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10260 Johann Sebastian Bach: Keyboard Music (from Anna Magdalena to the Inventions)

Credits: 6 intermediate credits in Music

Prerequisites: none

Recommended: Introduction to Music or corresponding knowledge of music

Authors: Ido Abravaya, Ron Weidberg

For more than 250 years, Bach’s music has been the basis for teaching piano. The course presents all of Bach’s lighter keyboard compositions and discusses, in practice, their interpretation in light of the stylistic principles of the Baroque period. It is designed for keyboard-playing students (on the level of Bach’s Inventions) who have basic knowledge of harmony, and for music teachers wishing to expand their knowledge of the principles of interpretation of Baroque music. The materials include two television films produced by the Open University and a translated television film, as well as recordings of the works discussed.

Topics: The instrument and the sound – acquaintance with musical instruments and dynamics characteristic of the period; Stylistic elements of performance – rhythm and tempo, articulation and ornamentation; Anna Magdalena’s Clavier-Büchlein, 1722, 1725; Wilhelm Friedemann’s Clavier-Büchlein, 1720; Short Preludes and Fugues; The two-part Inventions; The Sinfonias (three-part Inventions).