Thursday, 14 January 2016
Because my granddaughter Abigail needed score and parts tomorrow for her festival string ensemble, I was feeling pressed. I set out to do something that I could finish today.
I did a quick string orchestra transcription for Johann Sebastian Bach's Invention No. 1 (BWV-784), and delivered the score and parts to her electronically at about 2:00p. That will give her group something to work on.
Bach's two groups of contrapuntal pieces for harpsichord—the Inventions and the Symphonia—are both arranged in order of ascending key, each group covering eight major and seven minor keys. Invention number 13 contains only two unison voices—one in each hand—and was written in the key of A minor. I learned it on the piano to satisfy my keyboard proficiency requirements at BYU in 1973. It is slightly less than two minutes long.
My new five part string transcription gives this piece a different personality. I have defined the phrases with instrumental combinations. In one place I voiced the second violin on the lower part (usually would have been assigned to the cello), but transposed it up an octave—even crossing above the first violin part in a couple of places. This gave the section a solid change-of-texture.
The piece is a little difficult. Both violin parts go higher than I wanted, but Abby has a good second violin player, she says. Her ensemble will work everything it out.
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