''The Art of Fugue'', or ''The Art of the Fugue'' (german: Die Kunst der Fuge, links=no),
BWV
The (BWV; ; ) is a catalogue of compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach. It was first published in 1950, edited by Wolfgang Schmieder. The catalogue's second edition appeared in 1990. An abbreviated version of that second edition, known as BWV2 ...
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach (28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his orchestral music such as the '' Brandenburg Concertos''; instrumental compositions such as the Cello Suites; keyboard w ...
. Written in the last decade of his life, ''The Art of Fugue'' is the culmination of Bach's experimentation with monothematic instrumental works.
This work consists of fourteen
fugue
In music, a fugue () is a contrapuntal compositional technique in two or more voices, built on a subject (a musical theme) that is introduced at the beginning in imitation (repetition at different pitches) and which recurs frequently in the c ...
D minor
D minor is a minor scale based on D, consisting of the pitches D, E, F, G, A, B, and C. Its key signature has one flat. Its relative major is F major and its parallel major is D major.
The D natural minor scale is:
Changes needed for t ...
, each using some variation of a single principal subject, and generally ordered to increase in complexity. "The governing idea of the work", as put by Bach specialist
Christoph Wolff
Christoph Wolff (born 24 May 1940) is a German musicologist. He is best known for his works on the music, life, and period of Johann Sebastian Bach. Christoph Wolff is an emeritus professor of Harvard University, and was part of the faculty sinc ...
, "was an exploration in depth of the
contrapuntal
In music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more musical lines (or voices) which are harmonically interdependent yet independent in rhythm and melodic contour. It has been most commonly identified in the European classical tradi ...
possibilities inherent in a single musical subject." The word "contrapunctus" is often used for each fugue.
Sources
Mus. ms. autogr. P 200
The earliest extant source of the work is an autograph manuscript possibly written from 1740 to 1746, usually referred by its call number as Mus. ms. autogr. P 200 in the
Berlin State Library
The Berlin State Library (german: Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin; officially abbreviated as ''SBB'', colloquially ''Stabi'') is a universal library in Berlin, Germany and a property of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation. It is one of the ...
. Bearing the title ''Die / Kunst der Fuga ' / di Sig'' 'nore''' Joh. Seb. Bach'', which was written by Bach's son-in-law
Johann Christoph Altnickol
Johann Christoph Altnickol, or Altnikol, (baptised 1 January 1720, buried 25 July 1759) was a German organist, bass singer, and composer. He was a student, copyist and son-in-law of Johann Sebastian Bach.
Biography
Altnikol was born in Berna bei ...
, followed by ''(in eigenhändiger Partitur)'' written by , the autograph contains twelve untitled fugues and two canons arranged in a different order than in the first printed edition, with the absence of ''Contrapunctus 4'', ''Fuga a 2 clav'' (two-keyboard version of ''Contrapunctus 13''), ''Canon alla decima'', and ''Canon alla duodecima''.
The autograph manuscript presents the then-untitled ''Contrapuncti'' and canons in the following order: 'Contrapunctus 1'''Contrapunctus 3'''Contrapunctus 2'''Contrapunctus 5'''Contrapunctus 9'' an early version of 'Contrapunctus 10'''Contrapunctus 6'''Contrapunctus 7'' ''Canon in Hypodiapason'' with its two-stave solution ''Resolutio Canonis'' (entitled ''Canon alla Ottava'' in the first printed edition), 'Contrapunctus 8'''Contrapunctus 11'' ''Canon in Hypodiatesseron, al roversio ' e per augmentationem, perpetuus'' presented in two staves and then on one, '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
Bundled with the primary autograph 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.S.B.''
Mus. ms. autogr. P 200, Beilage 1 contains a final preparatory revision of the ''Canon in Hypodiatesseron'', under the title ''Canon p'' 'er''''Augmentationem contrario Motu'' crossed out. The manuscript contains line break and page break information for the engraving process, most of which was transcribed in the first printed edition. Written on the top region of the manuscript is a note written by
Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach
Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach (21 June 1732 – 26 January 1795) was a harpsichordist and composer, the fifth son of Johann Sebastian Bach, sometimes referred to as the "Bückeburg Bach".
Born in Leipzig in the Electorate of Saxony, he was ...
: "N.B. Der seel. Papa hat auf die Platte diesen Titul stechen lassen, Canon per Augment: in Contrapuncto all octava, er hat es aber wieder ausgestrichen auf der Probe Platte und gesetzet wie forn stehet" ("N.B. The late father had written on the copper plate the following title, ''Canon per Augment: in Contrapuncto all octava'', but had strucken it out again on the proof sheet and restored the title as it was formerly".)
Mus. ms. autogr. P 200, Beilage 2 contains two-keyboard arrangements of ''Contrapunctus 13 inversus'' and ''rectus'', entitled ''Fuga a 2. Clav:'' and ''Alio modo Fuga a 2 Clav.'' in the first printed edition respectively. Like Beilage 1, the manuscript served as a preparatory edition for the first printed edition.
Mus. ms. autogr. P 200, Beilage 3 contains a fragment of a three-subject fugue, which would be later called ''Fuga a 3 Soggetti'' in the first printed edition. Unlike the fugues written in the primary autograph, the ''Fuga'' is presented in a two-stave keyboard system, instead of five individual staves for each voice. The fugue abruptly breaks off on the fifth page, specifically on the 239th measure and ends with the note written by
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (8 March 1714 – 14 December 1788), also formerly spelled Karl Philipp Emmanuel Bach, and commonly abbreviated C. P. E. Bach, was a German Classical period musician and composer, the fifth child and sec ...
: "." ("At the point where the composer introduces the name BACH or which the English notation would be B–A–C–Bin 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).
First and second printed editions
The first printed version was published under the title ''Die / Kunst der Fuge / durch / Herrn Johann Sebastian Bach / ehemahligen Capellmeister und Musikdirector zu Leipzig.'' in May 1751, slightly less than a year after Bach's death. In addition to changes in the order, notation, and material of pieces which appeared in the autograph, it contained two 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
Friedrich Wilhelm Marpurg (21 November 1718 – 22 May 1795) was a German music critic, music theorist and composer. He was friendly and active with many figures of the Enlightenment of the 18th century.
Life
Little is known of Marpurg's ear ...
.
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's relatively sudden death in the midst of publication. Three pieces were included that do not appear to have been part of Bach's intended order: an unrevised (and thus redundant) version of the second double fugue, Contrapunctus X; a two-keyboard arrangement of the first
mirror fugue A mirror fugue is a fugue, or rather two fugues, one of which is the mirror image of the other. It is as though a mirror were placed above or below an existing fugue, producing inversions of each interval in each part, as well as inverting the pos ...
, Contrapunctus XIII; and an organ
chorale prelude
In music, a chorale prelude or chorale setting is a short liturgical composition for organ using a chorale tune as its basis. It was a predominant style of the German Baroque era and reached its culmination in the works of J.S. Bach, who wrote 46 ...
on "" ("Herewith I come before 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 by Bach on his deathbed.
The anomalous character of the published order and the Unfinished Fugue have engendered a wide variety of theories which attempt to restore the work to the state originally intended by Bach.
Structure
''The Art of Fugue'' is based on a single subject, which each canon and fugue employs in some variation:
\relative c''
The work divides into seven groups, according to each piece's prevailing contrapuntal device; in both editions, these groups and their respective components are generally ordered to increase in complexity. 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.
Simple fugues:
* ''Contrapunctus 1'': four-voice fugue on principal subject
* ''Contrapunctus 2'': four-voice fugue on principal subject, accompanied by a 'French' style dotted rhythm
* ''Contrapunctus 3'': four-voice fugue on principal subject in inversion, employing intense chromaticism
* ''Contrapunctus 4'': four-voice fugue on principal subject in inversion, employing counter-subjects
Stretto-fugues (counter-fugues), in which the subject is used simultaneously in regular, inverted, augmented, and diminished forms:
* ''Contrapunctus 5'': has many stretto entries, as do ''Contrapuncti 6'' and ''7''
* ''Contrapunctus 6, a 4 in Stylo Francese'': adds both forms of the theme in diminution, (halving note lengths), with little rising and descending clusters of semiquavers in one voice answered or punctuated by similar groups in demisemiquavers in another, against sustained notes in the accompanying voices. The dotted rhythm, enhanced by these little rising and descending groups, suggests what is called "French style" in Bach's day, hence the name ''Stylo Francese''.
* ''Contrapunctus 7, a 4 per Augment'' 'ationem''''et Diminut'' 'ionem'' uses augmented (doubling all note lengths) and diminished versions of the main subject and its inversion.
Double and triple fugues, employing two and three subjects respectively:
* ''Contrapunctus 8, a 3'': triple fugue with three subjects, having independent expositions
* ''Contrapunctus 9, a 4, alla Duodecima'': double fugue, with two subjects occurring dependently and in invertible counterpoint at the twelfth
* ''Contrapunctus 10, a 4, alla Decima'': double fugue, with two subjects occurring dependently and in invertible counterpoint at the tenth
* ''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 then with voices and counterpoint completely inverted, without violating contrapuntal rules or musicality:
* ''Contrapunctus inversus 12 a 4'' 'forma inversa'' and ''recta''* ''Contrapunctus inversus a 3'' 'forma recta'' and ''inversa''
Canons, labeled by interval and technique:
* ''Canon per Augmentationem in Contrario Motu'': Canon in which the following voice is both inverted and augmented. Three versions have appeared in the autograph Mus. ms. autogr. P 200: ''Canon in Hypodiatesseron, al roversio ' e per augmentationem, perpetuus'', ''Canon al roverscio et per augmentationem'', and ''Canon p. Augmentationem contrario Motu'', the third of which appears on the second supplemental ''Beilage''.
* ''Canon alla Ottava'': canon in imitation at the octave; titled ''Canon in Hypodiapason'' in Mus. ms. autogr. P 200.
* ''Canon alla Decima'' 'in''''Contrapunto alla Terza'': canon in imitation at the tenth
* ''Canon alla Duodecima in Contrapunto alla Quinta'': canon in imitation at the twelfth
Alternate variants and arrangements:
* ''Contra'' 'punctus''''a 4'': alternate version of the last 22 bars of ''Contrapunctus 10''.
* ''Fuga a 2 Clav:'' and ''Alio modo. Fuga a 2 Clav.'': two-keyboard arrangements of ''Contrapunctus inversus a 3'', the ''forma inversa'' and ''recta'', respectively.
Incomplete fugue:
* ''Fuga a 3 Soggetti'': four-voice triple fugue (not completed by Bach, but likely to have become a quadruple fugue: see below), the third subject of which begins with the
BACH motif
In music, the BACH motif is the motif, a succession of notes important or characteristic to a piece, ''B flat, A, C, B natural''. In German musical nomenclature, in which the note ''B natural'' is named ''H'' and the ''B flat'' named ...
, B–A–C–B ('H' in German letter notation).
Instrumentation
Both editions of the ''Art of Fugue'' are written in
open score
Sheet music is a handwritten or printed form of musical notation that uses musical symbols to indicate the pitches, rhythms, or chords of a song or instrumental musical piece. Like its analogs – printed books or pamphlets in English, Ara ...
, where each voice is written on its own staff. This has led some to conclude that the ''Art of Fugue'' was intended as an intellectual exercise, meant to be studied more than heard. The renowned keyboardist Gustav Leonhardt argued that the ''Art of Fugue'' was intended to be played on a keyboard instrument, and specifically the
harpsichord
A harpsichord ( it, clavicembalo; french: clavecin; german: Cembalo; es, clavecín; pt, cravo; nl, klavecimbel; pl, klawesyn) is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. This activates a row of levers that turn a trigger mechanism ...
. Leonhardt's arguments included the following:
# It was common practice in the 17th and early 18th centuries to publish keyboard pieces in open score, especially those that are contrapuntally complex. Examples include
Frescobaldi
The Frescobaldi are a prominent Florentine noble family that have been involved in the political, social, and economic history of Tuscany since the Middle Ages. Originating in the Val di Pesa in the Chianti, they appear holding important posts ...
's ''
Fiori musicali
''Fiori musicali'' ("''Musical Flowers''") is a collection of liturgical organ music by Girolamo Frescobaldi, first published in 1635. It contains three organ masses and two secular capriccios. Generally acknowledged as one of Frescobaldi's greate ...
'' (1635),
Samuel Scheidt
Samuel Scheidt (baptised 3 November 1587 – 24 March 1654) was a German composer, organist and teacher of the early Baroque era.
Life and career
Scheidt was born in Halle, and after early studies there, he went to Amsterdam to study with ...
's ''Tabulatura Nova'' (1624), works by
Johann Jakob Froberger
Johann Jakob Froberger ( baptized 19 May 1616 – 7 May 1667) was a German Baroque composer, keyboard virtuoso, and organist. Among the most famous composers of the era, he was influential in developing the musical form of the suite of dances in h ...
(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
Basso continuo parts, almost universal in the Baroque era (1600–1750), provided the harmonic structure of the music by supplying a bassline and a chord progression. The phrase is often shortened to continuo, and the instrumentalists playing th ...
.
#The fugue types used are reminiscent of the types in ''
The Well-Tempered Clavier
''The Well-Tempered Clavier'', BWV 846–893, consists of two sets of preludes and fugues in all 24 major and minor keys for keyboard by Johann Sebastian Bach. In the composer's time, ''clavier'', meaning keyboard, referred to a variety of in ...
'', rather than Bach's ensemble fugues; Leonhardt also shows an "optical" resemblance between the fugues of the two collections, and points out other stylistic similarities between them.
#Finally, since the bass voice in ''The Art of Fugue'' occasionally rises above the tenor, and the tenor becomes the "real" bass, Leonhardt deduces that the bass part was not meant to be doubled at 16-foot pitch, thus eliminating the
pipe organ
The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurized air (called ''wind'') through the organ pipes selected from a keyboard. Because each pipe produces a single pitch, the pipes are provided in sets called ''ranks ...
as the intended instrument, leaving the harpsichord as the most logical choice.
It is now generally accepted by scholars that the work was envisioned for keyboard. Despite disagreements on how (and whether) it was intended to be played, ''The Art of Fugue'' continues to be performed and recorded by many different solo instruments and ensembles.
''Fuga a 3 Soggetti''
''Fuga a 3 Soggetti'' ("fugue in three subjects"), also referred to as the "Unfinished Fugue", was contained in a handwritten manuscript bundled with the autograph manuscript Mus. ms. autogr. P 200. It breaks off abruptly in the middle of its third section, with an only partially written measure 239. This autograph carries a note in the handwriting of
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (8 March 1714 – 14 December 1788), also formerly spelled Karl Philipp Emmanuel Bach, and commonly abbreviated C. P. E. Bach, was a German Classical period musician and composer, the fifth child and sec ...
, 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 name ''BACH'' or which the English notation would be B–A–C–Bin the countersubject, the composer died.") This account is disputed by modern scholars, as the manuscript is clearly written in Bach's own hand, and thus dates to a time before his deteriorating health and vision would have prevented his ability to write, probably 1748–1749.
Attempts at completion
A number of musicians and musicologists have composed conjectural completions of ''Contrapunctus XIV'' which include the fourth subject, including musicologists
Donald Tovey
Sir Donald Francis Tovey (17 July 187510 July 1940) was a British musical analyst, musicologist, writer on music, composer, conductor and pianist. He had been best known for his '' Essays in Musical Analysis'' and his editions of works by Bach ...
(1931), Zoltán Göncz (1992), Yngve Jan Trede (1995), and Thomas Daniel (2010), organists
Helmut Walcha
Arthur Emil Helmut Walcha (27 October 1907 – 11 August 1991) was a German organist, harpsichordist, music teacher and composer who specialized in the works of the Dutch and German baroque masters.
Blind since his teenage years, he is known ...
Lionel Rogg
Lionel Rogg (born Geneva, April 21 1936) is a Swiss organist, composer and teacher of musical theory. He is best known for performing the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, whose complete organ works he has recorded three times.
At 15, Rogg took cha ...
, and
Davitt Moroney
Davitt Moroney (born 23 December 1950) is a British-born and educated musicologist, harpsichordist and organist. His parents were of Irish and Italian extraction – his father was an executive with the Anglo-Dutch Unilever conglomerate. ...
(1989), conductor
Rudolf Barshai
Rudolf Borisovich Barshai (russian: Рудольф Борисович Баршай, link=no, September 28, 1924November 2, 2010) was a Soviet and Russian conductor and violist.
Life
Barshai was born on September 28, 1924, in Stanitsa Labinskay ...
(2010) and
Daniil Trifonov
Daniil Olegovich Trifonov (russian: Дании́л Оле́гович Три́фонов; born 5 March 1991) is a Russian pianist and composer. Described by ''The Globe and Mail'' as "arguably today's leading classical virtuoso" and by ''The Tim ...
(2021).
Ferruccio Busoni
Ferruccio Busoni (1 April 1866 – 27 July 1924) was an Italian composer, pianist, conductor, editor, writer, and teacher. His international career and reputation led him to work closely with many of the leading musicians, artists and literary ...
's ''
Fantasia contrappuntistica
''Fantasia contrappuntistica'' is a solo piano piece composed by Ferruccio Busoni in 1910. Busoni created a number of versions of the work, including several for solo piano and one for two pianos. It has been arranged for organ (by Wilhelm Midd ...
'' is based on ''Contrapunctus XIV'', but it develops Bach's ideas to Busoni's own purposes in Busoni's musical style, rather than working out Bach's thoughts as Bach himself might have done. Other completions that do not incorporate the fourth subject including those by the French classical organist
Alexandre Pierre François Boëly Alexandre may refer to:
* Alexandre (given name)
* Alexandre (surname)
* Alexandre (film)
See also
* Alexander
Alexander is a male given name. The most prominent bearer of the name is Alexander the Great, the king of the Ancient Greek kingdom o ...
and pianist
Kimiko Douglass-Ishizaka
Kimiko Douglass-Ishizaka (born 4 December 1976) is a German Japanese composer, pianist, and former Olympic weightlifting, Olympic weightlifter and powerlifter.
Music
Born in Bonn, Germany, Douglass-Ishizaka (known as Ishizaka) started playing ...
.
Significance
In 2007, New Zealand organist and conductor Indra Hughes completed a doctoral thesis about the unfinished ending of Contrapunctus XIV, proposing that the work was left unfinished not because Bach died, but as a deliberate choice by Bach to encourage independent efforts at a completion.
Douglas Hofstadter
Douglas Richard Hofstadter (born February 15, 1945) is an American scholar of cognitive science, physics, and comparative literature whose research includes concepts such as the sense of self in relation to the external world, consciousness, an ...
's book ''
Gödel, Escher, Bach
''Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid'', also known as ''GEB'', is a 1979 book by Douglas Hofstadter.
By exploring common themes in the lives and works of logician Kurt Gödel, artist M. C. Escher, and composer Johann Sebastian Bach, t ...
'' discusses the unfinished fugue and Bach's supposed death during composition as a tongue-in-cheek illustration of Austrian logician
Kurt Gödel
Kurt Friedrich Gödel ( , ; April 28, 1906 – January 14, 1978) was a logician, mathematician, and philosopher. Considered along with Aristotle and Gottlob Frege to be one of the most significant logicians in history, Gödel had an imme ...
's
first incompleteness theorem
First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1).
First or 1st may also refer to:
*World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement
Arts and media Music
* 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and rec ...
. According to Gödel, the very power of a "sufficiently powerful" formal mathematical system can be exploited to "undermine" the system, by leading to statements that assert such things as "I cannot be proven in this system". In Hofstadter's discussion, Bach's great compositional talent is used as a metaphor for a "sufficiently powerful" formal system; however, Bach's insertion of his own name "in code" into the fugue is not, even metaphorically, a case of Gödelian self-reference; and Bach's failure to finish his self-referential fugue serves as a metaphor for the unprovability of the Gödelian assertion, and thus for the incompleteness of the formal system.
Sylvestre and Costa reported a mathematical architecture of ''The Art of Fugue'', based on
bar
Bar or BAR may refer to:
Food and drink
* Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages
* Candy bar
* Chocolate bar
Science and technology
* Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment
* Bar (tropical cyclone), a layer of cloud
* Bar (u ...
counts, which shows that the whole work was conceived on the basis of the
Fibonacci series
In mathematics, the Fibonacci numbers, commonly denoted , form a sequence, the Fibonacci sequence, in which each number is the sum of the two preceding ones. The sequence commonly starts from 0 and 1, although some authors start the sequence from ...
and the
golden ratio
In mathematics, two quantities are in the golden ratio if their ratio is the same as the ratio of their sum to the larger of the two quantities. Expressed algebraically, for quantities a and b with a > b > 0,
where the Greek letter phi ( ...
. The significance of the mathematical architecture can probably be explained by considering the role of the work as a membership contribution to the , and to the "scientific" meaning that Bach attributed to counterpoint.
Isolde Ahlgrimm
Isolde Ahlgrimm (31 July 1914 in Vienna – 11 October 1995 in Vienna) was an Austrian harpsichordist and fortepianist. In 1975 she was awarded the Austrian Gold Medal.
Musical education
Ahlgrimm pursued her early piano studies from 1922 at ...
(1953, 1967)
*
Davitt Moroney
Davitt Moroney (born 23 December 1950) is a British-born and educated musicologist, harpsichordist and organist. His parents were of Irish and Italian extraction – his father was an executive with the Anglo-Dutch Unilever conglomerate. ...
Ton Koopman
Antonius Gerhardus Michael Koopman (; born 2 October 1944), known professionally as Ton Koopman, is a Dutch conductor, organist, harpsichordist, and musicologist, primarily known for being the founder and director of the Amsterdam Baroque Orches ...
Bradley Brookshire Bradley Brookshire (born 1959) is an American-born harpsichordist.
He earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan School of Music (in Music History and Musicology), his Master of Music from Mannes College in New York City (Histo ...
(2007) includes an additional CD-ROM with score to follow along as MP3s play
* Matteo Messori (2008) alternating three harpsichords (after Taskin, and Hildebrandt)
* Lorenzo Ghielmi on a Silbermann piano and harpsichord with
Vittorio Ghielmi
Vittorio Ghielmi is an Italian musician (viola da gamba), conductor, compose
Compared by critics to Jasha Heifetz ("Diapason") for his virtuosity, and described as "An Alchemist of sound" ("Diario de Sevilla") for the intensity and versatility o ...
and "Il Suonar Parlante" viols quartet (2009)
Organ
*
Helmut Walcha
Arthur Emil Helmut Walcha (27 October 1907 – 11 August 1991) was a German organist, harpsichordist, music teacher and composer who specialized in the works of the Dutch and German baroque masters.
Blind since his teenage years, he is known ...
(1956, 1970)The recordings by Walcha (1970) and Moroney include both their completion of ''Contrapunctus XIV'' and the unfinished original, while Bergel's includes only his attempt.
*
Glenn Gould
Glenn Herbert Gould (; né Gold; September 25, 1932October 4, 1982) was a Canadian classical pianist. He was one of the most famous and celebrated pianists of the 20th century, and was renowned as an interpreter of the keyboard works of Johann ...
(1962) incompletePartial performances on organ (Contrapuncti 1–9) and piano (1, 2, 4, 10, 11, 13 ''inversus'', and ''Fuga a 3 Soggetti'').
*
Lionel Rogg
Lionel Rogg (born Geneva, April 21 1936) is a Swiss organist, composer and teacher of musical theory. He is best known for performing the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, whose complete organ works he has recorded three times.
At 15, Rogg took cha ...
(1970)
*
Marie-Claire Alain
Marie-Claire Geneviève Alain-Gommier (10 August 1926 – 26 February 2013) was a French organist, scholar and teacher best known for her prolific recording career, with 260 recordings, making her the most-recorded classical organist in the world ...
(1974, Rotterdam)
* (1977) on the
Jürgen Ahrend
Jürgen Ahrend (born 28 April 1930) is a German organ builder famous for restoring instruments such as the Rysum organ and the Arp Schnitger organ in St. Jacobi, Hamburg (St James's Church) as well as building original instruments. He is intervi ...
and organ in , Bremen
*
Wolfgang Rübsam
Wolfgang Friedrich Rübsam (born October 16, 1946, in Gießen) is a German-American organist, pianist, composer and pedagogue.
Biography
After his musical training with Erich Ackermann in Fulda, Germany, Rübsam studied at the Musikhochschule ...
(1992)
*
Marie-Claire Alain
Marie-Claire Geneviève Alain-Gommier (10 August 1926 – 26 February 2013) was a French organist, scholar and teacher best known for her prolific recording career, with 260 recordings, making her the most-recorded classical organist in the world ...
St Thomas' Church, Strasbourg
St Thomas' Church (french: Église Saint-Thomas, german: Thomaskirche) is a historical building in Strasbourg, eastern France. It is the main Lutheran church of the city since its cathedral became Catholic again after the annexation of th ...
* André Isoir (1999) Some movements performed as a duet with Pierre Farago, on the Grenzing organ of Saint-Cyprien in
Périgord
Périgord ( , ; ; oc, Peiregòrd / ) is a natural region and former province of France, which corresponds roughly to the current Dordogne department, now forming the northern part of the administrative region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine. It is div ...
, France
*
Hans Fagius Hans Gustav Fagius, né Andersson (born 10 April 1951), is a Swedish classical organist and pedagogue.
Biography
Fagius was born in Norrköping and studied organ with Bengt Berg before entering the Royal College of Music, Stockholm, where he stud ...
(2000) on the Carsten Lund organ of Garnisons Church Copenhagen, Denmark
*
Kevin Bowyer
Kevin John Bowyer (; born 9 January 1961) is an English organist, known for his prolific recording and recital career and his performances of modern and extremely difficult compositions.
Biography
Bowyer was born on 9 January 1961 in Southend-o ...
(2001) on the Marcussen organ of
Saint Hans Church
Saint Hans Church (Danish: ''Sankt Hans Kirke'') is a church in Odense, Denmark. First mentioned in 1295, it was built by the Knights Hospitaller, also known as the Order of Saint John.
Not much of the original building remains as it was rebuilt ...
,
Odense
Odense ( , , ) is the third largest city in Denmark (behind Copenhagen and Aarhus) and the largest city on the island of Funen. As of 1 January 2022, the city proper had a population of 180,863 while Odense Municipality had a population of 20 ...
Arizona
Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...
(This recording includes as a bonus track an alternative take of the final unfinished fugue with the completion by
Helmut Walcha
Arthur Emil Helmut Walcha (27 October 1907 – 11 August 1991) was a German organist, harpsichordist, music teacher and composer who specialized in the works of the Dutch and German baroque masters.
Blind since his teenage years, he is known ...
Richard Buhlig
Richard Moritz Buhlig (December 21, 1880 – January 30, 1952) was an American pianist.
Buhlig was born in Chicago to a German immigrant father from Saxony, the baker Moritz Buhlig, and his wife Louise. He received early lessons from August Hy ...
Glenn Gould
Glenn Herbert Gould (; né Gold; September 25, 1932October 4, 1982) was a Canadian classical pianist. He was one of the most famous and celebrated pianists of the 20th century, and was renowned as an interpreter of the keyboard works of Johann ...
, incomplete
*
Charles Rosen
Charles Welles Rosen (May 5, 1927December 9, 2012) was an American pianist and writer on music. He is remembered for his career as a concert pianist, for his recordings, and for his many writings, notable among them the book ''The Classical Sty ...
(1967)
*
Grigory Sokolov
Grigory Lipmanovich Sokolov (russian: Григо́рий Ли́пманович Соколо́в; born April 18, 1950) is a Russian pianist naturalized Spain, Spanish. He is among the most esteemed of living pianists, his repertoire spanning compo ...
(1982)
*
Zoltán Kocsis
Zoltán Kocsis (; 30 May 1952 – 6 November 2016) was a Hungarian pianist, conductor and composer.
Biography
Studies
Born in Budapest, he began his musical studies at the age of five and continued them at the Béla Bartók Conservatory in 19 ...
Evgeni Koroliov
Evgeni Alexandrovich Koroliov (russian: Евге́ний Алекса́ндрович Королёв; born 1 October 1949, in Moscow) is a Russian classical pianist.
Koroliov studied at the Moscow Conservatory. Since 1978 he has been a teacher at ...
(1991)
*
Tatiana Nikolayeva
Tatiana Petrovna Nikolayeva (russian: Татья́на Петро́вна Никола́ева, ''Tat'jana Petrovna Nikolajeva''; May 4, 1924November 22, 1993) was a pianist, composer, and teacher from the Soviet Union.
Life
Nikolayeva was born ...
Joanna MacGregor
Joanna Clare MacGregor (born 16 July 1959) is a British concert pianist, conductor, composer, and festival curator. She is Head of Piano at the Royal Academy of Music and a professor of the University of London. She is currently artistic direc ...
Pierre-Laurent Aimard
Pierre-Laurent Aimard (born 9 September 1957) is a French pianist.
Biography
Aimard was born in Lyon, where he entered the conservatory. Later he studied with Yvonne Loriod and with Maria Curcio.
In 1973, he was awarded the chamber music priz ...
(2008)
*
Zhu Xiao-Mei
Zhu or ZHU may refer to:
*Zhu (surname), common Chinese surnames
*Zhu River, or Pearl River, in southern China
*Zhu (state), ancient Chinese state, later renamed Zou
*House of Zhu, the ruling house of the Ming dynasty in Chinese history
*Zhu (stri ...
(2014)
*
Angela Hewitt
Angela Hewitt, (born July 26, 1958) is a Canadian classical pianist. She is best known for her Bach interpretations.
Career
Hewitt was born in Ottawa, Ontario, daughter of the Yorkshire-born Godfrey Hewitt (thus she also has British nationality ...
(2014)
* Schaghajegh Nosrati (2015)
*
Kimiko Douglass-Ishizaka
Kimiko Douglass-Ishizaka (born 4 December 1976) is a German Japanese composer, pianist, and former Olympic weightlifting, Olympic weightlifter and powerlifter.
Music
Born in Bonn, Germany, Douglass-Ishizaka (known as Ishizaka) started playing ...
(2017)
*
Daniil Trifonov
Daniil Olegovich Trifonov (russian: Дании́л Оле́гович Три́фонов; born 5 March 1991) is a Russian pianist and composer. Described by ''The Globe and Mail'' as "arguably today's leading classical virtuoso" and by ''The Tim ...
Juilliard String Quartet
The Juilliard String Quartet is a classical music string quartet founded in 1946 at the Juilliard School in New York by William Schuman. Since its inception, it has been the quartet-in-residence at the Juilliard School. It has received numerous ...
(1987)
*
Emerson String Quartet
The Emerson String Quartet, also known as the Emerson Quartet, is an American string quartet that was initially formed as a student group at the Juilliard School in 1976. It was named for American poet and philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson and beg ...
(2003)
*
Vittorio Ghielmi
Vittorio Ghielmi is an Italian musician (viola da gamba), conductor, compose
Compared by critics to Jasha Heifetz ("Diapason") for his virtuosity, and described as "An Alchemist of sound" ("Diario de Sevilla") for the intensity and versatility o ...
and "Il Suonar Parlante" viols quartet (2009) with Lorenzo Ghielmi on a Silbermann piano and harpsichord
Orchestra
*
Arthur Winograd Arthur Winograd (April 22, 1920 – April 22, 2010) was the music director of the Hartford Symphony Orchestra and the founding cellist of the Juilliard String Quartet.MARGALIT FOX"Arthur Winograd, Hartford Symphony Music Director, Dies at 90" ''Th ...
by Winograd String Orchestra (ca 1952)
*
Hermann Scherchen
Hermann Scherchen (21 June 1891 – 12 June 1966) was a German conductor.
Life
Scherchen was born in Berlin. Originally a violist, he played among the violas of the Bluthner Orchestra of Berlin while still in his teens. He conducted in Riga ...
with Orchestre de la RTSI (1965)Except the canons, which are played by harpsichordist
Kenneth Gilbert
Kenneth Albert Gilbert (December 16, 1931 – April 15, 2020) was a Canadian harpsichordist, organist, musicologist, and music educator.
Biography
Born in Montreal, Gilbert studied at the Conservatoire de musique du Québec à Montréal under ...
on the recording.
* Karl Ristenpart with Chamber Orchestra of the Saar (1965)
*
Karl Münchinger
Karl Münchinger (29 May 1915 – 13 March 1990) was a German conductor of European classical music. He helped to revive the now-ubiquitous Canon in D by Johann Pachelbel, through recording it with his Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra in 1960. (Jean ...
with
Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra
The Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra (Stuttgarter Kammerorchester) is a German chamber orchestra based in Stuttgart
Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar ...
(1965, 1985 live)
*
Neville Marriner
Sir Neville Marriner, (15 April 1924 – 2 October 2016) was an English violinist and "one of the world's greatest conductors". Gramophone lists Marriner as one of the 50 greatest conductors and another compilation ranks Marriner #14 of th ...
with
Academy of St Martin in the Fields
The Academy of St Martin in the Fields (ASMF) is an English chamber orchestra, based in London.
John Churchill, then Master of Music at the London church of St Martin-in-the-Fields, and Neville Marriner founded the orchestra as "The Academy of ...
(1974)
*
Lukas Foss
Lukas Foss (August 15, 1922 – February 1, 2009) was a German-American composer, pianist, and conductor.
Career
Born Lukas Fuchs in Berlin, Germany in 1922, Foss was soon recognized as a child prodigy. He began piano and theory lessons with J ...
with I Soloisti di Pickup (1977) orchestrated by William Malloch
*
Jordi Savall
Jordi Savall i Bernadet (; born 1 August 1941) is a Spanish conductor, composer and viol player. He has been one of the major figures in the field of Western early music since the 1970s, largely responsible for popularizing the viol family of ...
Rinaldo Alessandrini
Rinaldo Alessandrini (born 25 January 1960) is a virtuoso on Baroque keyboards, including harpsichord, fortepiano, and organ. He is founder and conductor of the Italian early music ensemble Concerto Italiano, performing music of Monteverdi, ...
with
Concerto Italiano
Concerto Italiano is an Italian early music ensemble well known for their interpretations of Monteverdi and Vivaldi, among others.
The historically informed performance ensemble was formed by the harpsichordist Rinaldo Alessandrini, and made its ...
(1998)
* Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra (2002)
*
Rachel Podger
Rachel Podger (born 1968 in England) is a British violinist and conductor specialising in the performance of Baroque music.
Career
Podger was born to a British father and a German mother. She was educated at a German Rudolf Steiner school then ...
with Brecon Baroque (2017)
Other
*
Milan Munclinger
Milan Munclinger (3 July 1923, in Košice, Czechoslovakia – 30 March 1986, in Prague, Czechoslovakia) was a significant Czech flautist, conductor, composer and musical scientist.
Biography
Munclinger was the son of Josef Munclinger, an operat ...
with
Ars Rediviva
Ars Rediviva was a Czech classical instrumental music group, whose historically-informed performances played a key role in the revival of Baroque music in Czechoslovakia.
Ars Rediviva chamber ensemble
The group was founded in 1951 in Prague ...
Musica Antiqua Köln Musica Antiqua Köln was an early music group that was founded in 1973 by Reinhard Goebel and fellow students from the Conservatory of Music in Cologne. Musica Antiqua Köln devoted itself largely to the performance of the music of the 17th and 18t ...
(director
Reinhard Goebel
Reinhard Goebel (; born 31 July 1952 in Siegen, West Germany) is a German Conducting, conductor and baroque violin, violinist specialising in early music on Historically informed performance, authentic instruments and professor for historical perf ...
) for string quartet/harpsichord and various such instrumental combinations (1984)
*
Canadian Brass
The Canadian Brass is a Canadian brass quintet formed in 1970 in Toronto, Ontario, by Charles Daellenbach (tuba) and Gene Watts (trombone), with horn player Graeme Page and trumpeters Stuart Laughton and Bill Phillips completing the quintet. , ...
for
brass quintet
A brass quintet is a five-piece musical ensemble composed of Brass instrument, brass instruments. The instrumentation for a brass quintet typically includes two Trumpet, trumpets or Cornet, cornets, one French horn, one trombone or euphonium/barito ...
(1990)
*
Amsterdam Loeki Stardust Quartet
The Amsterdam Loeki Stardust Quartet is a professional Dutch recorder quartet.
History
The quartet was founded in 1978 by Daniël Brüggen, Bertho Driever, Paul Leenhouts and Karel van Steenhoven, four students of Frans Brüggen at the Swee ...
for
recorder
Recorder or The Recorder may refer to:
Newspapers
* ''Indianapolis Recorder'', a weekly newspaper
* ''The Recorder'' (Massachusetts newspaper), a daily newspaper published in Greenfield, Massachusetts, US
* ''The Recorder'' (Port Pirie), a news ...
Laurence Dreyfus
Laurence Dreyfus, FBA (born 1952) is an American musicologist and player of the viola da gamba who was University Lecturer and Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford.
Early life
Dreyfus was born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts, and lived in Ch ...
) for
viola da gamba
The viol (), viola da gamba (), or informally gamba, is any one of a family of bowed, fretted, and stringed instruments with hollow wooden bodies and pegboxes where the tension on the strings can be increased or decreased to adjust the pitc ...
four-part consort (1998)
*
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
The ''Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra'' (''PSO'') is an American orchestra based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The orchestra's home is Heinz Hall, located in Pittsburgh's Cultural District, Pittsburgh, Cultural District.
History
The Pittsburgh Sy ...
Brass (1998)
*
Fretwork
Fretwork is an interlaced decorative design that is either carved in low relief on a solid background, or cut out with a fretsaw, coping saw, jigsaw or scroll saw. Most fretwork patterns are geometric in design. The materials most commonly used ...
for Consort of
Viol
The viol (), viola da gamba (), or informally gamba, is any one of a family of bowed, fretted, and stringed instruments with hollow wooden bodies and pegboxes where the tension on the strings can be increased or decreased to adjust the pitc ...
s (2002)
*
József Eötvös
József baron Eötvös de Vásárosnamény (pronunciation: jɔ:ʒef 'øtvøʃ dɛ 'va:ʃa:rɔʃnɒme:ɲ 3 September 1813 – 2 February 1871) was a Hungarian writer and statesman, the son of Ignác baron Eötvös de Vásárosnamény and A ...
for two eight-string
guitar
The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...
s (2002)
* first version on
fortepiano
A fortepiano , sometimes referred to as a pianoforte, is an early piano. In principle, the word "fortepiano" can designate any piano dating from the invention of the instrument by Bartolomeo Cristofori in 1698 up to the early 19th century. Mo ...
Neue Slowenische Kunst
Neue Slowenische Kunst (; NSK; German: "New Slovenian Art") is a political art collective that formed in Slovenia in 1984, when the Socialist Republic of Slovenia was part of Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. NSK's name was chosen to refl ...
industrial band
Laibach
Laibach () is a Slovenian avant-garde music group associated with the industrial, martial, and neo-classical genres. Formed in the mining town of Trbovlje (at the time in Yugoslavia) in 1980, Laibach represents the musical wing of the Neue ...
(2008)
*
Vulfpeck
Vulfpeck is an American funk band founded in 2011 by Jack Stratton, Theo Katzman, Woody Goss and Joe Dart. The band has released four extended plays, five studio albums and a live album, having released all of their music independently. The ba ...
(founder Jack Stratton) for
talk box
A talk box (also spelled talkbox and talk-box) is an effects unit that allows musicians to modify the sound of a musical instrument by shaping the frequency content of the sound and to apply speech sounds (in the same way as singing) onto the sou ...
(2016)
See also
*
List of compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach's vocal music includes cantatas, motets, masses, Magnificats, Passions, oratorios, four-part chorales, songs and arias. His instrumental music includes concertos, suites, sonatas, fugues, and other works for organ, ...
*
List of compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach printed during his lifetime
Compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach printed during his lifetime (1685–1750) include works for keyboard instruments, such as his ''Clavier-Übung'' volumes for harpsichord and for organ, and to a lesser extent ensemble music, such as the tri ...
Netherlands Bach Society
The Netherlands Bach Society ( nl, Nederlandse Bachvereniging) is the oldest ensemble for Baroque music in the Netherlands, and possibly in the world. The ensemble was founded in 1921 in Naarden to perform Johann Sebastian Bach, Bach's ''St Matthew ...
Mutopia Project
The Mutopia Project is a volunteer-run effort to create a library of free content sheet music, in a way similar to Project Gutenberg's library of public domain books. It started in 2000.Portal page at thInternet ArchiveRetrieved January 24, 20 ...
MIDI
MIDI (; Musical Instrument Digital Interface) is a technical standard that describes a communications protocol, digital interface, and electrical connectors that connect a wide variety of electronic musical instruments, computers, and re ...
Carus-Verlag
Carus-Verlag is a German music publisher founded in 1972 and based in Stuttgart.
Carus was founded by choral conductor Günter Graulich and his wife Waltraud with an emphasis on choral repertoire. The catalogue currently includes more than 26,00 ...
La Dépêche du Midi
''La Dépêche'', formally ''La Dépêche du Midi'', is a regional daily newspaper published in Toulouse in Southwestern France with seventeen editions for different areas of the Midi-Pyrénées region. The main local editions are for Toulouse, ...
Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach (28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his orchestral music such as the '' Brandenburg Concertos''; instrumental compositions such as the Cello Suites; keyboard w ...