| Uniform title | "Iskusstvo fugi" I.S. Bakha. English |
| Contents |
Part I. Toward the history of the conception. The last decade -- On the conception of the Art of fugue -- Bach's illness and the changes in his handwriting -- Part II. The principal documents: the autograph and the original edition. The autograph -- The original edition -- Part III. J.S. Bach's work on The Art of Fugue. The versions in Bach's music -- The first version of The Art of Fugue -- The second version -- Toward the third version -- The third version -- The fourth version -- Part IV. Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach's work toward the publication of The Art of Fugue. Settings, attitudes and circumstances -- Sequencing and titles in the original edition -- The history of the 1752 edition -- Part V. Toward a new interpretation of The Art of Fugue. The title page as a 'letters and numbers game' and the question of authorship -- Contrapunctur 5 -- Myths about the canon in augmentation -- The autograph of the last fugue: an unfinished copy? -- 'Over this fugue ... ' -- Revelation (instead of an epilogue). |
| Abstract |
The enigmatic character of The Art of Fugue became apparent as early as in its first edition, printed more than a year after the composer's death. Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, who published both the first and the second editions, raised several unsolved questions regarding this opus. The author presents a consistent and coherent solution to the unresolved questions about the history, structure and appearance of J.S. Bach's The Art of Fugue, opening new perspectives for further exploration of this musical masterpiece. He challenges the present scholarly consensus that there exist two different versions of The Art of Fugue (the Autograph and the Original Edition) and argues that Bach had considered four versions, of which only two are apparent and have been discussed so far. Only Bach's illness and death prevented him from fulfilling his plan and publishing a fourth, conclusive version of his opus. |
| Bibliography note | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| Language | Translated from the Russian. |
| LCCN | 2015045559 |
| ISBN | 9781472458865 (hardback alkaline paper) |
| ISBN | 1472458869 |
| ISBN | (electronic book) |
| ISBN | 1315606097 |
| ISBN | 9781315606095 |
