Description
At 72 seconds the shortest of the fifteen here, the eighth three-part Sinfonia is a neatly compact piece in F major. It opens the second half of the set, and after the E minor of No. 7 the music turns back to a bright, nimble major key.
In 4/4, a short subject is passed quickly among the three voices, which seem to chase one another. With 557 notes in 72 seconds a great deal is packed into a short span, and the light motion continues without a break throughout. From C2 up to B-flat 5, its compass suits a 61-key keyboard.
With a light tempo, three voices running together easily blur into a lump, so at this intermediate level the notes of each voice need to be even. Lower the playback speed to follow the hand-offs of the subject in the score view, and use the hand colours to decide which hand takes the middle voice. As it settles, raise the speed gradually and loop the places where entries overlap with A-B repeat, so that you can play it through while keeping it light.
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.
View all works by Bach →