Bach: Two-Part Inventions Nos. 8, 9 and 10 (17 Strings)

Abdul-Wahab Kayyali (oud) and Tariq Harb (guitar) who together make up ’17 Strings’ perform the iconic Two-Part Inventions by J.S. Bach. In this video we present Invention No. 8 in F major, BWV 779, Invention No. 9 in F minor, BWV 780 and Invention No. 10 in G major, BWV 781. These are arrangements by Tariq Harb and Abdul-Wahab Kayyali. 0:00 Invention No. 8 in F major 1:00 Invention No. 9 in F minor 3:11 Invention No. 10 in G major ’17 Strings’ brings together two childhood friends who have taken divergent paths but found homes in Montreal. Tariq Harb is an award-winning classical guitar and violin performer who has written and published on arrangements for the classical guitar. Abdul-Wahab Kayyali is an accomplished oud player who has experience in polyphonic arrangement of Middle Eastern modal music. Harb and Kayyali attended the same conservatory as children learning music in Amman, Jordan – the National Music Conservatory (NMC), Harb playing the violin and Kayyali playing the oud. They have recently reconnected in Montreal and seek to reinvent their friendship and discover the musical possibilities of collaborating on their instruments. This would be the first project that brings them together to discover their shared artistic potential. Their anticipated album “Reinventions“ -- music of Bach and Middle Eastern music -- seeks to challenge the frontiers of each instrument and genre, and in the process develop a repertoire that can help transcend listening borders in Canada and the world. The Inventions and Sinfonias, BWV 772–801, also known as the Two- and Three-Part Inventions, are a collection of thirty short keyboard compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750): 15 inventions, which are two-part contrapuntal pieces, and 15 sinfonias, which are three-part contrapuntal pieces. They were originally written as “Praeambula“ and “Fantasiae“ in the Klavierbüchlein für Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, a Clavier-booklet for his eldest son, and later rewritten as musical exercises for his students. Bach titled the collection: “Forthright instruction, wherewith lovers of the clavier, especially those desirous of learning, are shown in a clear way not only 1) to learn to play two voices clearly, but also after further progress 2) to deal correctly and well with three obbligato parts, moreover at the same time to obtain not only good ideas, but also to carry them out well, but most of all to achieve a cantabile style of playing, and thereby to acquire a strong foretaste of composition.“ The two groups of pieces are both arranged in order of ascending key, each group covering eight major and seven minor keys. The inventions were composed in Köthen; the sinfonias, on the other hand, were probably not finished until the beginning of the Leipzig period. The autograph fair copy is dated 1723. This video is made possible with the generous support of the Canada Council for the Arts (CCA). It is recorded at Paroisse saint-Hughes church in Sarsfield, Ontario, Canada. Audio and video production and editing by Drew Henderson. We thank you for watching our second ’17 Strings’ video and we invite you to watch the last and final video from this recording session, to be released next week. As mentioned briefly above, we are planning on recording a full album this year so please stay tuned! ------------------------------ Tariq Harb teaches at Concordia University in Montreal, Canada: Online store: