Bach: Fuga alla breve e staccato

Description

With optional bass instrument this exciting, almost manic work, made popular by the
Amsterdam Loecki Stardust Quartet, is a real challenge.

Bach’s Fuga alla breve e staccato, originally for organ, is part of a prelude and fugue (BWV 550) that was probably composed between 1706 and 1708. With its long energetic theme, it is a tour de force in the tradition of Buxtehude, that makes considerable demands on the skill of a single keyboard player.  But it transfers to a recorder consort rather well, especially if the performance is fast and lively, with clear articulation. It is not the easiest of pieces, but well repays the effort involved.

In this arrangement the music has been transposed up a tone; as might be expected, certain passages, especially in the bass part, have had to be moved up an octave; in some of these cases material has been transferred from the bass to the tenor part. We have provided two alternative bass parts: one for normal bass recorder in F, the other for a contrabass in C.

(David Katz)