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Tune of the Day: Invention No. 8 in F major
The Inventions, also known as the Two-Part Inventions, are a collection of fifteen short keyboard compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach, who originally wrote them as exercises for the musical education of his students in the German city of Köthen.
Bach's Inventions were thus designed as teaching pieces rather than for performance. As stated on the title page of the work, the collection wants to be “A faithful Guide, whereby admirers of the harpsichord are shown a plain Method of learning not only to play cleanly in two Parts […] and at the same time not merely how to get good Inventions, but also how to develop the same well; but above all, to obtain a cantabile Style of playing, [i.e. a style which imitates the human voice] and together with this to get a strong Foretaste of Composition”.