J.S. Bach: The Art of Fugue
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Music CD Cover
Composer: Johann Sebastian BachPerformer: Sébastien Guillot
Edition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2006-05-16
Music Label: Naxos
Soundtracks:
- Fugue 1
- Fugue 2
- Fugue 3
- Fugue 4
- Fugue 5
- Fugue 6
- Fugue 7
- Fugue 8
- Canon In Hypodiapason
- Fugue 10
- Fugue 11
- Canon In Hypodiatessaron, Al Roverscio E Per Augmentationem
- Fugue 13 (A) Forma Recta
- Fugue 13 (B) Forma Inversa
- Fugue 14 (Forma Inversa)
- Canon Al Roverscio Et Per Augmentationem
- Fugue 19 (Fragment Of A Fugue With Several Subjects)
Free Music Notes for J.S. Bach: The Art of Fugue
Free Music Review: Bach's Art of Fugue on Naxos
Hit: 5 Stars
In his biography, "Johann Sebastian Bach: the Learned Musician" (2000), Christoph Wolff wrote (p. 437): "the 'Art of Fugue' stands before us as the most comprehensive summary of the aged Bach's instrumental language. At the same time it is a highly personal statement ... Bach created an autonomous work of art that embodies the character and universality of his art." Wolff further observed on the nature of the "Art of Fugue" (p. 432):
"The entire multisectional work is derived from the same thematic material, a musical plan that presupposes a far-reaching thought process, regarding the harmonic-contrapuntal implications of the chosen theme. The result is more than a study of fugue: it is a compendium of the range offered by the utmost concentration and the highest technical demands of instrumental counterpoint."
Bach had composed substantial portions of the Art of Fugue by 1742. Bach continued to add to and revise his work and was preparing it for publication at the time of his death in 1751. The work is not scored for a specific instrument. I have heard it performed live on the organ. On this new Naxos CD Sebastien Guillot performs this sublime music on the harpsichord, an excellent choice for capturing the linear character of the music. Indeed, the Art of Fugue can be viewed as a successor to Bach's two other great compilations of fugue: the "Well-Tempered Clavier" and the "Goldberg Variations". Guillot's instrument has a subdued tone, with little of the silvery, bell-like sound characteristic of some harpsichords.
This recording is unusual in that it adopts the ordering of the pieces that Bach utilized in his manuscript. When he prepared the work for publication, he changed the title of each work from "fugue" or "canon" to "Contrapunctus". In addition, Bach ordered the work differently, arranging it into five sections each of which illustrated a different form of contrapuntal technique. Although it does not reflect Bach's final decision about the organization of his masterpiece, Bach's initial version performed here captures the monumental, building style of the work, as each fugue or canon gradually increases in length and complexity.
The "Art of Fugue" constitutes Bach's final testament to the fugual style and its potentialities. The entire cycle is based upon a single simple theme stated at the outset in the first work, "Fugue 1" in this version. The work opens with a series of eight increasingly complex fugues. The initial group is followed by a series of difficult fugues and canons and concludes with an unfinished four-theme fugue. One of the themes of the final fugue is based on the musical notes B-A-C-H (B-flat). This final section remained unfinished. The first few fugues are short, and they expand as the work progresses.
Each part of the set opens with simple material, a variant of the opening theme, and Bach gradually unfolds the scope and implications of his original idea in complex architecture, using the full range of fugal technique. The music is highly organized, difficult, and abstract. It is Bach writing both with total freedom and with the tightest discipline, creating an inexhaustible work of mind and the imagination.
This music requires patience, but the listener will be amply repaid. The "Art of Fugue" is a transcendental score, at the summit of Bach's achievement.
Robin Friedman
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