Invention No. 3 in C minor for two voices by Robert W. Padgett

I composed my Invention No. 3 in C minor for two voices during the Spring of 2012. The motive is intriguing as the first twelve are immediately followed by their inversion after a drop of a seventh to form a palindrome. This inversion is followed by an octave leap upwards to D that circles back to the starting note C. In bar 3, the lower voice introduces the motive a fourth lower at the dominant as the upper voice states the countermotive which concludes in bar 4 with an augmented tonal version of the descending scale run from the original motive. The ensuing episode in bars 5-8 is constructed from fragments of the motive in the upper voice accompanied by and an embellished form of the countermotive in the lower voice. A series of ascending broken thirds accompanied by a rising scale run cadences in the tonic key of C minor in bar 10 before abruptly redirecting to G minor in bar 11. At this juncture, the motive and countermotive are restated in their inversions. The episodic sequence from bars 5-9 is also stated in an inverted form in bars 13-17. In bar 18, the motive is stated by the upper voice in G minor with the countermotive now in the lower voice. This formula is repeated a whole step lower in F minor in bars 20-21 followed by the modulation sequence from bars 5-8 reprised with the voices exchanging places. In bar 27, a cadence in F minor redirects back to C major in bar 28 followed by a modulation sequence culminating in C minor in bar 30 that cadences to a final Picardy Third in bar 32.