Bachs Art of the Fugue :: Art of the Fugue Essays

The silence hangs heavily in the air, creating a single moment where one can feel the weight of the absence of sound. But a lone D cuts through the stillness, a flicker of light amidst black oblivion. It is followed by eleven other notes, a simple melody, but one that will be the very core of one of the greatest musical masterpieces to ever be conceived. This twelve-note melody becomes entwined and enveloped in an intricate accretion of variations, counterpoints, and modified themes, all based on the original twelve-note motif. The entire collection of variations comprises what is considered to be Bach’s most ambitious undertaking, the Art of the Fugue, meant to serve as an intensive study of the fugue as an entity. Already a complex and multifaceted piece, Art of the Fugue gains a whole new level of depth and significance when placed inside its historical context, amidst the story of its creation and the demise of its creator. During the two hundred and fift y years of its existence, Art of the Fugue has acquired quite the reputation, as it has become enshrouded in a web of mystery and mystique. However, when we strip away these layers, the piece retains its magnitude, as the sheer mastery of the piece is enough to merit substantial renown and reverence. In the early 1740’s, Bach began work on what many consider to be his most monumental project ever, Art of the Fugue. Bach intended this piece to be an extensive study of â€Å"the art of fugal counterpoint,† exploring the possibilities and various outcomes that can be produced by manipulating a single theme (â€Å"The Art of the Fugue†). Bach was not commissioned to compose this piece, nor was the idea inspired or suggested to him by anyone else; in creating Art of the Fugue, Bach was â€Å"alone in his genius† (Herz, 4-5). The result of Bach’s endeavors was a collection of eighteen fugues, all in the same key, and all based on the same principle theme. This principle theme was modified and transformed into an astonishing number of over twenty different major variations and one hundred minor variations (â€Å"The Art of the Fugue†).