Fugal Composition

Fugal Composition
Author: Dorene Groocock
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Total Pages: 247
Release: 2003-02-28
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0313052425

Eminently readable despite the complexity of its subject, Fugal Composition: A Guide to the Study of Bach's 48 guides the reader in studying the 48 fugues of the composer's Well-Tempered Clavier. Author Joseph Groocock analyzes each of the fugues individually, both verbally and diagrammatically, and includes such elements as overall structure, episodes, stretto, subsidiary subjects, and countersubjects. The appendices and index furnish a ready reference for the scholar or researcher seeking information or guidance on specific points. Meanwhile, the volume's editor supplies comparative analyses using current and previous scholarship on every fugue-illustrating where the author supports or challenges other viewpoints. In all, the analyses contained in Fugal Composition establish the extraordinary diversity of Bach's fugal style, in such a way that readers gain a new understanding of these significant and beautiful works of music.

Bach's Well-tempered Clavier

Bach's Well-tempered Clavier
Author: David Ledbetter
Publisher: Yale University Press
Total Pages: 430
Release: 2002-01-01
Genre: Music
ISBN: 0300128983

Bach's Well-tempered Clavier (or the 48 Preludes and Fugues) stands at the core of baroque keyboard music and has been a model and inspiration for performers and composers ever since it was written. This invaluable guide to the 96 pieces explains Bach's various purposes in compiling the music, describes the rich traditions on which he drew, and provides commentaries for each prelude and fugue. In his text, David Ledbetter addresses the main focal points mentioned by Bach in his original 1722 title page. Drawing on Bach literature over the past three hundred years, he explores German traditions of composition types and Bach's novel expansion of them; explains Bach's instruments and innovations in keyboard technique in the general context of early eighteenth-century developments; reviews instructive and theoretical literature relating to keyboard temperaments from 1680 to 1750; and discusses Bach's pedagogical intent when composing the Well-tempered Clavier. Ledbetter's commentaries on individual preludes and fugues equip readers with the concepts necessary to make their own assessment and include information about the sources when details of notation, ornaments, and fingerings have a bearing on performance.

Analyzing Fugue

Analyzing Fugue
Author: William Renwick
Publisher: Pendragon Press
Total Pages: 248
Release: 1995
Genre: Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN: 9780945193524

The analytical techniques that Heinrich Schenker developed have become increasingly dominant in the analysis of tonal music, and have provided a rich and powerful means of understanding the complexities of great masterworks of the Western tradition. Schenker's method is based on two cardinal concepts-a hierarchy of tones grouped into structural levels, and a recognition of the importance of strict voice-leading at all structural levels. In Analyzing Fugue-A Schenkerian Approach, author William Renwick utilizes Schenkerian techniques to explore the relationship between imitative counterpoint and voice-leading in fugue. He shows that the art of fugal composition as practiced by masters such as Bach and Handel involves a remarkable degree of systematic structural patterning that is not evident on the surface of the music. Reviews-...Renwick's book offers a penetrating theory of fugue, with telling observations for theorists and composers alike. Heather Platt Notes Sept. 1996...clearly the fruit of deep study and sophisticated knowledge of fugues (particularly those of bach) and the literature about them. ...many will find it a fount of wisdom and knowledge. Lionel Pike, Music and Letters vol. 77 no. 1...consummate and meticulous scholarship. Robert Gauldin, Intégral vol. 9

Bulletin

Bulletin
Author: Omaha Public Library
Publisher:
Total Pages: 202
Release: 1901
Genre: Libraries
ISBN: