Description
Two upper voices sing to each other in heavily ornamented melodies over a bass walking at a steady pace in the fifth of the three-part Sinfonias. Where many pieces in the set have three voices imitating a subject, this one stands apart, with a texture that recalls a trio sonata for two melody instruments and continuo.
In E-flat major and 3/4, at 127 seconds it is one of the longer pieces in the set, yet it holds only 427 notes, so each ornament is heard within an unhurried pace. Its notes span C2 to B-flat 5, so a 61-key instrument is enough. With three flats, it also asks you to get used to fingerings that include the black keys.
The challenge in this intermediate piece is not speed but making the closely written ornaments sing naturally as part of the melody, while keeping the bass walking evenly. Lower the playback speed and check the order of the ornament notes in the score view, and use the hand colours to see how the two melodies and the bass are shared out. An A-B loop over the passages where the two voices answer each other helps you catch the timing of their dialogue.
A set of three-part counterpoint studies (BWV 787-801) that expand on the two-part Inventions, teaching more complex polyphony.
Browse all songs in Three-Part Sinfonias →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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