Description
Each bar holds three large beats, each divided into three eighth notes: this bright, light G major piece is in compound 9/8. Where most of the Inventions are in 4/4 or triple time, No. 10 shows the variety of metre in the collection. At about 51 seconds it is short, and its bouncing rhythm and bright sound make it one of the more approachable pieces in the set.
The subject is built mainly on broken-chord figures and passed between the hands, and a bouncing flow runs throughout. Its 439 notes range from D2 to C6.
The challenge is to keep each group of three even while holding on to the flow of three large beats. Broken-chord figures require quick changes of hand shape, and where leaps follow one another it helps to get used to the shifts of position. Slow the playback speed to check the groups of three, and repeat the passages with the most leaps using the A-B loop to work towards a light tempo.
A set of 15 two-part counterpoint studies (BWV 772-786) that Bach composed for his son's musical education.
Browse all songs in Two-Part Inventions →Sheet Music
Sheet music provided by Mutopia Project
About the Composer
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
Johann Sebastian Bach was the towering figure of German Baroque music, serving for decades as Cantor of St. Thomas Church in Leipzig. Renowned for his mastery of counterpoint, he laid the foundations of keyboard music with works such as The Well-Tempered Clavier and the Inventions. This site includes minuets and polonaises from the Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach, the Inventions and Sinfonias, and fugues from The Well-Tempered Clavier. The Notebook pieces are catalogued with BWV Anh. (appendix) numbers, but many are by other composers - Petzold's minuets among them - or by no one known, and most of their song pages give the current view of who wrote them.
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