The Art of Fugue (Die Kunst der Fuge), BWV 1080
Johann Sebastian Bach
Work background
Researched classical background
The Art of Fugue explores what can be made from a concentrated musical subject through fugues and canons. Bach transforms the material by inversion, augmentation, and combinations of independent lines. The surviving score does not specify a single performing instrument, and the final fugue remains unfinished. Keyboard performances and ensemble realizations therefore illuminate different aspects of the same contrapuntal design.
A listening guide
Pick out the opening subject, then listen for its outline in reversed direction or longer note values.
Listening suggestions are editorial guides to the music.
Forces: Instrumentation not explicitly specified; performed on keyboard or by ensembles
Composition: 1740s; left incomplete
The work evolved during Bach's last decade; the unfinished final fugue and later editions complicate a single completion date.
This entry describes the musical work or cycle. Composition, premiere and publication dates describe different events. Performers and recordings can be explored through the external listening search.
Also known as: Die Kunst der Fuge
Date, title and version notes
No single instrumentation is specified in the surviving main score.
Performances differ in ordering and whether the unfinished fugue is completed.
The Art of Fugue, BWV 1080 - LA Phil
Work identity, chronology where stated, and the specific musical or historical context summarized in this entry. | Reviewed 2026-10-19
Sources for this work
The Art of Fugue, BWV 1080 - LA Phil
Work identity, chronology where stated, and the specific musical or historical context summarized in this entry. | Reviewed 2026-10-19
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