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So for now have fun and experiment with these pieces. Unlike later music that has melody and harmony and obvious distinctions between the two, these Bach Inventions have intertwining melodies instead. It is up to you come up with the phrasing. Why is this? Because Bach rarely wrote phrasing into his music. A lot of his music is open for interpretation so if you wanted to play the phrasing completely differently it can work just as well. The beauty of Bach is that there is really no right or wrong. This is a great way to separate the countersubject from the subject. So how should you make each one stand out? Well you might notice that a few bars into the piece the countersubject has elongated eighth notes.Ī great way to delineate these notes is to play them legato and in groups with the last note being short. In this particular piece the subject and countersubject are incredibly similar. Being able to delineate these two phrases is what makes counterpoint so special.Ī great way to separate the subject from the countersubject is to phrase them differently from one-another.įor example, in the first phrase you have this as your subject:
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Even with these limitations this is an amazing composition that’s built with a subject and a countersubject. This phrase simply means it is a type of 2-voice counterpoint (for more information on this subject please watch our video on What is Counterpoint?) To put this simply, there are two different lines of music and at no point are there more than two different notes playing at the same time in just about the whole piece. Let’s start by breaking down exactly what is meant by “two part invention”. If you’re looking for something short and challenging to practice these could be a great choice for you. These are masterful works that are not very long but brilliantly conceived.
Bach two part inventions petrucci music library series#
Welcome to the first part in our series on Bach’s Two Part Inventions.