Johann Sebastian Bach Art of the Fugue Song

Musical work past Johann Sebastian Bach

Title folio of the first edition, 1751

The Art of Fugue , or The Art of the Fugue (German: Die Kunst der Fuge), BWV 1080, is an incomplete musical work of unspecified instrumentation by Johann Sebastian Bach. Written in the last decade of his life, The Art of Fugue is the culmination of Bach'due south experimentation with monothematic instrumental works.

This work consists of xiv fugues and four canons in D minor, each using some variation of a single master subject, and generally ordered to increase in complexity. "The governing idea of the work", as put past Bach specialist Christoph Wolff, "was an exploration in depth of the contrapuntal possibilities inherent in a single musical field of study."^[1] The word "contrapunctus" is ofttimes used for each fugue.

Sources [edit]

Mus. ms. autogr. P 200 [edit]

The title page of Mus. ms. autogr. P 200, which bears the title Die / Kunst der Fuga / di Sig.o Joh. Seb. Bach. / (in eigenhändiger Partitur).

The earliest extant source of the piece of work is an autograph manuscript perhaps written from 1740 to 1746, commonly referred past its call number as Mus. ms. autogr. P 200 in the Berlin State Library. Begetting the title Die / Kunst der Fuga [sic] / di Sig[nore] Joh. Seb. Bach, which was written by Bach's son-in-police force Johann Christoph Altnickol, followed by (in eigenhändiger Partitur) written by Georg Poelchau [de], the autograph contains twelve untitled fugues and two canons bundled in a different order than in the starting time printed edition, with the absence of Contrapunctus 4, Fuga a 2 clav (two-keyboard version of Contrapunctus xiii), Canon alla decima, and Catechism alla duodecima.

The autograph manuscript presents the then-untitled Contrapuncti and canons in the following order: [Contrapunctus i], [Contrapunctus 3], [Contrapunctus 2], [Contrapunctus 5], [Contrapunctus 9], an early on version of [Contrapunctus 10], [Contrapunctus vi], [Contrapunctus seven], Catechism in Hypodiapason with its 2-stave solution Resolutio Canonis (entitled Canon alla Ottava in the starting time printed edition), [Contrapunctus 8], [Contrapunctus 11], Canon in Hypodiatesseron, al roversio [sic] e per augmentationem, perpetuus presented in two staves and then on ane, [Contrapunctus 12] with the inversus form of the fugue written directly below the rectus form, [Contrapunctus 13] with the same rectus–inversus format, and a two-stave Canon al roverscio et per augmentationem—a second version of Canon in Hypodiatesseron.

Mus. ms. autogr. P 200, Beilage [edit]

Arranged with the primary shorthand are three supplementary manuscripts, each affixed to a composition that would appear in the first printed edition. Referred to as Mus. ms. autogr. P 200/Beilage 1, Mus. ms. autogr. P 200/Beilage 2, and Mus. ms. autogr. P 200/Beilage 3, they are written under the title ~~Die~~ Kunst / der Fuga / von J.Southward.B.

Mus. ms. autogr. P 200, Beilage 1 contains a final preparatory revision of the Canon in Hypodiatesseron, nether the championship Canon p[er] Augmentationem contrario Motu crossed out. The manuscript contains line intermission and page pause information for the engraving process, most of which was transcribed in the first printed edition. Written on the pinnacle region of the manuscript is a notation written by Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach: "N.B. Der seel. Papa hat auf die Platte diesen Titul stechen lassen, Catechism per Augment: in Contrapuncto all octava, er hat es aber wieder ausgestrichen auf der Probe Platte und gesetzet wie forn stehet" ("N.B. The belatedly male parent had written on the copper plate the following championship, Canon per Broaden: in Contrapuncto all octava, only had strucken it out again on the proof canvass and restored the title as it was formerly".

Mus. ms. autogr. P 200, Beilage 2 contains 2-keyboard arrangements of Contrapunctus thirteen inversus and rectus, entitled Fuga a two. Clav: and Alio modo Fuga a 2 Clav. in the first printed edition respectively. Similar Beilage 1, the manuscript served as a preparatory edition for the starting time printed edition.

Mus. ms. autogr. P 200, Beilage three contains a fragment of a three-field of study fugue, which would be later chosen Fuga a iii Soggetti in the commencement printed edition. Unlike the fugues written in the primary shorthand, the Fuga is presented in a two-stave keyboard system, instead of five individual staves for each phonation. The fugue abruptly breaks off on the fifth page, specifically on the 239th measure out and ends with the note written by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach: " Ueber dieser Fuge, wo der Nahme BACH im Contrasubject angebracht worden, ist der Verfasser gestorben ." ("At the point where the composer introduces the name BACH [for which the English notation would be B ♭ –A–C–B ♮ ] in the countersubject to this fugue, the composer died.") The following page contains a list of errata by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach for the first printed edition (pages 21–35).

Start and second printed editions [edit]

The outset printed version was published under the title Dice / Kunst der Fuge / durch / Herrn Johann Sebastian Bach / ehemahligen Capellmeister und Musikdirector zu Leipzig. in May 1751, slightly less than a year afterwards Bach'due south death. In addition to changes in the society, notation, and fabric of pieces which appeared in the autograph, it contained ii new fugues, two new canons, and three pieces of ostensibly spurious inclusion. A second edition was published in 1752, but differed only in its addition of a preface by Friedrich Wilhelm Marpurg.

In spite of its revisions, the printed edition of 1751 contained a number of glaring editorial errors. The majority of these may be attributed to Bach'due south relatively sudden death in the midst of publication. Three pieces were included that do non announced to have been role of Bach's intended social club: an unrevised (and thus redundant) version of the second double fugue, Contrapunctus Ten; a two-keyboard system^[2] of the commencement mirror fugue, Contrapunctus 13; and an organ chorale prelude on " Vor deinen Thron tret ich hiermit " ("Herewith I come earlier Thy Throne"), derived from BWV 668a, and noted in the introduction to the edition as a recompense for the work's incompleteness, having purportedly been dictated past Bach on his deathbed.

The anomalous grapheme of the published club and the Unfinished Fugue have engendered a wide variety of theories which attempt to restore the piece of work to the country originally intended by Bach.

Structure [edit]

The Fine art of Fugue is based on a single subject, which each canon and fugue employs in some variation:

$\relative c'' { \set Staff.midiInstrument = #"church organ" \clef treble \key d \minor \time 4/4 d,2 a' | f d | cis d4 e | f2~ f8 g f e | d4 }$

The piece of work divides into 7 groups, according to each piece's prevailing contrapuntal device; in both editions, these groups and their respective components are generally ordered to increase in complication. In the order in which they occur in the printed edition of 1751 (without the aforementioned works of spurious inclusion), the groups, and their components are as follows.

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Simple fugues:

Contrapunctus I: 4-phonation fugue on principal subject
Contrapunctus Two: 4-voice fugue on main subject, accompanied by a 'French' mode dotted rhythm
Contrapunctus Three: 4-vox fugue on principal subject in inversion, employing intense chromaticism
Contrapunctus 4: four-phonation fugue on primary subject in inversion, employing counter-subjects

Stretto Fugues (Counter-fugues), in which the subject area is used simultaneously in regular, inverted, augmented, and diminished forms:

Contrapunctus V: Has many stretto entries, as exercise Contrapuncti Half dozen and VII
Contrapunctus VI, a 4 in Stylo Francese: This adds both forms of the theme in diminution,^[three] (halving annotation lengths), with petty rise and descending clusters of semiquavers in one voice answered or punctuated by similar groups in demisemiquavers in another, confronting sustained notes in the accompanying voices. The dotted rhythm, enhanced by these little ascent and descending groups, suggests what is called "French style" in Bach's solar day, hence the proper name Stylo Francese.^[iv]
Contrapunctus VII, a 4 per Augmentationem et Diminutionem: Uses augmented (doubling all annotation lengths) and diminished versions of the primary subject and its inversion.

Double and triple fugues, employing two and three subjects respectively:

Contrapunctus Eight, a 3: Triple fugue, with 3 subjects, having contained expositions
Contrapunctus Ix, a 4 alla Duodecima: Double fugue, with two subjects occurring dependently, and in invertible counterpoint at the 12th
Contrapunctus X, a 4 alla Decima: Double fugue, with 2 subjects occurring dependently, and in invertible counterpoint at the 10th
Contrapunctus 11, a 4: Triple fugue, employing the three subjects of Contrapunctus 8 in inversion

Mirror fugues, in which a piece is notated once and so with voices and counterpoint completely inverted, without violating contrapuntal rules or musicality:

Contrapunctus XII, a 4
Contrapunctus XIII, a 3

Canons, labeled by interval and technique:

Canon per Augmentationem in Contrario Motu: Canon in which the following voice is both inverted and augmented.
Canon alla Ottava: Canon in imitation at the octave
Canon alla Decima in Contrapunto alla Terza: Catechism in false at the tenth
Canon alla Duodecima in Contrapunto alla Quinta: Canon in imitation at the twelfth

The Unfinished Fugue:

Fuga a iii Soggetti ("Contrapunctus Fourteen"): iv-vocalism triple fugue (not completed by Bach, simply likely to have get a quadruple fugue: meet below), the third subject of which begins with the BACH motif, B ♭ –A–C–B ♮ ('H' in High german letter notation).

Instrumentation [edit]

Both editions of the Art of Fugue are written in open score, where each voice is written on its own staff. This has led some to conclude^[5] that the Art of Fugue was intended equally an intellectual exercise, meant to exist studied more than heard. The renowned keyboardist Gustav Leonhardt argued that the Art of Fugue was intended^[6] to exist played on a keyboard musical instrument, and specifically the harpsichord. Leonhardt's arguments included the post-obit:^[7]

It was common practice in the 17th and early 18th centuries to publish keyboard pieces in open up score, particularly those that are contrapuntally complex. Examples include Frescobaldi'south Fiori musicali (1635), Samuel Scheidt'southward Tabulatura Nova (1624), works by Johann Jakob Froberger (1616–1667), Franz Anton Maichelbeck (1702–1750), and others.
The range of none of the ensemble or orchestral instruments of the period corresponds to any of the ranges of the voices in The Art of Fugue. Furthermore, none of the melodic shapes that characterize Bach's ensemble writing are found in the work, and there is no basso continuo.
The fugue types used are reminiscent of the types in The Well-Tempered Clavier, rather than Bach's ensemble fugues; Leonhardt likewise shows an "optical" resemblance betwixt the fugues of the 2 collections, and points out other stylistic similarities between them.
Finally, since the bass voice in The Fine art of Fugue occasionally rises above the tenor, and the tenor becomes the "real" bass, Leonhardt deduces that the bass function was not meant to be doubled at 16-foot pitch, thus eliminating the pipe organ as the intended instrument, leaving the harpsichord as the most logical pick.

Information technology is now generally accepted past scholars that the work was envisioned for keyboard.^[eight] Despite disagreements on how (and whether) it was intended to exist played, The Art of Fugue continues to be performed and recorded by many different solo instruments and ensembles.

Fuga a 3 Soggetti [edit]

The final folio of Contrapunctus Fourteen

Fuga a 3 Soggetti ("fugue in 3 subjects"), also referred to as the "Unfinished Fugue", was contained in a handwritten manuscript bundled with the shorthand manuscript Mus. ms. autogr. P200. Information technology breaks off abruptly in the middle of its 3rd department, with an only partially written measure out 239. This autograph carries a notation in the handwriting of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, stating "Über dieser Fuge, wo der Name B A C H im Contrasubject angebracht worden, ist der Verfasser gestorben." ("While working on this fugue, which introduces the proper noun BACH [for which the English note would exist B ♭ –A–C–B ♮ ] in the countersubject, the composer died.") This account is disputed past modern scholars, as the manuscript is clearly written in Bach'south own hand, and thus dates to a fourth dimension before his deteriorating wellness and vision would accept prevented his ability to write, probably 1748–1749.^[9]

Attempts at completion [edit]

A number of musicians and musicologists accept composed conjectural completions of Contrapunctus 14 which include the fourth subject, including musicologists Donald Tovey (1931), Zoltán Göncz (1992), Yngve Jan Trede (1995), and Thomas Daniel (2010), organists Helmut Walcha,^[10] David Goode, Lionel Rogg, and Davitt Moroney (1989), conductor Rudolf Barshai (2010)^[11] and Daniil Trifonov (2021). Ferruccio Busoni'due south Fantasia contrappuntistica is based on Contrapunctus Fourteen, but it develops Bach's ideas to Busoni's own purposes in Busoni'due south musical way, rather than working out Bach's thoughts as Bach himself might have done.^[12] Other completions that do not incorporate the 4th discipline including those by the French classical organist Alexandre Pierre François Boëly and pianist Kimiko Douglass-Ishizaka.

Significance [edit]

In 2007, New Zealand organist and conductor Indra Hughes completed a doctoral thesis almost the unfinished ending of Contrapunctus Fourteen, proposing that the piece of work was left unfinished not because Bach died, merely equally a deliberate selection by Bach to encourage independent efforts at a completion.^[13] ^[14]

Douglas Hofstadter's book Gödel, Escher, Bach discusses the unfinished fugue and Bach'southward supposed expiry during composition as a tongue-in-cheek illustration of Austrian logician Kurt Gödel's first incompleteness theorem. According to Gödel, the very power of a "sufficiently powerful" formal mathematical system tin can be exploited to "undermine" the system, past leading to statements that assert such things as "I cannot be proven in this organization". In Hofstadter's discussion, Bach's slap-up compositional talent is used as a metaphor for a "sufficiently powerful" formal system; however, Bach's insertion of his own proper name "in code" into the fugue is not, even metaphorically, a case of Gödelian self-reference; and Bach'south failure to finish his self-referential fugue serves equally a metaphor for the unprovability of the Gödelian exclamation, and thus for the incompleteness of the formal system.

Sylvestre and Costa^[xv] reported a mathematical architecture of The Fine art of Fugue, based on bar counts, which shows that the whole work was conceived on the basis of the Fibonacci series and the golden ratio. The significance of the mathematical compages tin can probably be explained by considering the role of the work as a membership contribution to the Correspondierende Societät der musicalischen Wissenschaften [de], and to the "scientific" meaning that Bach attributed to counterpoint.

Notable recordings [edit]

Harpsichord [edit]

Gustav Leonhardt (1953, 1969)
Isolde Ahlgrimm (1953, 1967)
Davitt Moroney (1985)^[sixteen]
Robert Hill (1987, 1998)^[17]
Ton Koopman with Tini Mathot (1994), on ii harpsichords
Bradley Brookshire (2007) includes an additional CD-ROM with score to follow along equally MP3s play
Matteo Messori (2008) alternating three harpsichords (after Taskin, Harrass and Hildebrandt)
Lorenzo Ghielmi on a Silbermann pianoforte and harpsichord with Vittorio Ghielmi and "Il Suonar Parlante" viols quartet (2009)

Organ [edit]

Helmut Walcha (1956, 1970)^[16]
Glenn Gould (1962) incomplete^[18]
Lionel Rogg (1970)^[19]
Marie-Claire Alain (1974, Rotterdam)
Herbert Tachezi [de] (1977) on the Jürgen Ahrend and Gerhard Brunzema [de] organ in St. Johann (Oberneuland) [de], Bremen
Wolfgang Rübsam (1992)
Marie-Claire Alain (1993)
Louis Thiry (1993) on the Silbermann organ of St Thomas' Church, Strasbourg
André Isoir (1999)^[20] Some movements performed every bit a duet with Pierre Farago, on the Grenzing organ of Saint-Cyprien in Périgord, France
Hans Fagius (2000) on the Carsten Lund organ of Garnisons Church Copenhagen, Denmark
Kevin Bowyer (2001) on the Marcussen organ of Saint Hans Church, Odense, Denmark
Régis Allard (2007)
George Ritchie (2010) on the Richards, Fowkes & Co organ of Pinnacle Presbyterian Church in Scottsdale, Arizona (This recording includes as a bonus track an alternative have of the final unfinished fugue with the completion past Helmut Walcha)
Joan Lippincott (2012)

Piano [edit]

Richard Buhlig and Wesley Kuhnle (1934)
Glenn Gould, incomplete^[18]
Charles Rosen (1967)
Grigory Sokolov (1982)
Zoltán Kocsis (1984)
Yūji Takahashi (1988)
Evgeni Koroliov (1991)
Tatiana Nikolayeva (1992)
Anton Batagov (1993)
Joanna MacGregor (1996)
Pierre-Laurent Aimard (2008)
Zhu Xiao-Mei (2014)^[21]
Angela Hewitt (2014)
Kimiko Douglass-Ishizaka (2017)^[22]
Daniil Trifonov (2021)

Cord quartet [edit]

Quartetto Italiano (1985)^[23]
Juilliard String Quartet (1987)^[24]
Emerson Cord Quartet (2003)
Vittorio Ghielmi and "Il Suonar Parlante" viols quartet (2009) with Lorenzo Ghielmi on a Silbermann piano and harpsichord

Orchestra [edit]

Arthur Winograd by Winograd String Orchestra (ca 1952)
Hermann Scherchen with Orchestre de la RTSI (1965)^[25]
Karl Ristenpart with Chamber Orchestra of the Saar (1965)
Karl Münchinger with Stuttgart Bedroom Orchestra (1965, 1985 live)
Neville Marriner with Academy of St Martin in the Fields (1974)
Lukas Foss with I Soloisti di Pickup (1977) orchestrated by William Malloch
Jordi Savall with Hesperion 20 (1986)
Erich Bergel with Cluj Philharmonic Orchestra (1991)^[16]
Rinaldo Alessandrini with Concerto Italiano (1998)
Stuttgart Bedroom Orchestra (2002)
Rachel Podger with Brecon Bizarre (2017)

Other [edit]

Milan Munclinger with Ars Rediviva (1959, 1966, 1979)
Fine Arts Cord Quartet and New York Woodwind Quintet (1962)
Yūji Takahashi (incomplete) electronic version (1975)
Musica Antiqua Köln (managing director Reinhard Goebel) for string quartet/harpsichord and various such instrumental combinations (1984)
Canadian Brass for brass quintet (1990)
Amsterdam Loeki Stardust Quartet for recorder quartet (1998)
Phantasm (managing director: Laurence Dreyfus) for viola da gamba iv-part consort (1998)
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra Brass (1998)
Fretwork for Consort of Viols (2002)
József Eötvös for two eight-string guitars (2002)
Walter Riemer [de] showtime version on fortepiano (2006)^[26]
An electronic version, Laibachkunstderfuge, past Neue Slowenische Kunst industrial band Laibach (2008)
Vulfpeck (founder Jack Stratton) for talk box (2016)^[27]

Notes and references [edit]

^ Johann Sebastian Bach, the Learned Musician by Christoph Wolff, p. 433, ISBN 0-393-04825-10.
^ The printed indication of "a 2 Clav." and the counterpoint of the added voices practise non announced to follow Bach's practice, evidencing that the parts were likely included past the editors of the printed edition to bolster the work.
^ Helmut Walcha, "Zu meiner Wiedergabe", in Die Kunst Der Fuge BWV 1080, St Laurenskerk Alkmaar 1956 (Archiv Product, Polydor International 1957), Insert pp. 5–eleven, at p. vii.
^ Anon. (north.d.). "The Art of Fugue – Types of Fugues, Part 1". American Public Media. Retrieved 28 April 2012.
^ Anon. (due north.d.). "The Art of Fugue – Bach'due south Last Harpsichord Work: An Statement – Did Bach intend Fine art of Fugue to be performed?". American Public Media.
^ "images of front end and dorsum covers; The Art of Fugue – Bach'south Last Harpsichord Work: An Argument (1952)" (PDF).
^ The Art of Fugue Gustav Leonhardt'southward 1969 liner notes for Harmonia Mundi HM 30 950 XK: Johann Sebastian Bach, Die Kunst der Fuge [1969], iii–8.; also for Deutsche Harmonia Mundi's CD edition 77013-2-RG (an extensive summary of his 1952 The Art of Fugue – Bach's Last Harpsichord Work: An Statement)
^ David Schulenberg. "Expression and Authenticity in the Harpsichord Music of J.S. Bach". The Journal of Musicology, Vol. 8, No. 4 (Autumn, 1990), pp. 449–476
^ See e.g. the give-and-take in Johann Sebastian Bach, the Learned Musician by Christoph Wolff, ISBN 0-393-04825-X.
^ Walcha'south conclusion to the last Contrapunctus has been recorded past Walcha himself, in his Stereo recording of the complete organ works by Bach for Archiv (1956-1971); and by Walcha's pupil, George Ritchie, in the documentary film Desert Fugue (2010).
^ "The Fine art of Fugue". Rudolf Barshai Memorial . Retrieved half dozen Feb 2021.
^ See Donald Tovey's comments in A Companion to the Art of Fugue (2013 Dover reprint, ISBN 0-486-49764-X, page 177 footnote).
^ University of Auckland News, Book 37, Consequence 9 (May 25, 2007) Archived September 26, 2007, at the Wayback Motorcar
^ The thesis is available online: http://hdl.handle.net/2292/392
^ Loïc, Sylvestre; Costa, Marco (2011). "The Mathematical Architecture of Bach's The Art of Fugue". Il Saggiatore musicale. 17: 175–196.
^ ^a ^b ^c The recordings by Walcha (1970) and Moroney include both their completion of Contrapunctus XIV and the unfinished original, while Bergel's includes only his endeavour.
^ Robert Hill: Recordings of Musical Offer & Fine art of Fugue, bach-cantatas.com
^ ^a ^b Partial performances on organ (Contrapuncti I–Ix) and piano (I, II, Iv, Nine, XI, XIII inversus, and Xiv).
^ The recording, which includes both the unfinished original and Rogg'south completion, in the yr of its release won the Grand Prix du Disque from the Charles Cros Academy.
^ André Isoir: Recordings of Musical Offer and Fine art of Fugue, bach-cantatas.com
^ Published by Accentus Music: CD – J. S. Bach Kunst der Fuge – Zhu Xiao-Mei, Piano, No. ACC 30308
^ "video".
^ Paolo Borciani and Elisa Pegreffi with Tommaso Poggi and Luca Simoncini, every bit Quartetto Italiano, CD Nuova Era 7342, recording 1985.Come across [1]
^ "J.S.Bach – Juilliard String Quartet – dice Kunst der Fuge (1992, CD)".
^ Except the canons, which are played by harpsichordist Kenneth Gilbert on the recording.
^ "J. S. Bach: The Art of the Fugue – Die Kunst der Fuge, BWV 1080". www.niederfellabrunn.at.
^ Jack Stratton: Contrapunctus Nine (talkbox) on YouTube

External links [edit]

Full discography of The Fine art of Fugue, bach-cantatas.com
Discography
Johann Sebastian Bach / L'fine art de la fugue / The Art of the Fugue – Jordi Savall, Hesperion Twenty – Alia Vox 9818
Pianoforte Society: JS Bach – A biography and various complimentary recordings in MP3 format, including Fine art of Fugue
Web-essay on The Art of Fugue
Introduction to The Art of Fugue
Dice Kunst der Fuge (scores and MIDI files) on the Mutopia Projection website
The Art of Fugue: Scores at the International Music Score Library Project
The Art of Fugue as MIDI files
Prototype of the catastrophe of the concluding fugue at external site
Contrapunctus XIV (the reconstructed quadruple fugue) – Carus-Verlag
Malina, János: The Ultimate Fugue, The Hungarian Quarterly, Wintertime 2007
Contrapunctus XIV (reconstruction): Part 1/2, Role 2/2 (YouTube video)
Contrapunctus 14: Completion (in quarter-comma meantone) (YouTube video)
Contrapunctus Ii as interactive hypermedia at the BinAural Collaborative Hypertext
Synthesized realization and analysis of The Art of Fugue past Jeffrey Hall
Hughes, Indra (2006). "Accident or Design? New Theories on the unfinished Contrapunctus 14 in JS Bach'southward The Fine art of Fugue, BWV 1080", The University of Auckland PhD thesis
"Johann Sebastian Bach's The Art of Fugue", commodity Uri Golomb, published in Goldberg Early on Music Mag
Ars Rediviva: Sound Recordings Library, The Art of Fugue, Contrapunctus VIII
Description of documentary film Desert Fugue
Electronic realization by Klangspiegel
Completion of Contrapunctus 14 by Paul Freeman
Bach, Alphametics and The Art of Fugue
"Le concert d'Irena Kosikova a fait un tabac", La Dépêche du Midi, 11 August 2014 (in French)

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Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Art_of_Fugue