Inventions & Sinfonias by J. S. Bach

Bach wrote a set of fifteen two-part Inventions to serve two purposes.  They were intended to provide keyboard exercises of intermediate difficulty, and to demonstrate compositional techniques in counterpoint.  Bach also wrote fifteen three-part Sinfonias for the same purposes, with additional complexity.

Two-Part Inventions

Compositional processes

Analysis and Harmonic Relationships

Procedures to follow in writing a two-part invention in the style of Bach

Assignment: Write the first 8-12 measures of a two-part Invention

Three-Part Sinfonias

Compositional processes

Analysis and Harmonic Relationships

Materials

Music for Analysis

Examples and Activities