Description
A subject paired with a line descending by semitones sets the two voices answering each other closely in this tense, conversational G minor Invention. As No. 11 it shares its keynote with No. 10 in G major, and after that bright 9/8 comes taut music in common time. Heard after No. 10, it shows clearly how the collection pairs major and minor.
Subject and countermelody swap between the hands, so each hand carries the melody at times. There are 568 notes in about 67 seconds, ranging from C2 to B-flat 5.
Because the hands pass the subject between them as equals, the left hand must play with the same clarity as the right when it carries the melody. The descending semitone line can be awkward to finger, so it is safest to settle the fingering before raising the speed. Use the hand colours to see which hand has the subject, and slow the playback speed while listening to the balance between the hands; the tension of the dialogue will come across.
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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