Re: GG: 2 & 3 Part Inventions

[Bradley P Lehman <bpl@umich.edu>]

> >What views do people have of the @ & 3 Part Inventions (BWV 772 - 801). In
> >my Sony CD set (two discs, with the Toccatas, reissued in this form in
> >about 1986, I think), the piano has a rather clanking sound, to me.
> >GG was hyper-critical of the recorded piano tone. So is this sound
> >"deliberate" or an unavoidable result of either piano technology or
> >recording technology?
> >
> This recording was done while his piano was "sick", escapment wasn't
> allowing some hammers to retreat properly from strings somewhere in middle
> registers. I've always enjoyed this pathology, somehow. (I don't remember
> where I read about this.)

It was originally a little essay/explanation in an inset box, centered on
the back cover of the original LP.  Probably reproduced in the _Reader_ 
which I don't have handy at the moment.

My impression of the piano's escapement problem is that GG might have
thought it was a nifty effect in its own right, along with the thin
recorded tone.  And it's sort of like the bounce/choke effect a clavichord
can give when not played with the correct firmness of touch (fingering on
a clavichord has to be done with more careful control than any other
keyboard instrument, and hand shifts are especially susceptible to
bumpiness).  It also resembles the disconcerting bump/ring effect of
playing two notes that are on the same string on a fretted clavichord.  So
GG's performances sound more delicate and clavichord-like because of the
problem.  I think it helps the performance by getting the piano sound away
from the typical modern-Steinway envelope; playing Bach on a piano is a
transcription already, but the differences are minimized somewhat here. 

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Bradley Lehman, bpl@umich.edu       http://www-personal.umich.edu/~bpl/