Edited by John O’Donnell

Full critical commentary

Colour hardback cover with a matt finish

The Art of Fugue has long been recognised as an unfinished masterpiece of Bach’s final years. Though its publication in open score gave rise to a myth of unspecified instrumentation, keyboard players who have taken the time to study the work know that it was crafted for their hands. What is not generally known, however, is that Bach completed an earlier, twelve-movement version in about 1742, a date that places it in close temporal proximity to such works of enduring greatness as Clavierübung III, the ‘Goldberg’ Variations, and the second book of The Well-Tempered Clavier.

The earlier version of The Art of Fugue, a significant product of Bach’s maturity, is here printed for the first time, in both two-stave and open-score versions. The editorial process has involved peeling off layers of revisions made for the later, significantly enlarged version of the work, to discover a masterpiece in its own right.

John O‘Donnell is an Australian organist, harpsichordist, conductor and scholar. He is Monash University Organist, Founder/Director of Ensemble Gombert, keyboard player of the chamber trio Capella Corelli, and Director of Music at All Saints’, East St Kilda. He has performed throughout Europe and North America and has published a number of articles on Bach and an edition of the complete keyboard works of Johann Caspar Kerll.