The  Art  of  Fugue (BWV 1080), Transcription of the four-part Counterpoints

The Art of Fugue (BWV 1080), Transcription of the four-part Counterpoints, using treble and bass clefs, "For the mind and for the eyes". Structural analysis by Claude Charlier, 159 p.

Price: 30 euros, sent by email after payment

The Art of the Fugue is certainly the most controversial of Bach’s works. If we take just the order of the counterpoints - counterpoints III and IV are already double fugues in the spirit of the times because they were written in invertible counterpoint. Numbers V, VI and VII are counterfugues and thus necessarily have one subject.

What order should we use? Given that the author himself hesitated over the presentation of this monument, we had better give up on the idea of bringing any order to this collection, as that would be an insoluble and quite unnecessary exercise.

I have attempted, both in numerous analyses and in my essay: Pour une lecture alternative du Clavier Bien Tempéré (For an Alternative Reading of The Well-Tempered Clavier), to show that Bach’s fugues were written with a number of subjects.

I wanted to end the Bach in colour collection with a colourful, wordless edition of The Art of the Fugue, the way its author had intended. This edition of the four-part counterpoints is "For the Mind and for the Eyes".

I hope that the colouring of the various counterpoints will make the reader think about the thematic unity of Bach’s fugues!

Claude Charlier

Works of Claude Charlier

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