Why Did Bach Never Finish The Art of Fugue?

For more than 250 years, musicians have debated why Johann Sebastian Bach's The Art of Fugue breaks off in the middle of its final fugue. Was it simply interrupted by Bach's death? Did he intend to finish it? Or have we been asking the wrong question? Drawing on Bach's autograph manuscript, the 1751 first edition, and the work of leading scholars including Christoph Wolff, Peter Williams, Hans Heinrich Eggebrecht, and Indra Hughes, this documentary explores one of classical music's greatest mysteries. Along the way, I discovered that the most interesting question wasn't whether Bach finished the work, but how living with this extraordinary music changed the way I heard it. This film features excerpts from my complete recording of The Art of Fugue, performed on the Metzler organ of Trinity College Chapel, Cambridge. If you enjoy documentaries about Bach, classical music, organ music, and musical history, I'd be delighted if you subscribed. Contents 00:00 Prologue 02:43 Chapter 1 – Where Did the Story Come From? 06:35 Chapter 2 – The Evidence 11:44 Chapter 3 – What Sort of Work Is This? 18:25 Chapter 4 – Meaning 24:12 Chapter 5 – The Final Fugue 33:00 Epilogue 🎵 Recording The Art of Fugue — Robert Costin First Hand Records https://firsthandrecords.com/products... #Bach #ArtOfFugue #classicalmusic