Inventions and Sinfonias

Inventions and Sinfonias

The "Inventions and Sinfonias", BWV 772-801, also known as the "Two and Three Part Inventions", are a collection of thirty short keyboard compositions composed by Johann Sebastian Bach, consisting of fifteen "inventions" (two-part contrapuntal pieces) and fifteen "sinfonias" (three-part contrapuntal pieces). They were originally written by Bach as exercises for the musical education of his students.

It was given a title by Bach: "A faithful Guide, whereby admirers of the harpsichord are shown a plain Method of learning not only to play clean in two Parts, but likewise in further Progress to manage three "obbligato" Parts well and correctly, and at the same time not merely how to get good "Inventions", but also how to develop the same well; but above all, to obtain a "cantabile" Style of playing, and together with this to get a strong Foretaste of Composition."

The two groups of pieces are both arranged in order of ascending key, each group covering fifteen major and minor keys. The sequence of keys is

# C major
# C minor
# D major
# D minor
# E-flat major
# E major
# E minor
# F major
# F minor
# G major
# G minor
# A major
# A minor
# B-flat major
# B minor

The inventions were composed in Cöthen; the sinfonias, on the other hand, were probably not finished until the beginning of the Leipzig period.

Media

External links

* [http://www.music.qub.ac.uk/~tomita/essay/inventions.html history and analysis of Bach's inventions]
* [http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~tas3/mus303/week3.html overview of inventions from the Northern Arizona University Website]
* [http://www.mutopiaproject.org/cgibin/make-table.cgi?collection=bachis&preview=1 Mutopia's editions of Bach's Inventions and Sinfonias]
*


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