A free ebook version of this title is available through Luminos University of California Press s new open access publishing program for monographs Visit www luminosoa org to learn more Fugue for J S Bach was a natural language he wrote fugues in organ toccatas and voluntaries in masses and motets in orchestral and chamber music and even in his sonatas for violin solo The more intimate fugues he wrote for keyboard are among the greatest most influential and best loved works in all of Western music They have long been the foundation of the keyboard repertory played by beginning students and world famous virtuosi alike In a series of elegantly written essays eminent musicologist Joseph Kerman discusses his favorite Bach keyboard fugues some of them among the best known fugues and others much less familiar Kerman skillfully at times playfully reveals the inner workings of these pieces linking the form of the fugues with their many different characters and expressive qualities and illuminating what makes them particularly beautiful powerful and moving These witty insightful pieces addressed to musical amateurs as well as to specialists and students are beautifully augmented by performances made specially for this volume Karen Rosenak piano playing two preludes and fugues fromTheWell Tempered Clavier C Major book 1 and B Major book 2 and Davitt Moroney playing the Fughetta in C Major BWV 952 on clavichord the Fugue on Jesus Christus unser Heiland BWV 689 on organ and the Fantasy and Fugue in A Minor BWV 904 on harpsichord