The Art of Fugue: Canon by Augmentation in Contrary Motion (BWV 1080)

Johann Sebastian Bach · Level 6 (Expert) · Baroque · Piano

The most learned canon of The Art of Fugue: the second voice takes up the first one inverted and in note values twice as long. D minor, 2/2, 109 bars (about 7 minutes), complete score.

▶ Play this piece with the interactive score

How to practise it

• Listen first: the site plays it while the score scrolls.
• Wait mode: the score waits for you at every note, at your own pace.
• Tempo challenge: play in time, with a score and a map of the bars you got right.
• Listen for the dialogue between the fast voice and its slow, inverted answer; keep a very steady half-note pulse. Practise each voice separately, then put them together slowly while listening to the counterpoint. Start hands separately in Wait mode, then put hands together at a slow tempo before speeding up gradually.

More pieces by Johann Sebastian Bach

• Partita 4 (BWV 828) — movement 6
• Aus meines Herzens Grunde (Chorale 1) (BWV 269)
• Two-Part Invention No. 1 in C major (BWV 772)
• Prelude No. 1 in C major, Well-Tempered Clavier I (BWV 846)
• Two-Part Invention No. 13 in A minor (BWV 784)
• Two-Part Invention No. 8 in F major (BWV 779)
• Little Prelude in F major (BWV 928)
• Two-Part Invention No. 4 in D minor (BWV 775)

Source : Mutopia Project · Public Domain