The Kunst der Fugue, or "Art of Fugue," is the masterpiece of Johann Sebastian Bach’s last years. Bach finished it in a first version, now known as the "Berlin Autograph." He then decided to revise and expand the music, and engrave it for publication. He died, leaving unfinished a colossal fugue, in which a theme made up of the letters of his name entered as the third subject.
The engraving was completed and the work published by Bach's sons, in 1750 or 1751, in a somewhat jumbled form. In  1752 it was published again with a preface and glowing appreciation by the leading German musical scholar, F. W. Marpurg, who said, "in this work are contained the most hidden beauties possible to the art of music." But the tastes of the times were changing. As Forkel, Bach's first biographer, wrote in 1802, "This work of Bach’s was, nevertheless, too high for the great world; it was forced to withdraw into the small world inhabited by a few connoisseurs. This small world was soon provided with copies; the plates lay unused, and were at length sold by the heirs as old copper."
During the 19th centurly, the Kunst der Fuge was published in piano versions by Czerny and others, but little performed. The 20th century, with its increasing interest in Bach's work, began to appreciate its greatness. Several instrumental arrangements were published, including an orchestration by Graeser which used "romantic" orchestration, one by Vuataz employing an orchestra somewhat closer to that of Bach's practice, and versions for string orchestra and string quartet.The theorz behind them was that since the work was written in open score, with no indication of any instrumentation, it could be taken up by any instruments. Both the architecture and rich emotional life of the music emerge from the sounds as heard, without the feeling some other arrangements give of being an "intermediary" between Bach and the listener, an addition by a later age.
Gustav M. Leonhardt, who peforms the Kunst der Fuge on this record, is a leading figure in the musical life of Holland, as harpsichordist, organist and scholar of Renaissance and Baroque music. For some years he was drawn to the special problem of this masterpiece of the late Bach. The result of his study is contained both in the performance, and in a monograph, "The Art of Fugue - Bach's Last Harpsichord Work: An Argument (Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague, 1952).
Mr. Leonhardt's argument that this is a harpsichord work may be summarized as follows. Frst, it was a known practice in bot the 17th and early 18th centuries to publish keyboard work in open score, especially those with a complex pholyphony. Examples are cited from Scheidt, Frescobaldi, Froberger and Maichelbeck. Secoundly, the range of none of the orchestral or ensemble instruments, as Bach used them, corresponds to the range of any of the voices of the Kunst der Fuge. Bach. in writing for instrumental ensemble, was always a master instrumentalist, and none of the characteristic melodic "shapes" of his ensemble instrumental writing is found here. Third, the fugue types are not those of his ensemble instrumental fugues, whereas they are very definitely the fugue types of his keyboard works, as in "The Well-tempered Clavier." Mr. Leonhardt shows that there is a striking optical resemblance between the fugues in this work and those of the "Well-tempered Clavier," where the latter are written out in open score. The fugues also have the same "hidden homophony" of Bach's other keyboard fugues. Furthermore, everything in the Kunst der Fuge is within easy reach of two hands. Bach made alterations so that it would be more playable on the keyboard. The fact that there is no "continue bass" supporting the entrance of the voices would also make these fugues different from those of Bach’s ensemble and orchestral style. The fact that the bass voice sometimes rises above the tenor, with the tenor becoming the real bass, indicates to Mr. Leonhardt that the bass part was not meant to be doubled at 16-foot pitch, which would eliminate the organ from consideration.
Thus, disregarding the limited clavichord, the harpsichord becomes the logical instrument, and Mr. Leonhardt concludes, "The Art of Fugue has been written with an extraordinary knowledge of the technical possibilities of ten fingers on a keyboard. The work does not only show Bach on his immense creative height, but also as the grandiose master of the keyboard."
The Kunst der Fuge may be described as a colossal set of fugue variations, consisting of fifteen fugues and four canons, all built on the same basic "motto" theme. Of the fifteen fugues, four are "mirror" fugues, in other words two fugues each followed by its exact "mirror images." To this is added a great unfinished fugue, in which the name BACH (B flat - A - C - B natural) appears as the third theme. The fugues are of every variety. There are simple, double, and triple fugues, fugues with the answer in contrary motion, fugues in double counterpoint, fugues in which the theme appears in both diminution and augmentation, fugues in which all three or four parts are in contrary motion to each other.
In Gustav Leonhardt's performance of the Kunst der Fugue, the musical text is followed of the edition of 1750 or 1751, which was put out by Bach's sons. Otherwise jowever, this edition is, as Spitta describes it, "in dreadful disorder", with duplications and additions that obviously lo not belong in the work. and so for the orde of the fugues, Mr. Leonhardt has followed the "Berlin Autograph", Bach's earlier version of the work. To this he has added the fugue and two canons numbered as 4, 9, and 11, which are not found in the earlier manuscript but in the later edition, and belong to the work as Bach planned it. Where to place these is an open question, and the order chosen is, in Leonhardt's words, one "of many possibilities." The placing chosen here conceives the work as a great symmetrical structure, the nineteen fugues and canons divided into five main sections of 4-4-3-4-4, each of which is also a symmetrical structure; in other words, a "microcosmos" within a "macrocosmos." Within each section, as in the entire work, there is at the same time a sense of continuity and progressive development, or "build-up."
The main subject is at first worked out simply, but already in a fugue of great power and beuaty. Then, in the first group of fugues, the feeling is enriched by answers in "French style" dotted rhythm, while the subject, inverted, reveals a new "yearning" emotional feeling. We then find the subject modified, appearing in the same fugue in its natural time and also in augmentation and diminution. Then the musical texture, feeling and structure become firther enriched as new, independent and contrasting themes are used, along with the main subject. The climax is reached in two great triple fugues, one in three voices and one in four, flanked by two canons. Then come the two sets of "mirror fugues", which Spitta describes as follows. "From a technical point of view, they exhibit Bach on a dizzy pinnacle of eminence. At a height where existence would be an impossibility to others, he breathes with ease and freedom."
What did Bach intend in this work? Why, did he write it in open score? Mr. Leonhardt's analysis provides an interesting picture of the entire Baroque era, and throws new light on the particular significance of the Kunst der Fuge.
The Baroque, as Mr. Leonhardt describes it, starts in the period 1580-1630, as a counter-current to the music of the high Renaissance, typified by Palestrina. Its period of growth is 1630-50, and its flowering takes place in 1650-1700. The period of 1700-50, covering most of Bach's lifetime, in that of Baroque "refinement", and after 1750 it turns into the light galant style of Rococo.
The Kunst der Fuge is a culmination of Baroque style. Written by Bach near the end of his life, it was a conscious attempt by Bach to halt the movement towards over-refinement and the galant, to restore, within the rich sensuous and technical mastery reached by Baroque music, the great qualities at the "old style", in the form of deep emotions and powerfully worked out polyphony.
This helps to explain both the deeply moving character of the Kunst der Fuge, and its architecture, which Bach worked out once and then proceeded to work out over again on a higher level. It also explains why he wrote it in open score, namely, to emphasize the "old style", the polyphony, and the basic lessons of the relationship and working out of the voices. It also explains, finally, the misapprehensions that have clustered about this work. Bach's sons and Marpurg, in their publication of it, over-emphasized the diadctic elements, such as "teaching how to writes fugues", in the hope that this would help sell the work. As a result, the myth has clung about it up to modern times, that it is an "abstract" work of "instruction" in fugue writing. While Kunst der Fuge is customarily translated "Art of the Fugue", Mr. Leonhardt prefers to translate in the name as, "Art of Fugue", thus emphasizing that it is a work of art in fugue form, not a set of craft lessons. And it is just this "dualism," the combination of refinement and "spiritual qualities," he writes, that "gives this great music its gripping, even frightening, atmosphere."
The colossal unfinisched fugue is here placed at the end. It may be called a "sketch", since it is quite possible that Bach would have not only finished it but revised it. Yet it is music of the greatest beauty, and its sudden breaking off is almost unbearable. It moves through three great fugal sections, each on a new subject, the third of these being the B A C H motif. The entry of Bach's name, and the poignant working out of it, give the music almost an autobiographical quality. For a long time it was believed not even to belong to the plan of the work, since the main of "motto" subject developed throughout the Kunst der Fuge does not appear in it. But Nottebohm has discovered that the main or "motto" subject of the Kunst der Fuge combines with the other themes of this great unfinished fugue so perfectly that it may be said to have been implied by them. In other words, what Bach planned was a great crowning quadruple fugue, in which the fourth entry would be the main or "motto" subject, in combination with the other three.
Mr. Leonhardt has devoted long study to the problem of the ornaments to be used in performance of Bach and othe Baroque composers. As he writes, "The early 18th century was in Germany not careful in noting down the ordinary ornaments, these belonging to the domain of the performer... The omission of ornaments was regarded as a sign of clumsiness and dullness." These ornaments consisted of trills, appoggiaturas, and in some cases, little connecting cadenzas. The "safe" procedure today, of course, is to ignore this fact, and simply play the printed notes. But as Leonhardt points out, far from this being "faithful" to Baroque music it results in a caricature of it. While to some extent the particular ornamentation depends on the taste of the performer, the specific ornaments and how they were to be used are amply described in the literaure of the mid-18th century, as in William Friedemann Bach. Also important is the question of rhythms. In music of the early 18th century, whenever it was in "dotted rhythm" or a long note was grouped with one or two following short notes, the long note was beld longer than written, and the short notes played as quickly as possible. This is amply testified to by writings of J. J. Quantz, W. Marpurg, and C. P. E. Bach as well as by examples of Bach's own music, where in some cases he writes out exactly how such rhythms are to be performed. Mr. Leonhardt's performance of Contrapunctus VI, in this set, with its "French style" rhythms, is an example of this manner of handling the music.
Such is the difficult and exacting pathway to a correct performance of Bach's work, and of the Kunst der Fuge in particular. It makes the music come to life in a way both exciting and true to the composer's intentions, far different from one which adds to the notes as written "self expression, romantic style." As Mr. Leonhardt describes the early 18th century manner of peformance, "The executant's fantasy was concerned with: ornaments, rhythm, tempo, phrasing and, in slow movements mainly, division. And apart from this equipment, the performer needed a refinement of taste and of musical eloquence in order to produce the piece in the right. "Affekt", chosen from a rich palette of clearly distinct expressions. In contrast with the 19th century, using music as a means of making music, regarding it as an object to manipulate and so always remaining its master... What an immensely high standard performances of Corelli, Couperin, Bach, Abel, or Quantz must have attained!"
Gustav M. Leonhardt, born in 1928 in Holland, has entered the select circle of brilliant instrumentalists who are also ground-breaking scholars of Renaissance and Baroque music. In his student years in Holland, Switzerland and Austria he won the highest honors both for musicology and performance on the harpsichord and organ. He is one of the Achnowledged European masters of the authentic ornaments and improvisatory style of Baroque music. In the spirit of the old musician-artisans, he is also an expert on the construction and design of the harpsichord and Baroque Organ. Since 1952 he has been professor of harpsichord and musicology at the Academy of Music in Vienna, dividing his time between Vienna and the Conservatory at Amsterdam, where he teaches as well.
This recording of the Art of Fugue is the first of a series of recordings of Baroque harpsichord and organ music that will be made by Mr. Leonhardt, who in an exclusive Vanguard-Bach Guild, recording artist- This recording has a special historic importance, for it preserves in permanent form the reading of this work given by Gustav Leonhardt at Wigmore Hall in London, the Brahmsaal in Vienna, and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, which embodied the fruits of many years of study of the problems raised by the music. These performances, in the words of the critics, threw a new and revealing light upon Bach's great masterpiece, making it emerge in its full Baroque grandeur, color and vitality.
For this recording Mr. Leonhardt had used a Neupert harpsichord made in Bamberg, Germany.