Description
Written in binary form with each half repeated, this E major Invention has a layout close to that of a dance. Most of the fifteen pieces run through without a break, so No. 6 is the exception, and at about two minutes twenty it is also the longest of the set.
One hand plays a melody with syncopations, rhythms set off the beat, while the other descends smoothly in scales. In the second half the hands exchange roles, so the same material is heard the other way up. It is in 3/8 and ranges from B1 to B5, and its 547 notes are relatively few for its length.
The first challenge is to let the off-beat syncopations sway naturally without stumbling. With fewer notes, each one stands out, so the playing must keep the beat exact without becoming stiff. Slow the playback speed to check how the rhythms of the two hands offset each other through the hand colours, and repeat the syncopated passages with the A-B loop until the sense of the beat settles.
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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