Description
A subject that runs up a broken chord and rebounds downward is handed back and forth between the hands without pause in this A minor Invention. The thirteenth of the fifteen, it is one of the best-loved in the set: written in 1723 as teaching material for two-voice playing, it has long since outgrown that and turns up on recital programmes on its own account.
Over a common-time pulse the harmony keeps moving, carrying the piece through a circuit of keys while holding on to the shade of the minor, all compressed into a little over a minute.
Continuous broken chords sound better the more even they are. Beyond keeping the fingers from stumbling, giving a shade more weight to the note at the top of each rebound is enough to draw the melodic outline clearly. Since both hands work the same figure, deciding which voice leads at any moment and shaping the volume accordingly is what keeps this from sounding like an exercise.
A set of 15 two-part counterpoint studies (BWV 772-786) that Bach composed for his son's musical education.
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Sheet music provided by Mutopia Project
What this piece teaches
Invention No. 13 in A minor. A subject that runs up a broken chord and rebounds is handed between the hands without pause. The lesson is deciding, moment by moment, which of the two voices leads - and making it heard.
How to practise it
- When the subject moves to the left hand, the left hand leads. Follow the score view and find each place the subject appears.
- A shade more weight on the top note of each rebound brings the outline of the melody into focus.
- Put the hands together at 0.5x and raise the speed only while both voices can still be heard.
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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