This connection grew into The Art of Invention, a program that combines Dan’s Inventions/Reinventions project with my Partita Recomposed project, exploring the idea of musical invention alongside the music of the composers who arguably started it all: Antonio Bonporti and J.S. Bach.

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Antonio Bonporti (1672–1749) and Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) lived vastly different lives, but they shared one thing in common: their Invenzioni—though only one of them usually gets the credit! While Bach’s Two-Part Inventions are a staple of piano pedagogy today, Bonporti’s Invenzioni (1712) played a quieter, though no less intriguing, role. In fact, Bonporti’s Invenzioni were so compelling that they were mistaken for Bach’s—and for a while, people were none the wiser.

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Let’s rewind: Bonporti, a priest-composer from Trento, created his Invenzioni as part of his broader catalog of bold and experimental music. These compositions, rich in harmonies and dramatic instrumental recitative, stand out for their emotional depth and their conversational interplay between instruments. Bach himself admired these works, copying four of them by hand to study and play at home (as he did with other music he admired by Vivaldi and Telemann). And this is why scholars in the 19th century mistakenly included them in the Bachgesellschaft edition of Bach’s complete works. For years, these pieces were attributed to Bach—cementing Bonporti’s music (albeit indirectly) in Baroque lore. And while Bach didn't know that future musicians would confuse his works with Bonporti's, English Baroque composer Henry Eccles did publish one of Bonporti's inventions as his own. Apparently, Bonporti’s music was irresistible to those in need of a little inspiration.

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Bach’s Inventions, on the other hand, were designed as keyboard exercises for his students, teaching them clarity, counterpoint, and artistry. While Bach’s works were meticulously crafted for two and three voices, Bonporti’s Invenzioni were written for solo violin with continuo, showcasing a more virtuosic, theatrical flair. Where Bach's inventions sought to educate, Bonporti leaned into dramatic contrasts and expressive storytelling. Despite Bach's admiration for Bonporti's Inventions (and their possible inspiration for his own Inventions), they are about as different as Baroque music comes - offering a fascinating glimpse into the musical diversity of the Baroque era. ​​

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If Bonporti’s Invenzioni represent the imaginative possibilities of Baroque invention, then Dan Tepfer’s Inventions/Reinventions (2011) bring that same inventive spirit into the 21st century. A jazz pianist and composer, Dan uses Bach’s Two-Part Inventions as a springboard for his own creative exploration. In his Reinventions, Dan improvises entirely new pieces in real-time, building on Bach’s structures while infusing them with his own voice.

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Dan explains:

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Even though there are twenty-four possible major and minor keys, he wrote only fifteen Inventions. For pedagogical reasons, he focused on the most commonly used keys, leaving the more exotic ones to his Well-Tempered Clavier, which, composed around the same time, covers the keys exhaustively. 

 

So I landed on the structure you find in this recording, where I perform the Inventions as Bach wrote them, and, for the nine missing keys, improvise my own inventions. Not in Bach’s style, of course, but in my own voice. I close my eyes, listen inside for a fragment of melody, then take the melody on an adventure, trying hard to stay true both to the principles we’ve discussed here and to the intuition of my heart. Unlike my improvised variations in Goldberg Variations / Variations, each of which was a direct reaction to the movement that preceded it, my improvisations here stand on their own. They don’t react directly to Bach’s miniatures; instead, they react to the abstract and general structural concept that supports them. 

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It’s worth remembering that Bach was most known in his lifetime as an improviser. People travelled 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, three hundred 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.

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It’s easy to imagine that Bach would be thrilled with Dan's improvisations - for they represent the same kind of musical innovation, spirit, and curiosity that drove Bach himself. And there are so many wonderful examples of Bach reimagining his own work (and the works of others). And it was seeing Bach do this himself that inspired me to rework his Partita for solo flute.

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The first piece of music Bach ever wrote for the flute, the Partita almost seems to defy what is capable of a single melody instrument. Without a second voice or harmonic support, the flutist must create the illusion of multiple layers of music - the implied harmonies and counterpoint are hidden within the notes, and it’s up to the performer to bring them out, making every interpretation a unique collaboration between Bach’s score and the performer's imagination.

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Since it resurfaced in the 20th century, it has become a staple in every flute players repertoire, traversing the entire range of the instrument physically and emotionally. Throughout the Partita you see Bach literally pushing the envelope of what was capable for a baroque flute, and so I decided to take that further - writing accompanimental "sung" bass lines, even more notes, and a few nods to flute players Pixinguinha and Ian Anderson who have reimagined Baroque music in their own ways.

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Wishing for volume is a familiar feeling for any traverso player and playing the baroque flute is a beautifully intimate experience. But the clavichord blows the baroque flute out of the water when it comes to intimacy. It is so quiet that you can barely hear it unless you are playing it. But if you're lucky enough to be able to stick your head into the instrument, you'll be blown away by the incredible expressive capabilities. There's a reason why it was a favorite instrument of Bach himself, as well as so many other composers.  Not only does it have it's own incredible resonance, but it also has the unique ability to make vibrato - turning a keyboard's normally percussive life into one of melody.

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You can imagine Bach, playing on his clavichord late into the night as his family slept, conjuring up works like the two-part inventions that are so iconic for us today. Thanks to sound designer Toby Tittle, the magic of the clavichord is amplified for all to hear, allowing audiences to experience its intimate resonance on a grander scale. Together, the traverso and clavichord transport us into the heart of the Baroque era, and perhaps, even into the living room of J.S. Bach, where invention and expression go hand in hand.

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From Bonporti and Bach, to Dan and me, The Art of Invention is a journey through centuries of reimagining, reinterpreting, and reinventing. It’s proof that the windows Bach left open in his music continue to inspire us all to climb through—and make some new music along the way.

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