Bach's 6th Invention In E Minor

Uploaded by surfchick on Feb 21, 2005

Bach's 6th Invention In E Minor

An invention in this context is a short two- piece of music, usually instrumental, which shows off the
composer's inventiveness in writing polyphonic (multiple independent voice) music. Bach's inventions are
probably the most often played pieces in this genre. His two-part inventions were composed in Cothen
around 1720. They were intended not only as pieces for teaching "clean" playing of two (or three) part
polyphony, but also as models of composition. Bach created a total of 15, 2- part inventions. Of these 15,
I had the opportunity of listening to number 6 in E Major.

The song is played on what I presume to be either a harpsichord or a guitar. At first impression, the song
seems just go up and down the scales. Starting off slow and eventually speeding up and then ultimately
coming to a screeching halt similar to the life of an elevator. I found the melody could be broken down
into 3 sections: Measures 1- 20, 21- 42, and 43- 62. I say this because each section seems to have its
own story to tell. Measures 1- 20 and 43- 62 seem to act as an intro and outro, with 21- 42 playing the
body of the song and possessing the ability to be broken down further. 

Measures 9 through 13 of the first section are interesting to look at because of its interesting pattern.
Looking at measures 9, 11, and 13 you can see a consecutive dip in chord progression. In other words, the
chord in 9 is the same as 11, but 1 degree lower. The same rule applies to 11 to 13 and the same
relationship is found between measures 10 and 12. The end of the first part of the story also ends our
time in E Major indefinitely. 

Section 2 begins in B Major. Although in this new key, the new section does not reveal itself until measure
25. The first few measures of section 2, resemble section 1. I assume Bach does this so as not to make his
work look blocky. Section 2 is unique among all other parts of the song because it goes to 3 different
keys. Starting off in the key of B major, by the end of measure 32 we are in G# major, and by the end of
measure 42 we return to E major. 

Section 3 returns us to the key of E major. It resembles section 1 greatly with the exception that Bach uses
an assortment of lower notes than used in the first section. Where section 1 was high pitched, section 3 is
low pitched. The only other thing of noting for this section would be measures 51- 55 which resemble the
same chord progression as measures 9 -13. However in a sort of mirror effect, 50- 54 sounds like the
lowest part of this section, contrasting with measures 9- 13 being the highest part of its section. 

Overall, this piece is very repetitive. It is almost like a riff except that the notes are never the same. The
notes tend to change by only one degree. After listening to it many, many times, I was able to notice little
subtleties that I was not have been able to do so at first. When trying to understand the significance of
measures 9- 12, it seemed to me that those measures seem to make up a sort of short climax for that
first part of Bach's work. Although the piece begins at a high E, the piece never sustains high- pitched
tunes until 9- 12. After those measures are played, it goes back down. It is comparable to a well written
horror movie, having a few scares during the movie and then that one big climax and then finally having
some resolution. 

The song seems to have everything related. At first, the middle section seemed way out of place. The first
and third sections resemble each other well, but the second part of the piece works to sort of mend the
beginning and ending parts together without making the whole composition entirely boring with complete
and udder repetition. Interestingly in my opinion, the second part of the piece is almost like a bigger
version of verses 9- 12 and 51- 54. It does for the entire song what those measures did to its respective
parts.