Fugal Composition

Eminently readable despite the complexity of its subject, this book guides the reader in studying the 48 fugues of the composer's Well-Tempered Clavier. Author Joseph Groocock analyzes each of the fugues individually, both verbally and diagrammatically, and includes such elements as overall structure, episodes, stretto, subsidiary subjects, and countersubjects. Meanwhile, the volume's editor supplies comparative analyses using current and previous scholarship on every fugue illustrating where the author supports or challenges other viewpoints. In all, the analyses contained here establish the extraordinary diversity of Bach's fugal style in such a way that reader and researcher alike gain a new understanding of these significant and beautiful works of music.