Invention No. 2 in D minor for three voices by Robert W. Padgett

This three-part Invention No. 2 in D minor was composed in the summer of 1991. I shared it with my modal and tonal counterpoint instructor, Professor Richard Wilson, and he responded favorably to my venturesome modulations and use of the Neapolitan chord. Similar to my first invention in D minor, the motive is announced by the upper voice before it is restated an octave lower by the lower voice in bar 2 to form a stretto. In bar 3, the middle voice states the motive in the dominant key of A minor with the lower and upper voices playing the first and second countermotives respectively. An episode ensues and arrives at a half cadence in bar 8. The opening fragment of the motive is exploited in conjunction with a pedal tone and a variant of the second countermotive to navigate through a series of contrasting keys. At bar 14, the motive is reasserted in F-sharp minor layered over itself in stretto with a C-sharp pedal tone in bar 15. The voices from the episode in bars 5-8 are reshuffled in bars 18-21 as another exercise in invertible counterpoint. In measure 16, the motive and two countermotives are reprised in C-sharp minor, a half step below the tonic key.

Starting in bar 18, the episode from bars 6-8 is reprised in F-sharp minor with the first and second countermotives exchanging positions. This is followed in bars 16-27 by a varied restatement of the episodic sequence from bars 8-17 that cadences in bar 27 before a restatement of the subject in bar 28 in G minor with slightly embellished countermotives. Bars 32-35 present a restatement of the episode from bars 5-8 with the motive relocated to the lower voice and the two countermotives in intimate proximity in the two upper voices. An unexpected descending scale in a series of compound harmonic 10ths forms an inversion of the second half of the motive and sets the stage for a perfect cadence to a Picardy Third in D major. After so many years, I remain especially pleased with the effect of that ending.