Description
The hands move so much as equals, passing the subject so closely, that subject and countermelody are hard to tell apart in this B minor piece, which closes the fifteen Inventions. Having begun in C major, the collection ends here in the key with the highest keynote, finishing on a taut minor-key note. For anyone who has played through from No. 1 in C major, this is where the journey ends.
With 477 notes in about 52 seconds it is dense for its length, concentrating contrapuntal exchange into a short span of 4/4. The range runs from C#2 to C6.
Short as it is, its density asks you to keep the tempo while clearly separating the two voices. For anyone who has worked through the collection in order, it is a final piece that checks the independence of voices built up over the earlier pieces. Slow the playback speed to check the exchanges through the hand colours, repeat the intricate passages with the A-B loop, then work back towards full 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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