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KERMAN | THE ART OF FUGUE BACH FUGUES FOR KEYBOARD, 1715–1750 The Art of Fugue The Art of Fugue Bach Fugues for Keyboard, 1715 –1750 Joseph Kerman With new recordings by Davitt Moroney and Karen Rosenak university of california press University of California Press Oakland, California © 2005 by The Regents of the University of California Open Access edition © 2015 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-ND license. To view a copy of the license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses. Suggested citation: Kerman, Joseph. The Art of Fugue: Bach Fugues for Keyboard, 1715–1750. Oakland: University of California Press, 2015. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/ luminos.1 An earlier edition of The Art of Fugue was cataloged as follows by the Library of Congress: Kerman, Joseph, 1924– The art of fugue : Bach fugues for keyboard, 1715–1750/ Joseph Kerman. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index. Includes compact disc. isbn 0-520-24358-7 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Fugue. 2. Bach, Johann Sebastian, 1685–1750. Keyboard music. I. Title. mt59.k49 2005 786’.1872’092—dc22 2005004045 Recording engineer: Robert Schumaker. Tracks 1–2 and 7–8 were recorded at International House, University of California, Berkeley, on February 8, 2004; track 3 at the same location on February 23, 2004; track 4 at Chapel of St. Joseph of Arimathea, Berkeley, on April 28, 2004; and tracks 5–6 at Hertz Hall, University of California, Berkeley, on January 24, 2004. ISBN (OA e-edition) 978-0-520-96259-0 ISBN (POD paperback) 978-0-520-28763-1 Manufactured in the United States of America The paper used in the print edition of this publication meets the minimum requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48–1992 (R 1997) (Permanence of Paper). To Ellen Rosand, thirty-year friend A song that is well and artificially made cannot be well perceived nor understood at the first hearing, but the oftener you shall hear it, the better cause of liking you will discover. William Byrd What I can offer has a meaning only for those who have heard, and who keep on hearing. To such I may be able to give a suggestion here and there for renewed hearing. Søren Kierkegaard contents List of Recordings and Scores xiii Preface xvii Acknowledgments xxiii 1. Fugue in C Major: The Well-Tempered Clavier, book 1 1 2. Fugue in C Minor: The Well-Tempered Clavier, book 1 10 3. Fughetta in C Major, BWV 952 15 4. Fugue in C-sharp Minor: The Well-Tempered Clavier, book 1 20 5. Contrapunctus 1: The Art of Fugue 30 x / Contents 6. Contrapunctus 10: The Art of Fugue 36 7. Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue, BWV 903 47 8. Prelude and Fugue in E-flat Major: The Well-Tempered Clavier, book 1 60 9. Fugue in E Major: The Well-Tempered Clavier, book 2 69 10. Fugue on “Jesus Christus unser Heiland”: Clavierübung, book 3 79 11. Fugue in F-sharp Minor: The Well-Tempered Clavier, book 1 89 12. Gigue: English Suite no. 3 in G Minor 96 13. Fugue in A-flat Major:The Well-Tempered Clavier, book 1 101 14. Fugue in A Minor: Fantasy and Fugue in A Minor, BWV 904 107 15. Fugue in B-flat Major:The Well-Tempered Clavier, book 2 118 16. Fugue in B Major: The Well-Tempered Clavier, book 2 125 Contents / xi Afterword 135 Notes 141 Notes to the Recordings 147 Glossary 151 Bibliography 159 Index 163 list of recordings and scores Recording information is given on the copyright page. Audio files and scores are available in the open access edition of this book, available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/luminos.1. recordings (tracks 1–8) 1–2 Prelude and Fugue in C Major: The Well-Tempered Clavier, book 1 Karen Rosenak, piano 1:27 / 1:52 http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/luminos.1.1 3 Fughetta in C Major, BWV 952 Davitt Moroney, clavichord 1:54 http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/luminos.1.2 4 Fugue on “Jesus Christus unser Heiland”: Clavierübung, book 3 Davitt Moroney, organ 4:52 http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/luminos.1.3 xiii xiv / List of Recordings and Scores 5–6 Fantasy and Fugue in A Minor, BWV 904 Davitt Moroney, harpsichord 2:46 / 5:34 http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/luminos.1.4 7–8 Prelude and Fugue in B Major: The Well-Tempered Clavier, book 2 Karen Rosenak, piano 1:43 / 3:28 http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/luminos.1.5 scores 1–2 Prelude and Fugue in C Major: The Well-Tempered Clavier, book 1 http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/luminos.1.6 3–4 Prelude and Fugue in C Minor: The Well-Tempered Clavier, book http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/luminos.1.7 5 Fughetta in C Major, BWV 952 http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/luminos.1.8 6–7 Prelude and Fugue in C-sharp Minor: The Well-Tempered Clavier, book 1 http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/luminos.1.9 8–9 Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue, BWV 903 http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/luminos.1.10 10–11 Prelude and Fugue in E-flat Major: The Well-Tempered Clavier, book 1 http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/luminos.1.11 12–13 Prelude and Fugue in E Major: The Well-Tempered Clavier, book 2 http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/luminos.1.12 List of Recordings and Scores / xv 14 Fugue on “Jesus Christus unser Heiland”: Clavierübung, book 3 http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/luminos.1.13 15–16 Prelude and Fugue in F-sharp Minor: The Well-Tempered Clavier, book 1 http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/luminos.1.14 17 Gigue: English Suite no. 3 in G Minor http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/luminos.1.15 18–19 Prelude and Fugue in A-flat Major: The Well-Tempered Clavier, book 1 http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/luminos.1.16 20–21 Fantasy and Fugue in A Minor, BWV 904 http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/luminos.1.17 22–23 Prelude and Fugue in B-flat Major: The Well-Tempered Clavier, book 2 http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/luminos.1.18 24–25 Prelude and Fugue in B Major: The Well-Tempered Clavier, book 2 http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/luminos.1.19 preface This is a book of commentaries on selected Bach fugues— “essays in musical analysis and appreciation,” one might call them, to enlarge on the title of Donald Francis Tovey’s famous Essays in Musical Analysis. The fugues are keyboard fugues, written for clavichord, harpsichord, and organ. About half of them come from the two books of The Well-Tempered Clavier (WTC), the other half from a variety of other sources, some of them less familiar: Bach’s comprehensive keyboard publica- tion Clavierübung (Keyboard Practice), Die Kunst der Fuge (The Art of Fugue), the English Suites, and other manuscript sources. The music stems from all periods of Bach’s career except for the earliest. The Chromatic Fantasy dates most probably from his Weimar years, around 1715, and the two contrapuncti from The Art of Fugue reached their definitive form when Bach revised the work just before his death in 1750. Annotations of any extent on Bach fugues are hard to find outside of the technical literature, and I have taken the time to do justice, as best I can, to these short but very rich pieces. The xvii xviii / Preface discussion is geared to individual segments and bars within the fugues, so readers will need the sheet music with the bars num- bered. Most of those who come to this book will already own copies of the WTC, the source of many of the pieces, and some of the other selections too. This book includes scores of all but two of the works discussed in detail. [Two scores from Die Kunst der Fuge, BWV 1080 that were part of the original edition are not included here.—Ed.] Also included are performances of five of the fugues discussed below, specially recorded for this book by Davitt Moroney and Karen Rosenak. One inspiration for the present work was Tovey, whose lap- idary and marvelous annotations to his edition of the Well- Tempered Clavier are classics. First published in 1924, they were reprinted in 1994 to accompany an authoritative new musical text of the WTC, prepared by Richard Jones. As a publication of the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music, Tovey’s contribution was appropriately didactic; his annotations read like a piano teacher’s docket of instruc- tions about touch, fingering, ornaments, and so on, for every place that needs them. But his instructions always rest on his understanding of the music, and what he has to say about that makes, or should make, his commentaries required reading for anyone interested in the fugues, not only students. My purpose is critical, not didactic. I write about reading and listening to fugues, not performing them—listening to them and understanding them. Another inspiration for me was not a text but a musical anthology, Bach: The Fugue, an elegant collection of nine fugues, some with preludes, edited by Charles Rosen for the Oxford Preface / xix Keyboard Classics in 1975. We have not a few items in common. There are profound words in Rosen’s introduction: The “pure” fugue, the meditative fugue, is basically a keyboard work for Bach. Of course the fugal texture can be adapted to many forms: the dance, the concerto, the aria, the chorale-prelude.