Nov1

Inventions- Bach reimagined: Scroll Ensemble

Museum Overschie

A journey into the act of creating, a glimpse into the mind of a composer, and exciting duel between two musicians, inspired by the music of J.S. Bach, with the Scroll Ensemble.

In Bach’s time, ‘Invention’ implied a theme or a musical idea, which could be developed and used in many different ways (very much in the sense of a creativity exercise where one has to think of as many ways to use a paperclip as possible).

Bach reused entire pieces, and could improvise on a simple chorale melody for hours. How does a violin partita sound on the Chinese wind instrument, Sheng? And how does a chorale sound with constantly changing transformations on top?

In his Inventions, Bach takes a short melodic idea (sometimes even from another composer such as Pachelbel) and works it out, like a character in a story, always the same but always changing. In this most challenging form of improvisation, we create a theme with the help of the audience (and branches). Then we act out a musical dialogue; unlike a keyboard player, one player may not always know exactly which way the other will take it, and this excitement and playfulness lies at the heart of every Scroll Ensemble Concert.

Come and be part of the invention!