Two-Part Invention No. 13 (A minor, BWV 784)
An energetic invention in A minor. A busy sixteenth-note tune races between the hands, with a short rest at the very start that gives it a springy feel.
About this intermediate piano piece
- Composer
- Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750)
- Level
- Intermediate · Stage 4: Baroque Builders
- Difficulty
- 5.8 on Pianuvo’s scale (1 is your first notes, about 9 is Debussy)
- Length
- about 70 seconds, 25 bars
- Hands
- Both hands
- Time and tempo
- 4/4 at about 84 BPM
- Range
- D2 to C6
Background
The title Inventio comes from rhetoric, the art of speech-making that every educated person of Bach's time studied. Inventio was the first stage of preparing a speech: finding the idea you would then develop. In music, the invention is the short opening idea, and the piece is the argument built from it.
For all their fame, the Inventions were not printed in Bach's lifetime. They passed from teacher to pupil in handwritten copies, and the first printed edition appeared only in 1801, half a century after his death. Students have learned from them ever since. The A minor Invention, BWV 784, is No. 13 of the fifteen.
Its idea is different from the scale-based themes of many of the others. It is made of broken chords: the notes of a chord played one after another, rising and falling in quick sixteenth notes. Bach moves these shapes through a chain of related chords, each bar leaning towards the next, so the music feels as if it is always travelling.
How to practise it
The Invention is in A minor and 4/4, with 25 bars. The right hand begins after a sixteenth-note rest, which gives the opening its springy feel:
While one hand has the sixteenths, the other usually has eighth notes. In bar 1 the left hand starts with three bass notes, then takes over the broken-chord figure as the right hand moves to eighths:
A good first step is to block the chords. Play each group of four sixteenths as one chord (A, C and E; then E, B and D), so your hand learns each shape before it has to break it. Then play the notes as written, keeping the hand in the shape rather than reaching for each note separately.
From bar 3 the music moves in a sequence: bar 4 repeats the shape of bar 3 a step lower, and bars 5 and 6 carry on downwards in shorter pieces. Learn bar 3 well, then look for the same pattern moved down, and you will be reading shapes instead of single notes.
A plan:
- Each hand alone, two bars at a time, with fixed fingering.
- Hands together at 48 beats a minute, bars 1 and 2 only.
- Add two bars at a time, using the same fingering whenever a shape returns.
- Raise the tempo through 60 and 72 to the full 84.
The eighth notes should be light and slightly detached, the sixteenths even and smooth. Listen for the bass line under the busy figures, because it carries the harmony that makes the piece feel urgent.
Minor keys and their raised seventh note are explained in the minor keys unit.
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Quick tips
- Start slowly with a metronome and play each sixteenth note evenly, with relaxed wrists.
- It covers a wide D2 to C6, so look ahead for the big moves and keep your arms relaxed. Both hands play: learn each hand on its own first, then put them together slowly. A minor has no sharps or flats in its key signature, though you will meet G♯ (the black key just above G).
- Written at about 84 BPM, but start near 42 BPM (50% speed) and speed up only when two clean plays in a row feel easy. Count 1-2-3-4, leaning a little on beats 1 and 3.
In the Academy
Not yet part of the Academy course. You can still play it any time from the song path. See the Academy course outline for what Year 1 covers.
More songs to try
Source. The music is in the public domain. This version is from Mutopia Project, released as Public Domain (source page).