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Tune of the Day: Contrapunctus V by Bach
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.