Fugue in G Minor K. 401/375e

About this work

Four lines, one recurring idea and hardly a pause: the Fugue in G minor K. 401/375e asks the pianist to hear horizontally what the keyboard tends to present as blocks. Mozart did not write its ending; Maximilian Stadler added the eight bars leading to the final cadence.

This edition presents the principal two-hand version. The four-hand transcription preserved with the historical documents offers another view of the counterpoint: it separates the lines and eases the wide left-hand intervals. In the two-hand version, mark the entries first, then combine the voices two at a time.

In the closer imitation of the second half, give each voice a distinct articulation. The counterpoint should remain audible even when the hands redistribute the texture quickly; let the bass provide momentum without covering the middle-register answers.

What the document containsDocument: the four-page PDF contains the complete two-hand piano version. The MIDI file helps trace the entries and continuity of all four voices.Maurizio Tomasi’s LilyPond engraving for the Mutopia Project, based on the 1878-1887 Breitkopf und Härtel edition, is in the public domain. LesPartitions.info also preserves the former edition and the four-hand transcription documents.