ART OF FUGUE, BWV 1080
Contrapunctus No. 1
Contrapunctus No. 2
Contrapunctus No. 3
Contrapunctus No. 4
Contrapunctus No 12: Canon allá Ottava
Contrapunctus No. 5
Contrapunctus No. 6: Stile francese
Contrapunctus No. 7: per Augmentionem et Diminutionem
Contrapunctus No. 13: Canon allá dúo decima in Contrapunto allá Quinta
Contrapunctus No. 8
Contrapunctus No. 9: allá Duodécima
Contrapunctus No.10: allá Decima
Contrapunctus No. 11
Contrapunctus No. 15: Canon per Augmentionem in Contrario Motu
Contrapunctus No. 14: Canon allá Decima. Contrapunto allá Terza
Contrapunctus No. 17a: Rectus
Contrapunctus No. 17b Inversus. Alío modo Fuga a 2 Clav
Contrapunctus No. 16a: Rectus
Contrapunctus No. 16b: Inversus
Contrapunctus No 18: Modo Fuga a tre soggetti
(pause)
Contrapunctus No. 13ª: Inversus. Alío modo Fuga a 2 Clav
Contrapunctus No. 13b Rectus Alío modo Fuga a 2 Clav
"Art of Fugue" was never completed because of the
death of Bach. However, there is another reason why
this work remains unfinished. By definition, art of
fugue, as a play of nature itself, is infinite and ongoing
there is no end to this play, no completion.
"Art of Fugue" is a scripture, and as such, is open
ended. As all scriptures, it is pointing towards one
source the source of all from where it came and an
expression of which it is. All music of Bach is a direct
confirmation of this source and a humble offering to it.
-Vladimir Feltsman
ART OF FUGUE, BWV 1080
Present-day concert audiences know Bach as a great
composer, one whose work forms a cornerstone to
the canon of Western music. But Bach was also an
important musical theoretician, a researcher
concerned especially with the seemingly esoteric
nature of imitative counterpoint. We cannot properly
separate Bach's theoretical work from his composing, for he framed his investigations and findings in compositional terms. A number of Bach's most
ambitious works formulate thorough and orderly
explorations of contrapuntal possibilities into largescale, logical, aesthetically satisfying formal designs.
We find this in the comprehensive examination of tonality and fugal character of The Well-Tempered
Clavier, and in the exhaustive contrapuntal treatment of Frederick of Prussia's "royal theme" in The Musical
Offering. The Goldberg Variations, in which Bach offers an extraordinarily varied contrapuntal elaboration of a single harmonic skeleton, provides a comparable degree of formal rigor, as do also the organ variations on the chorale Von Himmel hoch, with their succession of increasingly complex canons based on the chorale melody. But in some ways Bach's most impressive work of this sort, because it is the most rigorously constructed, is the compendium of fugal technique undertaken in Art of Fugue, BWV 1080. Comprised of some fourteen fugues and four strict canons, all constructed around the same distinctive theme, The Art of the Fugue gives a
practical exposition of the venerable techniques of
counter point: contrapuntal imitation (canon) at
different pitches; thematic inversion (turning a melody
upside-down, as it were, so that its contours rise
where formerly they fell, and rhythmic augmentation and diminution (elongating or compressing a theme’s
rhythms); and melodic variation (altering precise
shape of a theme, often through chromatic inflection).
With Art of the Fugue, Bach demonstrated these
techniques not in some abstract treatise or textbook.
That task would be taken up by his student Friedrich
Marpurg but in a composition whose high artistic merit befits its title.
The history of Art of Fugue and how Bach intended its
performance have provided subjects for a century of musicological investigation. The work is frequently described as Bach's last composition, though the composer wrote a preliminary version of it in the early
1740s, nearly a decade before his death Beginning probably in l748 or l749, Bach undertook a revision of
the work in order to prepare it for publication. At this time he also expanded the composition by writing
several additional movements. These last include an
imposing fugue using three contrasted subjects, which the composer did not live to complete. Bach did not specify explicitly how he wished Art of Fugue to
be played. In his manuscript and in the first printed edition, which appeared in 1751, the music is laid out
in open score that is, with each fugal voice" occupying
a separate staff and no instrumentation indicated. This
ambiguous scoring led some early Bach scholars to speculate that the composer intended the volume as a purely theoretical or didactic work, though that
possibility seems unlikely in light of Bach's practical approach to his art and the music’s arresting beauty.
Harpsichordists, organists and a few pianists have laid
claim to the opus, which is performable (though not
easily) on a keyboard. The passing years have seen also many arrangements for instrumental ensembles of various configuration.
There can be no serious objection to performing the work on the piano, though this instrument did not exist during Bach's lifetime. Bach showed himself very flexible in arranging his compositions for different instruments or ensembles. Moreover, Art of Fugue is not idiomatic to any particular instrument; if anything, its music refers back to an old tradition of vocally conceived counterpoint, The music is capably served by the modern piano, which, as Vladimir Feltsman has
observed, has a certain neutrality of character that adapts unusually well to Bach's thought.
The ordering of the individual pieces that comprise Art
of Fugue has been the subject of much musicological
debate. Suffice it to say that the standard published
order is suspect on various grounds. As a result,
different investigators have proposed different
sequences for presenting the music. In deviating
slightly from the order of publication, Mr. Feltsman's
performance accords with, rather than contradicts,
current scholarly opinion.
Regarding the music of the individual canons and
fugues, both of which Bach refers to by the Latin term
"Contrapunctus" a few words seem in order.
Contrapunctus No. l introduces the subject melody on
which Bach based the entire work. Here and in the
Contrapunctus No. 2 the composer treats his theme in
relatively straightforward four-voice fugues whose
successive statements of the thematic subject
preserve its original contours. Contrapunctus No. 3,
however, inverts the subject (notice how the first
interval falls instead of rises) and introduces
chromatic alterations that lend the harmonic color of
the piece a particular intensity. By Contrapunctus No.
5 we find the original and inverted forms of the subject
sounding together in counterpoint. Contrapunctus No.
6 combines fugal texture with the stylized long-short
rhythmic sequences traditional to the Baroque-period
French overture (as does the D Major fugue from Book
I of The Well-Tempered Clavier, which therefore is a close cousin of this piece). Here Bach uses the original and inverted forms of the subject at different speeds. Contrapunctus No. 7 pursues the latter idea in a more thorough fashion, the original and inverted forms of the subject appearing in both augmented and diminished rhythms (This results in variants of the
theme moving at both double and half the diminished rhythms. the subject appearing in both augmented and basic tempo.)
Contrapunctus No. 13 is a two part canon in which the
the second line answers the first at the interval of a twelfth ("alla Duodecima"; adjusting for octave answers displacement, this canon yields counterpoint
at the interval of a fifth Quinta"). Comparable formulations govern the workings of Contrapunctus No. 14. In Contrapunctus No. 9, the designation "alla Duodecima" indicates the widest span of entrances
within a four-part fugal texture. Contrapunctus No. 10
is a double fugue whose two subjects are inversions of each other.
Contrapunctus No. 15 constitutes a virtuoso feat of musical formalism. In it, Bach maintains a strict canonic scheme whereby one "voice" follows the
other in inversion and at half speed, doing so note for note (!) the entire length of the piece. Contrapuncti 17 and 16 each entail two fugues, the second being
essentially an inversion of the first.
The triple fugue that Bach was unable to complete
presents three fugues each on a different theme, laid
end to end. The theme of the first of these fugues appears in each of the latter two, and Bach undoubtedly planned to combine all three ín counterpoint at the climax of the piece. Just before
the music breaks off, the motive B-A-C-H
(corresponding in German musical nomenclature to
the pitches B-flat, C, A and B-natural) appears in an inner voice of the four-part texture.
-Notes by Paul Schiavo, 1996
Bach arranged two fugues - Contrapunctus 13a and 13b for 2 keyboards. These two fugues are mirrors of each other.
Mr. Feltsman plays both parts of these fugues.
Vladimir Feltsman is internationally recognized as one of the most important pianists of his generation. A compelling artistic personality hailed for the dramatic
impact and individuality of his interpretations, he
brings his prodigious technique, command of sonority, and evocative musical imagination to an extensive
repertoire at ranges from Bach to 20th century
composers and includes more than thirty concertos.
Feltsman concentrates on music from the central
German tradition, but he is also strongly committed to
the performance of new music and has premiered
works by contemporary Soviet composers Alfred
Schnittke and Nickolai Karetnikov.
Since his dramatic arrival in the United States from
Russia in the summer of 1987 and his triumphant
Carnegie Hall and Kennedy Center debut recitals, Mr.
Feltsman has become one of the most sought after
pianists on the international scene. He has performed
with virtually all the major orchestras in the United
States and abroad and is a frequent quest at major
music festivals.
Born in Moscow, Mr. Feltsman made his public debut
at the age of 12 as soloist with the Moscow
Philharmonic Orchestra. His first prize victory in the
Concertina International Competition in Prague led to
his enrollment in the Moscow Conservatory. Four
years later, Mr. Feltsman won the Marguerite Long
Competition in Paris, resulting in appearances with all
of the major Soviet orchestras, tours of several
European countries, and recordings.
Since his arrival in this country, Mr. Feltsman has occupied a Distinguished Chair at SUNY New Paltz, where he teaches a course in piano literature,
conducts a series of master classes and instructs a
limited number of piano majors. Deeply committed to
the education of young music students, Mr. Feltsman
has recently establish the foundation for a special
music school for gifted children in New York.
Art of Fugue
Produced and Engineered by Max Wilcox
Digital Engineering by Nelson Wong, SoundByte
Productions
Digital Editing by Richard Price & Max Wilcox (final two works)
Recorded at the American Academy of Arts and Letters, March 12-14, 1996.
