Customer Reviews

The Art of the Fugue & A Musical Offering (Dover Chamber Music Scores)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
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This is a jewel; a paperback (with Dover's usual great binding quality) that contains both the Art of Fugue and the Musical Offering.

The Art of Fugue was originally written in open score, to emphasize that the performance instrument was not specified. This edition gives the open score with a two-stave (piano-type) reduction below.

Of course, with a solid binding like that, it's not going to stay open on your piano.

If you want to play / doodle the great Contrapunctus 1 from TAOF (like I did), and if you've got the hairclips to keep the pages down (like I wish I did), this book is for you! Gofer it. Arch

This is a STUDY edition rather than a performing edition of JS Bach's "The Art of the Fugue" and "A Musical Offering". I suppose you could bend it back and break the spine in order to get it to lay flat, but there are already many great performing editions of these works. So, why not study from your performing edition?

Simply, this provides "The Art of the Fugue" in open score. That is, each voice has its own line so it is clear which voice leads where. If you want to study how the fugues work, or make arrangements for multiple instruments, this is a critical help. In standard two stave editions the voices cross so much that one has to be extremely careful to get the voices right. Here it is quite simple. The standard two stave system for playing the work at the keyboard is also provided, but it is really too small to read at a keyboard. Again, the purpose is for study.

Another added bonus for the student is that the alto voice uses the alto cleff and the tenor voice uses the tenor cleff. So, the student gets practice reading C-cleffs in addition to the standard G and F cleffs (the standard piano cleffs - treble and bass cleffs).

Highly recommended for the student who wants to study these works, learn more about counterpoint and fugue, and may want to try his hand at transcribing them for a small ensemble.

Beautifully presented. This shows the great man at the pinnacle of his contrapuntal powers. A must for Bach enthusiasts and those who wish to observe fugal writing without parallel.

This book is great. If you like to watch the music as it is being played, this is for you.

You could play the pieces from this book as well, but there are better publications for that.

The Art OF Fugue is one of my favorite of Bach's life work. I first listened to the Emerson String Quartet version and loved it. I got this edition to study TAOF. The print is large, well spaced, very easy to read. The book itself is quite thick, as this substantial work also includes A Musical Offering. An outstanding value, better I doubt I will find.