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A good friend of mine wants to buy an edition for a beginner of the easier Two part inventions of Bach. He needs something with good fingerings. He looked at the Henle and liked it but needed a copy of something with more guidance. Any ideas? J.

The Alfred edition is really nice, with lots of additional info.

Amazon link

Sam

Ditto re: Alfred edition. Lots of info about proper execution of ornamentation.

I also recommend the Alfred edition but ... two part inventions for a beginner? They are works for intermediate students (and not early intermediate either).

I have the Alfred edition as well, and it is good. It also has the sinfonias, for what it's worth. I would agree, though, that they're not really beginner material.

Yikes, I would say the Inventions are late intermediate or really, the beginning of more advanced canon. Once they can be executed well a technical foundation has truly been established. I'm pretty sure they're graded at level 8 in the Canadian system, which is the edge of 'intermediate'.

Not being familiar with the Canadian system, when you say the above I assume you mean the advanced edge, correct?

Is there a listing available I can view?

can somebody please help me understand how the "american" system works? in Italy the sinfonias (3 part inventions) are part of the exam for the 5th year with the english suites and the wtc for the 8th... and you complete at the 10th year...

how comes that the 2 part inventions are "later intermediate" or " early advanced"??????

p.s. a very good edition was the wiener urtext ( red cover ), but I can't find it anymore

http://m.box.net/view_shared/3dhioamzna

This is a list of graded works, based on technical difficulty. The top of the page has links to the various testing agencies and they explain their systems better on there.

No matter how a country or conservatory divides things up, the general idea is that one must progress from basic technique to more advanced, simple songs to gradually more complex, in such a way that foundational skills and music knowledge are assimilated.

Thus, the systems are really only useful if you a) are taking one of the exams or b) would like a general idea of if you are ready to play a piece, by looking at if you can play similarly graded pieces or have the skills built to attempt it. I, myself, have more work to do in the intermediate repertoire before I would find myself suitable to undertake the Inventions without a lot of struggle, for example.

thanks Arctic_Mama... looks like the "grading" between this side of the pond and my original one is quite different... :-)

They probably have the pieces in a similar order, it's just where the divisions for testing or years fall that might be different

Not really, without going into too much detail I noticed that Bach is considered "quite hard"... there if I remember correctly piano concertos are diploma material... wtc is advanced and inventions and suites basic intermediate.
Mozart is all intermediate while beethoven spans from intermediate to diploma... Chopin is on the harder side....

I think both grading system have their reason to exists...

I've noticed lists like that don't always include the professional-level work, which would be the sort of thing you listed. Grade 10 stuff isn't the hardest pieces ever written by a long shot, but that which they qualify a comprehensive musician and technician. Most of the virtuoso pieces aren't on the graded material I've seen. It sounds like an interesting system!

That is the reason why I'm puzzled by the grading system... looks like falls short, but not that much from the Italian one... but I know that now they changed there too... my memories are from about 25 years ago...

btw, going back to Bach... I have both henle and wiener and are both "interesting" when it comes to fingering... henle looks "easier" on hand movements, wiener it's more concerned about phrasing... and there are addendum's at the end with greater use of embellishments and a very interesting edition of the invention #1 (like the one recorded by Glenn Gould. )