Sinfonia No. 7 in E minor, BWV 793
E minor and the inverted subject - Bach's mirror logic.
Sinfonia No. 7 in E minor uses melodic inversion - turning the subject upside down so that what went up now goes down - as a structural technique. This was a standard tool of strict counterpoint, but Bach applies it with such naturalness that most listeners do not notice the inversion until it is pointed out. The result is a piece that sounds organically varied while being tightly controlled by a single melodic idea and its mirror image.
E minor in the Sinfonias carries a different weight from E-minor in the Little Preludes: by the time a student reaches the Sinfonias, the minor key is expected to sustain a more complex argument, and BWV 793 delivers that argument with compact precision across all three voices.
Learn both the subject and its inversion as separate melodies.
First sing the original subject from the opening. Then find the inverted form later in the piece and sing that too - it is the original melody reflected around a central pitch. Play each form alone several times until both feel natural, then listen for them as they appear throughout the three-voice texture.
Before you practice.
01 How does Sinfonia No. 7 in E minor compare to the E minor Two-Part Invention?
The E minor Invention (BWV 778) is shorter and has a more driven character; Sinfonia No. 7 (BWV 793) is longer, more complex, and adds a third voice that requires the right hand to manage soprano and alto simultaneously.
02 What is the hardest part of Sinfonia No. 7?
Sustaining three-voice independence across all 44 bars without losing the middle voice. The middle voice tends to disappear into the texture once students start combining hands under pressure, so it requires deliberate attention throughout.
Mark every subject entry and label it original or inverted.
Before your first full practice run, go through the score and label each subject entry 'O' (original) or 'I' (inverted) in pencil. This analytical step makes the counterpoint audible in a way that no amount of unsupervised playing can achieve. Use 65% tempo on first pass through each section.
