Description
Calm and warm in character, this B-flat major piece is the last in a major key in a collection of Inventions that ends in B minor. It is No. 14 of a set written for teaching at home, and against the taut B minor of No. 15 that follows it is like a breath taken before the end.
Quick figures are woven into a settled common-time pace, and the two voices proceed by imitating each other's figures. Calm on the surface, it is written in close counterpoint in which subject and countermelody change places between the hands. In about 77 seconds it sounds 592 notes, within a range of C2 to B-flat 5.
Fitting the quick figures in exactly without disturbing the rhythm, and balancing the two voices, are the challenges of this intermediate piece. Quick notes invite rushing, so anchor them to the beats. Slow the playback speed to check the shape of each figure, and follow the imitation through the hand colours; the structure beneath the calm surface will become audible.
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
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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