J. S. Bach's The art of fugue

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In this text, the author develops a new interpretation of J.S. Bach's The Art of Fugue, based on a profound knowledge of Baroque-era thought and intense score study. Starting with the work's celebrated BACH theme, he attempts to show that The Art of Fugue contains an assertion of the composer's deeply held faith, and that aspects of Bach's spiritual convictions permeate the entire musical fabric of the work. The author postulates that The Art of Fugue is actually a musical representation of Bach's beliefs about the God-human relationship, and argues that the Christian doctrine of "salvation by grace" is the core concept that provides the work with its expressive content in much the same way that the opening ground-theme subject acts as a basic generating source for all subsequent musical materials. Although The Art of Fugue is regarded by the musical world as one of the most significant examples of Bach's contrapuntal craft, the author convincingly argues that this work has an important spiritual dimension that goes beyond considerations of the composer's craftsmanship. He devotes this book to a lively and controversial discussion of unprovable matters; that is, to those aspects of expressive content which he believes are concealed both within and beyond the musical materials