Public-domain song
Invention No. 8 in F major
- Key signature
- 1 flat: B♭
- Time signature
- 3/4
- Origin
- The two-part invention in F major, BWV 779, in Bach’s fair copy of 1723; first printed in 1801.
Public domain: by Johann Sebastian Bach, who died in 1750; first published in 1801.
Parts 1 and 2 are written out note by note as a melody only: no lyrics and no accompaniment.
The three parts
Part 1
The phrase people know, short enough to learn in a sitting.
- Length
- 4 bars, 34 notes
- Tempo
- ♩ = 76
- Difficulty
- Medium
- Range
- F4 to C6
- Note values
- eighth notes, sixteenth notes
Part 2: the complete song
The whole tune: its melody once through to its end, without the repeats a performance would add.
- Length
- 12 bars, 103 notes
- Tempo
- ♩ = 88
- Difficulty
- Hard
- Range
- C4 to C6
- Note values
- quarter notes, eighth notes, sixteenth notes
Part 3: the whole piece
The whole piece as the composer wrote it: every hand or voice, from a public-domain score, in sections you can practise.
- Length
- 34 bars, 598 notes
- Duration
- 1:03
- Tempo
- ♩ = 96
- Difficulty
- Hard
- Range
- C2 to C6
- Practice sections
- Subject and answer in F major, Sequences and a cadence in C major, The subject in C major, then G minor, A long sequence, The closing section, ending in F major
Source and licence
Johann Sebastian Bach. Our own transcription from the public-domain source edition: Bach-Gesellschaft (Breitkopf & Härtel), Leipzig, 1853. Also consulted: Mutopia Project #61 (Allen Garvin) (public-domain dedication).
Source edition: Bach-Gesellschaft (Breitkopf & Härtel), Leipzig, 1853
Lessons that use this song
No lesson links this song yet. Play it on its own in Play Along.