Invention No.8 in F major BWV 779
Invention Piano solo ~2 min
In brief

This Invention in F presents as a lively, clear dialogue between two voices, often upbeat but with moments of tension from quick exchanges and overlapping entries that demand crisp articulation. The main technical challenges are Indépendance des mains (4.6/5) and Polyphonie à deux voix (4.6/5): you must separate the gestures — slightly detach the accompanying voice while the other carries the phrase, and produce distinct attacks so each line maintains its melodic direction. It belongs to Bach's pedagogical keyboard inventions aimed at contrapuntal training, written to develop voice-leading clarity and rhythmic discipline. I do not provide a reference interpretation because I am not certain enough to name one with confidence.

Listen to this work

These recordings are found automatically, and the machine still gets it wrong. One click from you — yes or no — fixes the catalogue for every musician who opens this page after you. Across our 10,000 works, your answer is our only real quality check.

An arrangement or transcription is fine: if you recognise the work, answer yes. Answer no if it is a different work, a different composer, or if the recording does not play.

  • Play — Bach: Invention 8 in F Major, BWV 779 (Musical Analysis) · Bach Piano Scores (the player loads on click)

    Open on Youtube ↗

    1 person confirms this is the right work.

    Is this the right work?
  • Play — Invention No. 8 in F Major, BWV 779 · Johann Sebastian Bach, Simone Dinnerstein (the player loads on click)

    Open on Spotify ↗

    Is this the right work?

No account is required and no personal data is collected.

Sheet music

Public-domain sheet music on IMSLP ↗

Is this the right work?
MusicCoach difficulty
35/100
Elementary
Likely range : 33–38/100
Confidence : 80% · high confidence
BeginnerIntermediateAdvancedVirtuoso
Exam grade
On the syllabus: Grade 4 ABRSM

Official level, taken from the exam syllabus.

Other syllabi : Trinity_London Grade 4 · LCM Grade 4 · RCM Grade 4

Difficulty estimate by MusicCoach on a scale of 1 to 100.

Where this work sits
050100

Most works cluster between 45 and 65: a small score gap often marks a real step. The highlighted bar shows this work among those for the same instrument.

The MusicCoach difficulty measures a work's overall demands (technique, reading, stamina) on a shared 0-100 scale, consolidated from editorial and pedagogical reference points (Henle, exam syllabuses, curation) and our own analyses. It measures neither musical value nor the practice time YOU will need: two musicians of the same level can experience the same work very differently depending on their strengths (hands used to octaves, quick sight-reading…). The confidence reflects how many reference points sit behind the score and how well they agree — a lightly documented score is flagged “to validate”. For a truly personal bearing, the diagnostic and your space compare each work to YOUR estimated level, which the score alone cannot do.

Does this rating look right to you?

This rating is computed automatically from heterogeneous sources. It gets things wrong, sometimes badly. If you know this work, your answer is worth more than our computation: it tells us which ratings to review.

Add a note (optional)

Your note is not published on the site: it is read in review.

Difficulty sources
Henle Verlag
4
38/100 normalised · 5 obs.
Combined exam syllabi
Grade 4
35/100 normalised · 4 obs.
ABRSM (syllabus)
Grade 4
36/100 normalised
MusicCoach curation
Grade 4
36/100 normalised
Relative difficulty
22%
Among Johann Sebastian Bach
28%
Era
21%
Genre
Estimated skills
Style
Baroque style
1
Technique
Hand independence
2
Technique
Two-voice polyphony
2
What to play next?

Each suggestion combines difficulty gap, risk, confidence and skill overlap. The first two cards in each column are the most useful pedagogically.

See the whole progression