The Art of Fugue or The Art of the Fugue (original German: Die Kunst der Fuge), BWV 1080, is an incomplete masterpiece by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685--1750). The work was most likely started at the beginning of the 1740s, if not earlier. The first known surviving version, which contained 12 fugues and 2 canons, was copied by the composer in 1745. This manuscript has a slightly different title, added afterwards by his son-in-law Johann Christoph Altnickol: Die Kunst der Fuga. Bachs second version was published in 1751 after his death. It contains 14 fugues and 4 canons. «The governing idea of the work», as the eminent Bach specialist Christoph Wolff put it, is «an exploration in depth of the contrapuntal possibilities inherent in a single musical subject.»

Structure

0:00 — Contrapunctus I
3:12 — Contrapunctus II
6:24 — Contrapunctus III
9:20 — Contrapunctus IV
14:38 — Contrapunctus V
17:55 — Contrapunctus VI in Stylo Francese
22:04 — Contrapunctus VII per Augmentationem et Diminutionem
26:04 — Contrapunctus VIII
32:06 — Contrapunctus IX alla Duodecima
35:06 — Contrapunctus X alla Decima
39:30 — Contrapunctus XI Triple fugue
46:41 — Canone allOttava
49:35 — Canone alla Duodecima in Contrapunto alla Quinta
51:52 — Canone alla Decima in Contrapunto alla Terza
56:36 — Canone per Augmentationem in Contrario Motu
1:01:27 — Contrapunctus XIII rectus
1:03:59 — Contrapunctus XIII inversus
1:06:57 — Contrapunctus XII rectus
1:09:50 — Contrapunctus XII inversus

Herbert Tachezi, organ

[Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Art_of_Fugue]