Johann Sebastian Bach
Invention 8
in F Major

ID: 89

Dizzying display of charming counterpoint

This joyful and energetic invention is a popular choice for the intermediate piano student. It is well suited to be played in a lively but not too fast tempo, and rewards diligent students with a dizzying display of charming counterpoint to delight both themselves and their audiences. If the eighth notes are played staccato and the sixteenths legato in typical Baroque fashion, the piece provides an excellent opportunity to practice playing different articulations with each hand.

The piece can be thought of as having three parts. The first part lasts through bars 1-12, starting in F major and modulating to C major. It introduces the main idea of upwards bouncing eighth notes followed by a tail of descending sixteenths, providing the musical motifs used to construct the rest of the piece. The first seven bars are in strict canon – both hands play the same melody, but the left hand starts one measure after the right hand! The second part starts in C major and lasts through bars 12-25, exploring the material using minor keys; a small drama in the middle of the joy. The final part starts in bar 26 and is a repeat of the material in bars 4-11, now transposed to begin in Bb major and end in F major, concluding the piece.

Background

The Inventions were originally written as "Praeambula" and "Fantasiae" in the Klavierbüchlein für Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, Johann Sebastian's eldest son, and later rewritten as musical exercises, designed to help students obtain a singing style of playing, but also to give them "a strong foretaste of composition". Both the two-part Inventions and the three-part Sinfonias are arranged in order of ascending key, each group covering fifteen major and minor keys.