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Bach Art of Fugue Program Notes and Sheet Music

Program Notes: Johann Sebastian Bach – Die Kunst der Fuge (The Art of Fugue), BWV 1080

Welcome, dear concert-goer, to a journey into the very heart of musical genius, a realm of unparalleled intellectual rigor and profound beauty. Tonight, we present movements from Johann Sebastian Bach’s monumental and enigmatic Die Kunst der Fuge (The Art of Fugue), BWV 1080. This work is not just a collection of pieces; it is a profound testament to a lifetime of mastery, a comprehensive exploration of the fugue, and one of the most astonishing achievements in music history.

Bach: The Ultimate Contrapuntalist's Farewell

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) dedicated much of his life to exploring the boundless possibilities of counterpoint – the art of combining multiple independent melodic lines into a harmonious whole. In the final decade of his life, already facing failing eyesight, he embarked on a series of encyclopedic works (like the Musical Offering and the Goldberg Variations) that distilled his life's learning into ultimate statements. The Art of Fugue is the culmination of this late period.

Composed between roughly 1740 and his death in 1750, this monumental work is a systematic exploration of a single, simple D minor musical subject. Bach takes this one theme and subjects it to every conceivable contrapuntal permutation: simple fugues, counter-fugues (where the subject appears upside down or backward), fugues with multiple subjects, canon, and mirror fugues (which can be played forwards or backward, or inverted!).

The Enigma: What Was it For?

One of the

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    Art-of-Fugue   
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