About this work
The Art of Fugue begins by stating a remarkably plain subject, then examines it from continually new angles. In the early Contrapuncti, entries remain easy to follow; inversion, dotted rhythms, augmentation and diminution gradually appear. Unity comes from shared material while each fugue retains its own breathing.
This first part of the document moves from straightforward fugues towards more complex constructions, including double fugues in which several subjects need to coexist. The open score allows each voice to be followed on its own staff. It does not prescribe one instrument: the primary concern is contrapuntal legibility, whatever forces are chosen.
Sing the principal subject and locate it in every orientation before playing a complete page. Then practise voices in pairs, checking entries, cadences and shared note lengths. Do not seek one uniformly fast pace for the collection; choose a pulse for each Contrapunctus that makes its particular transformation of the material audible.
What the document containsDocument: The document contains 59 pages in PDF format. No MIDI file is currently attached to this historical record. The PDF is the first half of an edition divided into two files; it runs from the opening Contrapunctus to the first large combinations and continues in the following record.The historical record marks the work and file as public domain but does not document the editor or exact provenance of this copy. The file preserved by LesPartitions.info can be compared with the reference catalogue. Following that check, LesPartitions.info separates established facts from information that remains incomplete.