Your Recorder Community

In 2011 to 2012 I transcribed the Bach 2 and 3 part inventions so that I could play them with my friends. Over the years I have gotten much pleasure playing these. Baroque counterpoint is so much fun to play, and Bach is the master. In no way have I intended  these to be academically rigorous. Almost all of the adjustments of the parts to fit on the instruments are accomplished by octave shifts. Choices were made to make the counterpoint work and have pleasing part leading.

The two part inventions are mostly for tenor and bass. That is because I prefer the bigger instruments. They of course can be played on soprano and bass if you prefer. This would avoid some of the part crossings caused by the range adjustments. The Symphonia [3 part Inventions] are transcribed for various instruments from soprano to great bass(C), depending on, what in my judgment, fitted the music best for each piece.

I have purposefully not given any tempo marks. I feel that you should play at a tempo that is comfortable for you, a tempo that gives you the most enjoyment. In generating MIDI files to go with these, I had to decide on a tempo. I tended to choose tempos slower than, for instance, the 1904 Carl Fisher Inc keyboard edition edited by Carl Czerny (on IMSLP). For home practice with these MIDI files, I use MidiPlay_v1p17.exe. It can be downloaded for free at https://www.onworks.net/software/windows/app-midiplay?amp=0. It allows you to set whatever tempo you like and adjust the volumes or mute individual parts. For those of you with 415 instruments, this program will allow you to adjust pitch as well. For the 3 Part Inventions I have added a couple bars of beats to the beginning of each MIDI file to make it easier to use as a practice tool.

The PDF file can be printed and made into a 20 page booklet. You also could print or extract individual pieces. I use program, “PDF Split and Merge Basic” to combine or extract PDF pages. It is free, open-source software available at https://pdfsam.org/.

I apologize to those people with a bass that does not have a low F#. I made no effort to avoid that. Some people have suggested that some of the pieces in unfamiliar keys should be transposed to keys that are more comfortable on recorders. I kept all of them in the original keys.

ENJOY!
-- Boyd Osgood