Bach Inventions and Sinfonias

Bach wrote 2 collections of short fugue pieces for music education of his pupils. They became popular exercises for beginners. But of course their value is far more than just exercises.

The 15 2-part pieces are called inventions. The 15 3-part pieces are called sinfonias. These are numbered as BWV 772–801, altogether 30 pieces.

Here is an article on these inventions and sinfonias.

The performance of all these inventions and sinfonias by Glen Gould can be found on youtube.

I think these pieces are not particularly melodic. They are good demonstrations of fugue music though, and good finger exercises.

For inventions, I like No. 9 and No 13 most, especially No. 13, since I ever heard live performance on this.