“But this ‘Art of Fugue’ was too lofty for the great world; it became only known in the very small world of connoisseurs. This small world was soon provided with copies; the plates were useless, and were finally sold by Bach’s heirs as old copper.”...
“The last fugue but one has three subjects, the third being the notes b, a, c, h. This fugue was however interrupted by the blindness of the author, and could not be finished.
“To make up for the unfinished fugue, the editors added at the end the four voice chorale ‘Wenn wir in höchsten Nöthen sein,’ which he dictated to his son-in-law Altnikol on his death-bed.”
The work was brought out at the Leipsic Fair of Easter 1752. Mattheson was loud in his praise saying it would astonish all French and Italian fugue-makers. But the work was in reality finished. The MS. was complete, and the engraving was being done under the author’s direction when he died in 1750. No one could fulfil his intentions, and the engravers simply went on engraving everything that came to hand, both sketches and completed movements, and it was full of printer’s errors. Hauptmann clearly shows that the last (unfinished) fugue is certainly Bach’s own work, but that it has no connection with the “Art of Fugue,” which closes in reality with the fugue for two claviers. The series of fugues are all on one subject; the unfinished work leaves the subject, and has nothing to do with the other fugues. We have therefore Bach’s last work complete, and the incomplete portion is due to a mistake of the first publishers.
Musical Offering
“The Musical Offering” is a series of fugues and canons on a subject given to Bach at Potsdam by Frederick the Great. The work consists of—
- 1. Fuga (ricercata) for three voices.
- 2. Fuga (ricercata) for six voices.
- 3. VIII. Canons.
- 4. Fuga canonica in epidiapente.
- 5. Sonata (Trio) for flute, violin, and bass.
- 6. Canon perpetuus for flute, violin, and bass.
It is headed:
“Regis Iussu Cantio, Et Reliqua Canonica Arte Resoluta.”