Sheet Music: Contrapunctus V

TitleContrapunctus V
from The Art of Fugue
Opus numberBWV 1080
ComposerJohann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750)
InstrumentationFlute quartet
KeyD minor
RangeB♮3–G6
Time signature4/4
Tempo72 BPM
Performance time2:35
Difficulty levelintermediate
Download printable scorePDF Sheet Music (210 kB) (preview)
Download audio tracksMIDI (change tempo/key) MP3 (1.2 MB)
Play-along accompanimentMIDI (change tempo/key) MP3 (1.2 MB)
Date added2022-12-12
Last updated2022-12-12
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Categories
Baroque, Fugues

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Monday 12 December 2022

Tune of the Day: Contrapunctus V by Bach

arranged for flute quartet

This arrangement for two C flutes, alto flute, and bass flute of J.S. Bach's Contrapunctus V from The Art of Fugue was kindly contributed to our collection by flutist and composer Yulia Musayelyan.

Written during the 1740s, the last decade of Bach's life, The Art of Fugue (Die Kunst der Fuge) is one of the most complex masterpieces left to us by the great German composer. It consists of 14 fugues (each called a “contrapunctus”) and 4 canons, all in D minor, each using some variation of a single principal subject. Bach did not indicate which instruments were to be used to perform the work, but most scholars would probably argue that it was intended for the harpsichord. Nonetheless, the work has been performed on a wide variety of instruments, ranging from the piano, to chamber orchestras, to saxophone ensembles.