The Art of Fugue
Making music together in small concert halls is a familiar part of the lives of those who dedicate themselves to the recorder. When this activity becomes a profession, it indicates that the participants understand that the recorder is a wonderful musical instrument for two reasons: the individual sonority of each instrument can be distinguished easily, and, moreover, it blends perfectly with that of the other instruments of the recorder family. So, it is the recorder, an apparently simple instrument that permits the performance of complex musical texts sublimely.
This recording of The Art of Fugue demonstrates Bach’s complete mastery of the most complex form of musical expression within the learned music known as counterpoint, and the complete mastery of the Quinta Essentia quartet of the art of making music with recorders.
| J. S. Bach (1685 – 1750) | A Arte da Fuga (1749) – BWV 1080 |
| Contrapunctus 1 | |
| Contrapunctus 3 | |
| Contrapunctus 2 | |
| Contrapunctus 4 | |
| Canon in Hypodiapason – alla ottava | |
| Contrapunctus 5 | |
| Contrapunctus 6 | |
| Contrapunctus 7 | |
| Canon in Hypodiatessaron al roversio e per augmentationem | |
| Contrapunctus 8, a 3 | |
| Contrapunctus 9, a 4 alla Duodecima | |
| Contrapunctus 10, a 4 alla Decima | |
| Contrapunctus 11, a 4 | |
| Canon per augmentationem in Contrario Motu | |
| Contrapunctus 12, a 4: rectus | |
| Contrapunctus 12, a 4: inversus | |
| Canon alla Decima – Contrapunto alla terza | |
| Contrapunctus 13, a 3: rectus | |
| Contrapunctus 13, a 3: inversus | |
| Canon alla Duodecima in Contrapunto alla Quinta | |
| Contrapunctus 14 a 3 soggetti | |
| total: 81’41” |