Sheet music in detail
Contrapunctus 7
About the composer
Johann Sebastian BachJohann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
“Bach is the beginning and end of all music.” (Max Reger)
“Not Bach! (Bach means small river in German.) He should be called Sea: because of his endless, inexhaustible wealth of tonal combinations and harmonies.” (Ludwig van Beethoven)
“Now that's something we can learn from. (About the music of J. S. Bach)” (W.A. Mozart)
About the composition
Contrapunctus 7 from J.S. Bach's masterpiece "The Art of the Fugue," BWV 1080, is a fugue with the fugue theme presented in three different note values. In this arrangement for five cellos, cellos 1 and 2 share the upper voice, alternating between very high and high passages. At the end of the fugue, it becomes five-part.
This arrangement was premiered in 2005 at the "Freshly Fugued" concert in Dortmund.
Side notes: At Expo 2000 in Hanover, Bach's Contrapunctus 1, performed by a string quartet, was chosen to represent Germany in the German Pavilion.
The artists' entrance to the Dortmund Concert Hall bears the inscription: “Nur für Befugte” = "Authorized Personnel Only." Next to it, on a glass wall, the beginning of the score for Contrapunctus 1 is notated. Those who look closely can demonstrate their authorization by discovering a transcription error (intentional?).