Mr. Bach Wouldn’t Like That…

Wrong notes are displayed in red-faced embarrassment.

Mrs. Katherine (Edwin) Jones (“Mrs. Jones,” to me), from whom I studied piano during junior-high school through my junior, high-school year, introduced me to J.S. Bach’s Two-Part Inventions and to this piece, his F-Major, Two-Part Invention.

The Two-Part Inventions are classical (era) duets. The left and right hands cavort and cleverly interplay. Composed before 1723, this series of Bach’s teaching-pieces has now been been studied by generations of piano students.

In those days, during my piano-lesson, when playing for Mrs. Jones, I often added extra notes to chords. Mrs. Jones had keen eyes and ears. Sometimes, I would change or entirely omit notes. Concerning my musical alterations and depending on the particular composer (for instance, if Bach had been the particular composer of the piece I was playing… ) we were studying, she would stop me and tell me:

Recently, I heard the F Major Invention featured in an internationally-known banking-institution’s television commercial. These commercials feature different persons’ hands playing the F Major Invention as a duet on the same piano keyboard. On hearing the commercial, I was sure that I was hearing a “wrong note” because the rendition was not as I had learned the piece. After hearing the commercial a number of times, I thumbed through my music-library shelves, found a copy of the Inventions; and, what to my wondering eyes should appear? I have consistently played the 5th note of the 1st motif incorrectly for a a near-half-hundred years. This motif is used by both “parts” several times throughout the piece. Mrs. Jones never noticed my error(s). Ha!! Guess that I got the last laugh on this one.

I hope that you enjoy (and, are not aurally offended by) my as-yet-corrected performance and recording.