Played by James Ching
Fugues 1, 2, and 3

In the last years of his life Bach wrote two notable works, illustrating the possibilities of composition, especially in fugal style. One of I these was the Musical Offering which he dedicated to the King of Prussia, and the other, a project which crystallised in his mind at the same time, was this Art of Fugue, a series of pieces based on one theme - a treatise in sound. He died before it could be completely engraved. When it was published, very few copies were sold, and Bach's son sold the plates from which it was printed for a very small sum. Musicians have long recognised the marvellous skill and force of the work, in which, with supreme ease; Bach manipulates his material in a number of the most elaborate combinations.

There are in all fourteen Fugues and four 'canons' (in which a tune is 'shadowed,' so to speak, a few notes or bars behind, its shadow-copy imitating its every movement).

This is the tune Bach chose for such varied treatment:-

In each of the Fugues played tonight four parts or 'voices' (with which term listeners are doubtless by now familiar) take up the tune in turn, the preceding voices meanwhile going on with running 'counterpoints' to the tune and to each other, so that the harmony is ever full and satisfying, yet each voice lives its individual life (for after each has started like its fellows, it goes off independently). Constantly there are bits of 'imitation' by one voice or another, and parts of the theme, as well as its whole form, are used for treatment. Bach in the First Fugue makes an abrupt break when he has worked at his theme as much as he wishes, and adds a Coda to wind up. The the Second Fugue he begins with the tune as before, though in the Bass: but this time he puts its last few notes in a jiggy rhythm which becomes a notable feature of the whole Fugue.

The Third Fugue sets the tune on its head - 'inverts' it, so that where a note formerly rose to the next, now it falls, and vice-versa.