Invention No.1 in Gm

Hi, I've been learning more deeply in counterpoint in the last weeks and here is my first invention. An invention is a piece where the parts are inverted with each other. It means the parts (two in this case) can work either as a top part and as a baseline. 

It consist of just 15 bar:

• 6 bars section on the Tonic.
•  6 bar section on the Dominant (the same material, but inverted and transposed to the dominat, that's why is called invention).
•  3 bars coda with a Tonic pedal. 

Looking to the construction of the first bars in more detail:

• 2 first bars are the main motif on the right hand as shown on the screen shot, so the subject, and the countersubject on the left hand. In the dominant section the subject will be on the left hand and the countersubject on the right hand, so they both motifs work good as a baseline.
•  bars 3-4 is constructed with the same motif as bars 1-2, but with the intervals inverted. Here the harmony key and countersubject changes completely. Bars 1-2 are in Gm, but in bars 3-4 the feeling is more like Cm ending with a suspension on the dominat. 
•  Bars 5-6 are modulating episode constructed with elements of the subject and countersubject. 

I appreciate you feedback!

Overall you have handled the counterpoint well. I do find the position at which you have placed the repeat unusual - perhaps that is me. 

I am not very familiar with Bach’s inventions, besides the more popular ones on YouTube. However I find your handling of the prinner (6-5-4-3 motion) not unlike Bach’s in his music that I am familiar with. 

The short section beyond the repeat bar is almost in a different style to the preceding part. Is this intentional and is this in character with the structure of Bach’s inventions? 

You are right, the position of the repeat are maybe not usual. I just wanted to repeat the first 12 bars. Since the half of that 12 bars are in dominant and it finish in the dominant, it needed some closing material on the tonic to balance the piece, and that's a 3 bar tonic pedal with some ecoes of the 2 sixteenth notes motif on the weak beat. The style is indeed different in those 3 bars with the right hand moving in parallel sixths, so it's not counterpointal anymore, but I don't think it needs to be a counterpoint texture all the time. 

I didn't analyse bach's inventions, which I should do in the future (I just know 2 of them I used to play on piano some years ago, no.1 in C and no.13 in Am). But I don't pretend to write a invention with bach's structure, thought I thinks bach's flavour is there. 

What I actually wanted is exploring the possibilities of motif transformation, such as intervalic inversión, and invertible counterpoint. I think those are very powerfull tools, which can be used in many musical contexts. So I just take it as an excercise to practice on that. 

I have two questions:

1- What do you mean by the prinner? Its the modulating sequence by fifths from bar 5 (C - F - Bb - Eb...)? 

2- What resourses do you used to learn counterpoint? I'm Reading Tratado de contrapunto by Torre Bertucci. The book is ok, but the exemples are mainly in C Key, which isn't easy to read for non-viola players 😅. Also Alan Belkin has a nice set of 24 videos on YouTube about applied counterpoint, which I find really easy to follow. 

Can also someone probide usefull resourses to learn counterpoint more deeply? Or just a topic on this forum about that...

2 hours ago, Guillem82 said:

You are right, the position of the repeat are maybe not usual. I just wanted to repeat the first 12 bars. Since the half of that 12 bars are in dominant and it finish in the dominant, it needed some closing material on the tonic to balance the piece, and that's a 3 bar tonic pedal with some ecoes of the 2 sixteenth notes motif on the weak beat. The style is indeed different in those 3 bars with the right hand moving in parallel sixths, so it's not counterpointal anymore, but I don't think it needs to be a counterpoint texture all the time. 

I didn't analyse bach's inventions, which I should do in the future (I just know 2 of them I used to play on piano some years ago, no.1 in C and no.13 in Am). But I don't pretend to write a invention with bach's structure, thought I thinks bach's flavour is there. 

What I actually wanted is exploring the possibilities of motif transformation, such as intervalic inversión, and invertible counterpoint. I think those are very powerfull tools, which can be used in many musical contexts. So I just take it as an excercise to practice on that. 

I have two questions:

1- What do you mean by the prinner? Its the modulating sequence by fifths from bar 5 (C - F - Bb - Eb...)? 

2- What resourses do you used to learn counterpoint? I'm Reading Tratado de contrapunto by Torre Bertucci. The book is ok, but the exemples are mainly in C Key, which isn't easy to read for non-viola players 😅. Also Alan Belkin has a nice set of 24 videos on YouTube about applied counterpoint, which I find really easy to follow. 

Can also someone probide usefull resourses to learn counterpoint more deeply? Or just a topic on this forum about that...

 

 

By Prinner I imply the movement in bar 5-6, where the upper voice descends in step from the 6th degree to the 3rd of the destination key, whilst the bass moves from the 4th to 1st respectively. It is an extremely common progression during the 18th century and is the second schema covered in Robert Gjerdigen’s Music in the Galant Style. 

I am familiar with Alan Belkin’s videos, and were actually acquaintances on Facebook before I had had enough of that platform. I have only watched them briefly but he does seem to be an excellent guide. Many of the great composers of the 18th century studied counterpoint in accordance with teachings of Fux (he wrote a short book on the subject that has a Latin title which I will not attempt to spell - it is noted on his Wikipedia page). 

I am thinking whether your invention should be in 2/4 time?