Johann Sebastian Bach was better known as a virtuoso
organist than as a composer in his day. His sacred
music, organ and choral works, and other instrumental
music had an enthusiasm and seeming freedom that
concealed immense rigor. Bach's use of counterpoint was
brilliant and innovative, and the immense complexities
of his compositional style -- which often included
religious and numerological symbols that seem to fit
perfectly together in a profound puzzle of special
codes -- still amaze musici...(+)
Johann Sebastian Bach was better known as a virtuoso
organist than as a composer in his day. His sacred
music, organ and choral works, and other instrumental
music had an enthusiasm and seeming freedom that
concealed immense rigor. Bach's use of counterpoint was
brilliant and innovative, and the immense complexities
of his compositional style -- which often included
religious and numerological symbols that seem to fit
perfectly together in a profound puzzle of special
codes -- still amaze musicians today. Many consider him
the greatest composer of all time
While scholars have questioned the authenticity of this
little fantasy, this composition exists in a Bach
family manuscript, with Bach clearly named as the
composer. What's stranger about the piece is its title:
"Fantasie duobus subiectis." It promises two subjects,
but there are actually three, and that doesn't count
the miniscule single-voice toccata that begins the
fantasy. The work's main matter is a sober, moderate-to
slow-tempo imitative fantasy in which the three voices
polyphonically intertwine. This is not a full-fledged
fugue, but merely a skillful exercise in counterpoint,
different from Bach's famous Three-Part Inventions
(Sinfonia) only in its grave nature and the presence of
the little opening toccata.
PARTITION