Project 12: Two-part inventions

Inventions are a great way of providing familiarity in a piece without causing repetition.  Augmentation, imitation, inversion and diminution all provide the opportunity to take a short motif and reuse the same idea throughout the piece.  I wanted to explore the use of each of these ideas in order to better understand their possibilities in terms of musical composition as a whole.  

Imitation

Imitation could really be described as the umbrella under which other methods such as inversion, augmentation and retrograduation fall.  It has been described as;

“The repetition of a melody or melodic group in close succession, but in a different voice; the repetition of a melody at a different pitch level in a polyphonic texture.”

Benward & Saker (2007:361)

However, the imitation does not have to be a direct copy of the original melody, but could be augmented or inverted to apply a different take on the piece. 

It seems that musical imitation has occurred for many years and was particularly popular during the renaissance period.  My experience of composing rounds and catches demonstrated the use of such methods and of course, Bach’s Fugues take these to a whole new level.  Bartok’s Mikrokosmos Vol I-VI (1926 – 1939) contains a number of pieces using imitation, inversion and counterpoint, which are quite interesting, but it is clear to see that imitation is an extremely widely used method for both elongating pieces and aiding familiarity in all musical genres across the world.  Of course, in chamber choir music, imitation is often used across the voices to create texture whilst retaining vocal harmony (or sometimes dissonance) throughout. Josquin Des Prez Ave Maria (1825) is an excellent example of this kind of choral imitation.

Most of today’s vocal music is heavily based on the idea of repetition to form a repeating chorus and usually familiar verse patterns.  I would probably struggle to find a handful of pieces of modern vocal music that do not contain repeats.  As the singer and the listener, the familiarity of the piece must remain throughout to ensure that the central theme continues and that the piece remains catchy and memorable.    

Augmentation and Diminution

The practice of simply doubling or halving the original note value of a melody or phrase is one that has once again been used in a wide variety of genres for many years.  Bach, Beethoven and Chopin have all made excellent use of augmentation in their pieces.  In today’s ‘pop’ genre, augmentation is often used to add a harmonic line for another voice or choir. 

Inversion

The term ‘inversion’ can be one of two things at this stage in the course.  The first, ‘contrapuntal inversion’ sees two or more melodies working together, repeating and reflecting each other's motifs throughout the piece. For example, a motif heard by the higher voice would later be repeated.  Invertible counterpoint can also make use of varying intervals, e.g. if the original melody rises by a perfect 5^th, then the inverted melody could fall by a perfect 3^rd, 6^th, 8^th etc. until the required level of texture and consonance/dissonance is achieved.

Melodic inversion is the practice of turning the melody, or phrases in the melody, on its head.  For example if the melodic interval was rising a perfect 3^rd, then the inverted melody would fall by a perfect 3^rd. 

Both of these techniques are demonstrated within Bach’s Fugues, especially in Bach’s Fugues of G-minor and B-flat major (1722).  However, like most of these transformations, they continued to span many genres and time periods.  The Beatles Paperback Writer (1966) begins with a series of vocal counterpoints, inverting and augmenting the melody into three parts.   The rock group R.E.M. also make good use of counterpoint in their pieces, both vocally and in the use of different instrumental parts. 

When researching these musical transformations I came across a lot of information relating to Retrograduation and Stretto, especially during the renaissance period and as seen widely in Bach’s Fugues and Inventions. 

Retrograduation or Cancrizans are the idea of reversing the entire melody in pitch and rhythm.  Simply ‘flipping’ the motif or melody can provide double the amount of music whilst maintaining familiarity for the listener and player alike.  However, this system is somewhat frowned upon by many composers, believing it to be a ‘cheat’ and not a true expression of the melodic flow of the piece (Slepian, 1947:311).

A Stretto is a device that is seen largely in rounds and pieces with multiple voices.  It is the process of layering a central motif of the piece so that multiple voices play the same motif at staggered moments, e.g. the second voice plays the motif when the first voice has almost finishing playing its motif.  Once again, Bach’s Fugues and Inventions are rife with these intricacies.