Dan Tepfer Unspools Bach’s “Invention in F minor BWV 780” Ahead of March 17th Release of Inventions / Reinventions

Today, Dan Tepfer shares “Invention in F minor BWV 780,” the latest preview of his forthcoming new album Inventions / Reinventions coming out on March 17 on StorySound Records. Inventions / Reinventions features performances of each of Bach’s beloved 15 Two Part Inventions — composed 300 years ago by Johann Sebastian Bach to serve as keyboard exercises — interleaved in sequence with nine of Tepfer’s own free improvisations in the “missing” keys to create a new full, and fully transporting, 24-key cycle.

Explains Tepfer of his performance of “Invention in F minor BWV 780”: “The Inventions, like many of Bach’s works, have no tempo markings. But this one feels to me, as well as to many other interpreters, like it wants to move slowly. Despite the deceptive simplicity of the two-voice texture, there’s something deeply exploratory about it, a kind of yearning that touches me deeply every time I play it.”

Listen to “Invention in F minor BWV 780” here.

On March 7 & 8, Dan Tepfer will celebrate the release of Inventions / Reinventions with a series of four sold-out shows with Death of Classical, who will welcome his incomparable pianistic mind into their Crypt. As on the record, Tepfer will perform Bach’s beloved Two Part Inventions and as well as his own accompanying improvisations, created afresh in the moment — more info about the concerts here.

This is not Tepfer's first foray into improvisation that builds upon Bach. His 2011 recording Goldberg Variations / Variations had him play Bach’s Baroque masterpiece in full and as improvised variations of his own creation. It was an ambitious undertaking that garnered widespread acclaim, with The New York Times calling it “riveting and inspired” and New York Magazine deeming it “elegant, thoughtful, and thrilling.”

However, this project has a different purview. Explains Tepfer: "I’m reacting to something more abstract, to the way Bach engages with storytelling. Bach’sInventions are a beautiful example of the difference between surface and subsurface, in that they seem like modest pieces on the surface, but the mechanism underneath is so powerful. And that’s what this project is all about: the subsurface of Bach, the mechanisms at play deep below.”

It’s an audacious project, but one firmly rooted in Bach’s own history. As Tepfer explains: “It’s worth remembering that Bach was most known in his lifetime as an improviser. People traveled long distances, often by foot, to hear him extemporize at the organ or harpsichord. Despite the perfect compositions he left behind, in which it’s difficult to imagine changing a single note, improvisation was at the core of his being. And I hope, 300 years after he composed these pieces for his children and students, that Bach wouldn’t be too offended by a modern improviser making up some new musical stories in the windows he left open.”

Pre-order Inventions / Reinventions here.



Invention / Reinventions

1. Invention in C Major, BWV 772

2. Invention in C minor, BWV 773

3. Improvised Invention in Db Major

4. Improvised Invention in Db minor

5. Invention in D Major, BWV 774

6. Invention in D minor, BWV 775

7. Invention in Eb Major, BWV 776

8. Improvised Invention in Eb minor

9. Invention in E Major, BWV 777

10. Invention in E minor, BWV 778

11. Invention in F Major, BWV 779

12. Invention in F minor, BWV 780

13. Improvised Invention in Gb Major

14. Improvised Invention in Gb minor

15. Invention in G Major, BWV 781

16. Invention in G minor, BWV 782

17. Improvised Invention in Ab Major

18. Improvised Invention in Ab minor

19. Invention in A Major, BWV 783

20. Invention in A minor, BWV 784

21. Invention in Bb Major, BWV 785

22. Improvised Invention in Bb minor

23. Improvised Invention in B Major

24. Invention in B minor, BWV 786

About Dan Tepfer

As one of his generation’s extraordinary talents, Dan Tepfer has earned an international reputation for being a pianist-composer of wide-ranging innovation, individuality and drive. Tepfer has been hailed as “a player of exceptional poise” by The New York Times, while Downbeat extolled his “ability to disappear into the music as he’s making it.” The New York City-based pianist, born in 1982 in Paris to American parents, has recorded and performed around the world with some of the leading lights in jazz and classical music, from Lee Konitz to Renée Fleming. He has released 11 albums of his own in solo, duo and trio formats.

Tepfer has used technology to reach new listeners in new ways with new music. The pianist’s 2018 video album, Natural Machines, stands as one of his most ingeniously forward-minded efforts yet. Performed on the Yamaha Disklavier, the project saw him exploring in real time the intersection between science and art, coding and improvisation, digital algorithms and the rhythms of the heart.

Tepfer’s most recent jazz recordings as a leader or co-leader include a second duo album with Konitz, Decade (Impulse/Universal, 2018), the culmination of 10 years working alongside one of jazz’s singular improvisers. The pianist’s trio disc Eleven Cages, released in 2017 via Sunnyside Records, featured him in league with bassist Thomas Morgan and drummer Nate Wood. The UK’s Jazzwise magazine called Eleven Cages “one of the very best essays in contemporary piano-trio jazz you’ll hear all year.” Tepfer’s other collaborations include a disc with Parisian vocalist Camille Bertault, Pas de Géant (OKeh/Sony, 2017), as well as a multi-tracked duo album with reeds player Ben Wendel, Small Constructions (Sunnyside, 2013).

As a composer, Tepfer has written music for various ensembles beyond jazz. His piano quintet Solar Spiral was premiered in 2016 at Chicago’s Ravinia Festival, with Tepfer performing alongside the Avalon String Quartet. Tepfer has received commissions from the Prague Castle Guard Orchestra for two works: the suite Algorithmic Transform (2015) and a concerto for symphonic wind band and improvising piano, The View from Orohena (2010). In 2019, Tepfer unveiled his jazz-trio arrangement of Stravinsky’s Baroque-channeling Pulcinella.

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