Johann Sebastian Bach - booksnow.scholarsportal.info

igSJOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH.three subjects, on which Bach had been working a shorttime before his death, but which has nothing whatever todo with this work, and lastly, two fugues for two claviers.Both these last are arrangements of those two three-partfugues, of which the second is the inversion of the first in allparts ;portions of this are very difficult, nay, impossible, toplay, for the parts often lie so far apart that two simultaneousnotes cannot be reached except by a spring. In order tomake this " eye music " appreciable by the ear, Bacharranged the fugues in such a manner that one clavier playstwo parts, while the other takes the third and a free partadded in besides. A few free additions are also made atthe beginning of each fugue.The newly added parts givefresh evidence of Bach's enormous talent in contrivances ofthis kind. The result, however, has but a doubtful value asa work of art, and was never intended for insertion in thecomplete work, since it is a distortion of the idea of writinga fugue in only real parts, all capable of inversion ; while theintroduction of a second clavier radically alters its style andcharacter.^''^After thework consisting of fifteen fugues and four canons, on oneand the same theme. In it we meet with simple, double,and triple fugues, fugues built upon the theme altered eitherin melody or rhythm, fugues with strettos, with the answerexcision of these inorganic elements, we have ain contrary motion, both in notes of the same value and indiminution and augmentation, fugues in double counterpoint,in the octave, tenth, and twelfth, and lastly fugues in which369 In the present century the " Kunst der Fuge" was first republished byNägeli of Zurich, then edited by Czerny, by Peters (P. S. I., Cah.. ii— 218),and of late edited by W. Rust (B.-G., XXV.^) ; the last an excellent production,rich in valuable results of critical labour. Rust has not ventured to omit theportions that do not belong to the work. The relations between the three-partfugue with its inversion and the fugues for two claviers struck, strange to say,both him and M. Hauptmann, to whom we owe a fine analysis of the work(Leipzig, C. F. Peters). From this relation, however, it is easy to accountfor the mistakes to be found in the fugues for two claviers, which Rustattempts in part to explain away by very bold conjectures ; they were overlookedand left standing when the fourth part was added in, and can indeed beonly due to this.