprint of this book. After all of these years, it has finally given up the ghost. I purchased this latest copy as a replacement for my original. The material contained within will give any intermediate pianist more technical capability in their playing. Their fingers, wrists, arms, and shoulders will continue to develop as they work through these pieces. I'm a boogie woogie, blues, jazz, fusion player. I still play these pieces as they are fun to play and give me ideas for my own compositions.

I used to have the Inventions as separate books, which I now realize I prefer. The print is smaller in this publication. Also, I prefer the fingerings in the other editions I had. I still think this was a pretty good purchase since it has both Two & Three-part Inventions in the same book for a good price. It would have been nice if this was spiral-bound.

This is just what we needed for my daughter's piano lessons. Please be aware that there are two versions of this book that look the same and have basically the same notes (I believe), but different fingerings, so you'll want to know which one you want before ordering! This is Volume 16 edited by W. Mason.

The book is well spaced out and accurate. I just wish it had little notes above the embellishments to tell you how to play them because I can never remember

My piano teacher has a master's degree in music from the Eastman School of Music with emphasis on classical studies. As such she has assigned this book as a good place to start with the study of contrapunctual music (having two or more harmonically related parts sounding at the same time).The book integrates two separate volumes making it an especially good buy. It states that it has been edited by Czerny, Griepenkerl and Roitzsch. Accordingly, it is not the "urtext" as another reviewer pointed out.As a music student I like the book because (1) the score is large, clear, and easy to read (2) after a fashion the pages lay flat against the music desk and (3) fingering suggestions are ample and adequate. Accordingly, I gave the book 5 stars.

I started playing piano again after 45 years away from it. I remembered playing the first C-Major Invention as a 5-year old. I have now learned & memorized four of them & I'm working on a fifth one. I enjoy playing them daily & people who aren't classical music fans really like hearing them. I've made a few listeners fans of Bach by explaining the different voices, bringing out the main themes throughout the piece, the dynamics, etc. in both the Inventions and the "Preludes & Fugues. The fingering in this edition usually suits my particular hands, so I rarely have to stop & re-write any different fingering.

When you see your kid working hard on Bach Invention, you know this is a good purchase!

The media could not be loaded.  This is a video of me playing Sinfonia no.6 (3-part invention, no. 6)This book is a great all-round, affordable book for reference but if you are interested in learning Bach’s inventions properly, I would not recommend. I personally bought this book as I was learning one of the pieces for a competition and I wanted to see Czerny’s suggested fingering.It contains all 30 of Bach’s inventions.Price:At around 5£, it is impossible to beat this book. As is the case with all Schirmer books, they are really cheap. That being said, they can sometimes compromise price over quality. If money wasn’t an issue, I would definitely not recommend this book but for most people, they look for value and for 5£, it’s hard to go wrong!Quality:The actual materials of this book are ok. It is completely paper but strong and not flimsy. It uses 2 staples to hold it together which should be enough but not long-term. Again, for the price, the quality of materials are pretty good.Fingering:The main reason I bought this book was as a side reference to my other editions for Bach’s inventions. In this regard, it was a very worthwhile purchase. The fingering, written by Carl Czerny, is top class and has many great ideas which you can pick and choose from. They seem to vary significantly from other editions they are well thought out and well executed.Edition:Beware that this edition will not be of the same quality with the likes of the more expensive ones but again, value is the key word here. The notes are noticeably smaller which can be annoying as they are harder to read. The ink used for the printing is also not great but it has all the correct notes anyway so these problems shouldn’t be much of an issue for you.Brand:Schirmer is one of the most common names when it comes to sheet music. They are known for having editions of practically every classical piece. For that reason, you can trust the company.Why not 5 stars?As I’m sure you can see, this was not the best edition which is available but it provides good value. A lot of work has been put into editing this book but the print size and other similar problems prevent me from leaving a 5 Star review.Ratings:Price: 10/10Quality: 8/10Fingering: 10/10Edition: 7/10Brand: 9/10OVERALL: 8/10In total, this was definitely worth every penny as it is so cheap. If anything, it will be a great reference book for Bach’s inventions. I would highly recommend it as it was a worthwhile purchase for me but as I said, there are better editions out there.

great product well laid out

Busoni has over-edited some of these pieces which complicates rather than simplifies their assimilation. Me was known for modifying composer's music when performing and this shows itself here on occasion. Howver, the fingering is generally suitable and the score well laid out. For the price it is still a pretty good buy.

Required by piano teacher - all good

Clear notation. Haven't practised yet.