Bach's the Art of Fugue & a Companion to the Art of Fugue


Book Description

Complete score of The Art of Fugue plus extensive commentary features all 14 fugues plus the four canons. The commentary outlines the fugues' contrapuntal devices and offers keen observations on the composer's craftsmanship.




The Art of Fugue


Book Description

A free ebook version of this title is available through Luminos, University of California Press’s new open access publishing program for monographs. Visit www.luminosoa.org to learn more. Fugue for J. S. Bach was a natural language; he wrote fugues in organ toccatas and voluntaries, in masses and motets, in orchestral and chamber music, and even in his sonatas for violin solo. The more intimate fugues he wrote for keyboard are among the greatest, most influential, and best-loved works in all of Western music. They have long been the foundation of the keyboard repertory, played by beginning students and world-famous virtuosi alike. In a series of elegantly written essays, eminent musicologist Joseph Kerman discusses his favorite Bach keyboard fugues—some of them among the best-known fugues and others much less familiar. Kerman skillfully, at times playfully, reveals the inner workings of these pieces, linking the form of the fugues with their many different characters and expressive qualities, and illuminating what makes them particularly beautiful, powerful, and moving. These witty, insightful pieces, addressed to musical amateurs as well as to specialists and students, are beautifully augmented by performances made specially for this volume: Karen Rosenak, piano, playing two preludes and fugues fromTheWell-Tempered Clavier—C Major, book 1; and B Major, book 2--and Davitt Moroney playing the Fughetta in C Major, BWV 952, on clavichord; the Fugue on "Jesus Christus unser Heiland," BWV 689, on organ; and the Fantasy and Fugue in A Minor, BWV 904, on harpsichord.




Johann Sebastian Bach's Art of Fugue


Book Description

This book, by a leading Bach performer, is designed to provide a practical guide to the performance of the "Art of Fugue."




The Art of the Fugue


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Johann Sebastian Bach


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Publisher Description




Musikalisches Opfer


Book Description

Among Bach's last instrumental compositions are two splendid works that reflect his genius for working complex contrapuntal figures into an expressive, apparently seamless musical texture. The Art of the Fugue, composed ca. 1745–50, consists of nineteen canons and fugues that progressively illustrate the rich variety and complexity of fugal writing. This edition, reproduced directly from the authoritative Breitkopf & Härtel score, includes a keyboard reproduction printed directly beneath the score. A Musical Offering (1747), composed for King Frederick the Great of Prussia, comprises a three-part ricercar and a six-part ricercar for keyboard, a famous sonata for flute and violin, and a set of canons, all based on a theme devised by the King himself. Solutions of the canons and a realization of the keyboard part are included in an appendix.




Bach's Art of Fugue and Musical Offering


Book Description

"Bach's Art of Fugue and Musical Offering is the first comprehensive study of two closely related masterworks of the late Baroque fugal style. The initial volume in a series of American Bach Society Guides produced in collaboration with Oxford University Press, it unpacks these famously cerebral collections as endlessly fascinating material for study and play. Intended for a general readership, this compact guide also summarizes for practitioners a considerable body of knowledge about these singular works. Bach scholar and keyboard player Matthew Dirst explains their idiosyncratic musical language in initial chapters while reviewing how both projects took shape during Bach's final decade, as he reoriented his creative energies around capstone works of various kinds. The most systematic of these, the Art of Fugue and Musical Offering reflect his lifelong fascination with learned counterpoint, as demonstrated in elaborate series of fugues and canons in both and in an unusually intricate trio sonata in the latter. Later chapters provide commentary on individual movements and groups of pieces and on the historical reception of this music, including its impact on other disciplines. Recurring themes include Bach's diligent exploration of contrapuntal types and techniques, his embrace of musical games of various sorts, and his creative assimilation of diverse musical styles"--




Johann Sebastian Bach


Book Description

Now available in paperback, this landmark biography was first published in 2000 to mark the 250th anniversary of J. S. Bach's death. Written by a leading Bach scholar, this book presents a new picture of the composer. Christoph Wolff demonstrates the intimate connection between Bach's life and his music, showing how the composer's superb inventiveness pervaded his career as a musician, composer, performer, scholar, and teacher.




Bach


Book Description

More than two centuries after his lifetime, J. S. Bach's work continues to set musical standards. Noted Bach scholar Christoph Wolff offers new perspectives on the composer's life and remarkable career.




The Keyboard Music of J.S. Bach


Book Description

The Keyboard Music of J.S. Bach provides an introduction to and comprehensive discussion of all the music for harpsichord and other stringed keyboard instruments by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750). Often played today on the modern piano, these works are central not only to the Western concert repertory but to musical pedagogy and study throughout the world. Intended as both a practical guide and an interpretive study, the book consists of three introductory chapters on general matters of historical context, style, and performance practice, followed by fifteen chapters on the individual works, treated in roughly chronological order. The works discussed include all of Bach's individual keyboard compositions as well as those comprising his famous collections, such as the Well-Tempered Clavier, the English and French Suites, and the Art of Fugue.