The Art of Fugue: Canon at the Octave (BWV 1080)

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

One of the four canons of The Art of Fugue: the left hand repeats an octave lower everything the right hand plays, in a dancing 9/16. D minor, 9/16, 103 bars (about 4 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.
• Only two voices but a strict imitation: learn the right hand, then hear it return in the left hand four bars later. 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