Pianist Dan Tepfer riffs on Bach’s Two-Half Innovations : NPR

Den Tepfer.

Josh Goleman/Courtesy of the artist

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Josh Goleman/Courtesy of the artist

Den Tepfer.

Josh Goleman/Courtesy of the artist

Within the early 1720s, Johann Sebastian Bach composed a set of Two-Half Innovations to assist his eldest son, Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, study to play the keyboard.

Now, 300 years later, jazz pianist and composer Dan Tepfer has extracted the framework and narrative from these deceptively easy workout routines to information new improvisations for an album he calls Innovations / Reinventions. “The musical content material, what is going on on beneath the floor is so profound that it is actually this glorious method of introducing kids to what the best music may be,” he tells NPR’s Sacha Pfeiffer.

Bach’s items assist the training pianist grasp concord, rhythm and method. They’re known as Two-Half Innovations as a result of there are two separate voices distributed between the pianist’s two palms. “So not solely is there a dialogue between two voices right here, however there’s additionally a dialogue between two palms,” Tepfer explains.

The New York-based pianist initiated a dialog with Bach throughout the centuries by emulating the composer’s narrative construction: A musical concept, or theme, is sort of a protagonist, launched earlier than experiencing numerous adventures — expressed musically by means of modulations — and finally returning to the house key.

“The chief aim right here is to be in dialog with Bach and to remain in my footwear — to not be taking part in on his turf, however to be utilizing his concepts on my turf, which I believe is what any good dialog is,” Tepfer says. And in doing so by means of improvisation, Tepfer can be drawing from the beating coronary heart of Bach’s music. The Baroque grasp was famend in his personal time as an improviser, one individuals would journey from throughout Europe to listen to.

It is not the primary time Tepfer, 41, has improvised in ways in which construct upon Bach. In his 2011 album Goldberg Variations / Variations, he performed the unique 18th century composition (an aria and a set of 30 variations) alongside his personal twenty first century improvisations. Through the pandemic, Tepfer, who additionally has an undergraduate diploma in astrophysics, wrote a pc program that performs again every Goldberg variation, however flipped the other way up.

Primarily, Tepfer inverted the a number of strains of music (counterpoint) Bach had composed. The place a melody would possibly fall within the authentic composition, the sample would rise in what Tepfer known as the #BachUpsideDown venture. Whereas the flipped variations are fully new music, additionally they are an echo of the unique piece and sound oddly acquainted.

Tepfer’s improvisations are in every of the 9 keys that Bach did not use for the 15 workout routines contained in his Two-Half Innovations.

Josh Goleman/Shore Hearth Media

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Josh Goleman/Shore Hearth Media

Tepfer’s improvisations are in every of the 9 keys that Bach did not use for the 15 workout routines contained in his Two-Half Innovations.

Josh Goleman/Shore Hearth Media

Together with his new Two-Half Innovations, Tepfer’s improvisations are within the 9 keys not lined by Bach’s cycle. Out of the 24 potential main and minor keys, Bach solely composed these workout routines in 15 of probably the most generally used keys. However Tepfer is fast to insist that nothing is lacking from the unique compositions.

“I do not imagine these gaps must be crammed in any respect. I by no means need to enhance on what Bach has written. I believe it could be silly to take action,” Tepfer says. As an alternative, he provides, “I abruptly realized that Bach had left open a window for me to reply to him in.”

This interview was carried out by Sacha Pfeiffer, produced by Barry Gordemer and edited by Olivia Hampton. To listen to the printed model of this story, use the audio participant on the prime of this web page.