Invention 1 Bach by Glenn Gould

[Amauroca]

I've made a video playing this song, if you can, go check it out! lol

[AfroDeezeeYak]

lol @ people attempting to say a piece completely devoid of tempo indication is played 'too slow'.

[ImmortalTorturer]

its disgusting that we have to sit through ads to listen to Bach

[Virtimera]

This is the piece I am TRYING to play right now... I'll show the video to my dad and friend, for them to hear what I am attempting to achieve :D This guy plays it so solidly and without hesitating that I doubt I will manage to compete with him. Anyway, I keep trying. Jesus Christ, how can I keep my sight on both staves together? I have no idea...

[4hm3dimr4n]

Gould makes this sound so intelligent. The way he plays those trills truly makes them sound ornamental. It's just great to hear Bach played with such clarity and a good sense of style.

[OnlyOnWensdays]

@SuperSalisbury1337 fag

[omgtkseth]

Im ashamed to say my ear isnt all that perceptive still, that I didnt knew many things about this piece until I read the score. Like how the opening figure is played a quarter delayed by the left hand. Bach wasnt the type to leave something raw, even if it was a simple thing. I believe small details make a genius more than what musical form does, um, I mean, a genius I enjoy more.

[artyfly100]

gould was crazy but the best piano player in the world

[CaptainBluebear08]

People who bitch about Gould's humming etc., are A No.1 zombies.

[BrunoCt86]

Can someone explain me why the mordents in the first two bars here are sometimes played as upper mordent (like here and almost everywhere) and sometimes as lower mordent :?

[JackBlair2]

Gould could be a prick sometimes.

[tomoalfa2]

I want to wacth his finger playing.

I'm learning this song.

[artystadziubkowsky7]

@tomoalfa2 tomoalfa2 you motherfucking piece of shit! This is not a song you fool!!!!!!

[tomoalfa2]

song → one

[hafs0l]

@artystadziubkowsky7 calm down..

[yitzchak13]

You can hear him humming.

[yumpin]

The reason people are thinking he differed from the score is that he adds bits and pieces from another version of this invention; it's not known if js bach or one of his sons made the alternate version

[itsasoulthing]

@RussoGaara "-He's gone too romantic with that figure" as my teacher said and we all agreed by a little grin on our faces...

[MaddBadgerr]

@RussoGaara reminds me of cillian murphy somehow

[celtdownunder]

I thought I played a somewhere decent version of this and I listen to him and its a case of wow,,, that man can play-and play wonderful music.

[MLulaby]

I have played this music yet :D

[TallMikeBismuth]

0:37, it zooms in on Glenn's crotch.

[SuhmMusic]

It was Gould humming. He always did that. You can hear it in his recording of the Goldberg Variations A'

[WhoopMQ]

Is someone humming in the background?

[tim30006]

@WhoopMQ

yeah it was a bad habit of Glenn Gould to hum while playing

[edthewave]

@tim30006 Why was it bad? For the recording engineer, probably. If anything, it showed that he really got into the music he was playing.

[yumpin]

@tim30006 Bad habit for recording, but great habit for practise.

[danrezi]

His voice is unbearable in this piece...

[danrezi]

His voice is unberable in this one...

[sk8channel100]

wow i can play this

[JayyAyy1997]

Am I crazy or does 0:40-0:44 sound like a transposition of the main theme of the "Little" fugue in g minor?

[Igjlos]

@JayyAyy1997 Just a coincidence, I'm sure, but it does sound like it.

[philateliceun]

@JayyAyy1997 Bach had all sorts of formula's and rules for his music. Many themes or note combination are spread out between numerous works. The man was not only a musician, he was also a mathematician. In his day he worked for the church and they demanded a new piece every sunday to perform in the church so Bach made little logarithms to make songs much more quickly. The man was a freakin genius, out of this world, a true angel if they would exist.

[Ste86Horus]

Awesome... it's one of the first time i hear this piece a bit slower than usual: really clear and precise

[pianovirtuoso1000]

Glenn Gould is absolutely the greatest genius in playing Bach! I always look at him as a great resource when I'm picking up/learning any new or old Bach piece! Gould plays this very well!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!­!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[charvinaldo]

This is actually  a really fun piece to play on guitar...

[84Fish48Fish]

Each little note has its own personality.

[itisjinzo]

He inspired me to learn to play Invention 1 myself. Of course, my playing is not even close to this.

Clearness of his playing is divine, and no one is ever going to play Bach like him. He brought up the essence of Baroque.

[fdsaman123]

That's gould enough for me.

[davidovich00]

This is so weird. Glenn Gould usually plays as fast as he can, but in this piece that, in my opinion, should be faster, he plays it slowly. No offense to all the Gould lovers and all, but I think the slowness changes the mood and purpose of this invention. It's definitely not my favorite execution.

[sweet2th89]

i like how he puts it in his own perspective but i find the original score to be better

[tonypar9]

glenn adds his meandering voice too.

[daytonmlivingston]

I'm just starting this Invention and plan on learning all of them. I'm learning them out of a 1939 copy of the Shirmer Library. Any playing suggestions???

[russiandoeboi]

Beautiful,

fairly staccato but with a good groove.

to my ear he  lets the piece play itself without too many arbitrary fake emotional devices (like folks often add - in the timing dept.)

[fujimooney]

i believe you have been trollolololold.

[ComexUndone]

this is not how the original score was written..

[skunkiee]

I love hearing as he sings the song while playing!

[kaeli356]

This performance speaks to me like none other. So many people want to rush through this beautiful piece. What good is rote playing without expression? Wonderful and also encouraging to me as a pianist. I'm not necessarily wrong to want to slow it down a bit to include some expression.

[RomainDeha]

#401demon : if this is too slow for you, you can listen invention 13, by Glenn Gould. You'll tell me if you can play it faster with eyes closed. You must understand that Glenn Gould can play everything very fast, but he prefers the expressive version.

[davecaputo]

What a wonderful interpretation! Not sure how to explain it, but when GG plays you realise that Bach was a genius who never wrote anything meaningless despite the simplicity of some tunes like this one.

My view on tempo is that it's completely irrelevant as long as the performer is able to communicate accurately what he has to say. Remember: Bach never wrote for the Pianoforte and intentionally left no guidance on how to perform his pieces. It's the expression that matters!!!

[golive86]

magnifque, enfin une interprétation qui "respire".

[mambagr]

This page is about Gould and he plays it very well indeed.

[The55555SSSSS]

@401demon

You can't even write properly!

Gould is  a GENIUS.

Understood?!

[TheSingingCello]

@The55555SSSSS GEENYU SSpeaKING IN INVTOR WRONG PLACE UPSIDE DOWWWN ooopsi!

[Laurentpiano9]

But he plays far better than you, nevermind the speed.

[PuresMusic]

@401demon are you serious? Glenn could've played this 40 times faster then you ever could flawless.

[fabiosena72]

It's not a race.

[chepurociel620]

@401demon

You know, music is not playing as fast as possible.

I think (maybe i'm wrong) Gould had better technique than you.

Greetings

[paulomtts]

@chepurociel620 Gould's interpretations often leave me wondering how he got it so clear. He had great technique.

[ironpianist]

@chepurociel620 i agree, clarity over speed i always say.... and its harder to play clearly than playing fast...

[XxbambambxX]

@chepurociel620 haha the technique sentence was quite funny hahaha

[Dunkman7]

@401demon Tempo i meant to be 60-69 BPM

[DrMadrigal]

@401demon You DO realize Glenn Gould is one of the greatest pianists of the twentieth century, right? There's this thing called Google....

[hellboyreloaded]

@401demon Omg, you could play it faster with your eyes closed??

...

I am sure Gould could play it 400 times faster than you with only one hand...

Stupid...

[ciitrusOrange]

@401demon I don't think you deserve the hate you are getting! You just wanted to exaggerate the fact that it was slower than other people usually play it! At least you weren't like : OMG guyssss. i can ply ths thng faster wid my i's closed. u fuckin suck. get a life, bitch.

I have seen people do this. UGH they need to get a life.

You are the nicest troll I have ever met. Haha :)

[formenlehre]

Is it just me or is the piano double striking some of those notes? Sort of a strange sound, like the piano needs regulation.

[josephknecht]

I believe it says in the liner notes to this CD (Glenn Gould's Inventions) that his beloved Steinway was damaged during shipment but he adamantly insisted on playing the instrument anyway. They flew in a special Steinway engineer to try to fix it but this was the best they could do... so yes - a couple of the notes have a 'double-strike' to them which was a mechanical problem they couldn't fix.

[thesilentgate]

That actually didn't happen until much later. The "hiccoughs" (as he affectionately referred to them) were the result of changes made to the action on his piano so that the hammers would return to position much more quickly after striking the strings. A side effect of this was that the hammer might do a secondary strike from the initial impact on the key.

[chepurociel620]

@formenlehre you're right, but maybe it's a recording quality, not piano.

[carpo23]

bellissimo

[ronaldo4ever95]

i like it that he sings along it makes him special :D

[sikwitit345]

also like the singing a lot , it makes him very likeable

[ArodenPianoWushu93]

??!! I have bought the original sheet music, but this is diffirent from my version???!!!! It's only the Gould's interpretation or this is a different version of the piece??!!! does someone could answer me, please??!! thank you

[bluedrop85]

The ornamentation was freely decided by the musician in the baroque period. The urtext edition use to reflect fewer things about the actual interpretation than would do with a later piece (from the XIX or XX century).

[TorgeirFausken]

There's two official versions of the invention, one with 16th notes and one with triplets, and some publishers also tend to change some notation too.

[Chopin717]

this is the only version I know...

[tinkerbell498]

i have the sheet music too, and this is a little different...hmm...i dunno.

[Stehnz]

gould interpretation. every good pianist should add his own stuff

[XxbambambxX]

@Stehnz thats an interesting opinion... i think you can also play it like its in the notes, even if you're a great pianist because its such a perfect piece

[Papadepapo]

el no la interpreta este tema es otro

[theschumanity]

he always sang along... on some recordings it's less audible b/c of placement of mics or because the audio engineers found a way to cut the frequencies out of the recording... but the lovable nut did always sing along!

[thebeforephotograph]

Is Mr. Gould singing along?

[MattWGuitar123]

Awesome

[jlfnetto]

This guy is simply perfect!!!