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Turning a melody upside down — where the original goes up, the inversion goes down by the same interval, and vice versa.
Inversion gives you a mirror image of your theme. Every ascending interval becomes a descending one. In fugue, the inverted subject can appear as a new entry. In development sections, inversion provides fresh material from existing themes. Test your themes to see if they invert well.
Bach's "The Art of Fugue" — many contrapuncti feature the main subject in inversion, sometimes combined with the original form.
Inversion is one of 228 terms in the Gradus musical dictionary, where every definition is written around how composers actually use the word.
Browse the full dictionary →