Fifteen two-part inventions for the piano

Johann Sebastian Bach 1685–1750
Score
First page of Fifteen two-part inventions for the piano

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Themes & character
Pedagogical clarity·Two voice counterpoint·Singing touch·Baroque discipline

Movements

1
Invention No. 1C major
2
Invention No. 2C minor
3
Invention No. 3D major
4
Invention No. 4D minor
5
Invention No. 5E-flat major
6
Invention No. 6E major
7
Invention No. 7E minor
8
Invention No. 8F major
9
Invention No. 9F minor
10
Invention No. 10G major
11
Invention No. 11G minor
12
Invention No. 12A major
13
Invention No. 13A minor
14
Invention No. 14B-flat major
15
Invention No. 15B minor

About the piece

A set of fifteen short two voice keyboard pieces, one in each of fifteen keys, that Bach compiled in 1723 for the musical education of his eldest son, Wilhelm Friedemann. In his own preface he set out the goal plainly: to teach a clean, singing style of playing and to develop good musical ideas. Each invention spins out a single motif in strict two part counterpoint, training the hands to hold independent lines at once. Three centuries on they remain a cornerstone of keyboard study, usually the first serious counterpoint a piano student encounters.

The composer

Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach
1685–1750

Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his prolific output across a variety of instruments and forms, including the orchestral Brandenburg Concertos; solo instrumental works such as the Cello Suites and Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin; keyboard works such as the Goldberg Variations and The Well-Tempered Clavier; organ works such as the Schübler Chorales and the Toccata and Fugue in D minor; and choral works such as the St. Matthew Passion and the Mass in B minor. He is known for his mastery of counterpoint, as heard in The Musical Offering and The Art of Fugue. Felix Mendelssohn precipitated the Bach Revival with a performance of the St. Matthew Passion in 1829. Ever since, Bach has been acclaimed as one of the greatest composers in the history of Western music.

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