Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist,
harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and
secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo
instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque
period and brought it to its ultimate maturity.
Although he did not introduce new forms, he enriched
the prevailing German style with a robust contrapuntal
technique, an unrivalled control of harmonic and
motivic organisation, and the adaptation of rhythms,
forms and textures from abroad, p...(+)
Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist,
harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and
secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo
instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque
period and brought it to its ultimate maturity.
Although he did not introduce new forms, he enriched
the prevailing German style with a robust contrapuntal
technique, an unrivalled control of harmonic and
motivic organisation, and the adaptation of rhythms,
forms and textures from abroad, particularly from Italy
and France.
Although originally ascribed to J. S. Bach as BWV 495,
this fugue is believed to be the work of Christoph
Graupner (13 January 1683 — 10 May 1760). This work
is less clearly a "possible" work, weaker in style and
source situation. The lost copy from the Hauser
collection was supposedly an autograph, but BG 36 did
not describe it as such, and it lacked an attribution
(Kobayashi 1973, 342, 388); the attribution in P 315
also is not original. The assignment to Bach might have
depended on an enthusiastic guess by Robert Schumann,
who first published the piece in 1839. In P 315—a
late Viennese source according to Eichberg (1975,
14)—the fugue occurs anonymously alongside an
Allemande and Courante in A (BWV 838) now assigned to
Graupner. These have little in common musically with
the fugue."
The fugue nevertheless has a distinctive theme and a
rational, clearly articulated design that falls into
two halves, using sharply contrasting counter-subjects.
The second countersubject, introduced after the cadence
at m. 34, is a lively, if old-fashioned, violinistic
idea, and in the final phrase a sequence derived from
it brings the piece to an impressive conclusion. The
more restrained first counter-subject is less well
conceived, consistently forming weak passing
dissonances (echepees). Moreover, the octave leaps in
the subject produce passages that are awkward to play
as well as weak contrapuntally, as when the alto leaps
over the tenor in m. 22. Yet Bach's fondness for
thematic material containing octaves is clear from BWV
992, 915, and other early works. Although this hardly
constitutes evidence for his authorship, it cannot rule
it out.
Source: IMSLP
(http://imslp.org/wiki/Fugue_in_E_minor,_BWV_945_(Bach,
_Johann_Sebastian)).
Although originally written for Harpsichord. I created
this Interpretation of the Fugue in E Minor (BWV 945)
Transcribed in A Minor for Woodwind Quartet (Flute,
Oboe, Bb Clarinet & Bassoon).
PARTITION