The First Double Fugue in History

In today’s episode we have a look at one of Bach’s Arnstadt masterpieces, the fugue in c minor BWV 574 on a theme by Giovanni Maria Bononcini (The composers Giovanni Bononcini and Antonio Maria Bononcini were his sons.)

According to the Neue Bach Ausgabe, this fugue is the first double fugue in history.

Here is a picture of the title page in his brother’s hand with the erroneous attribution to Legrenzi:

You can download the music to the fugue here. (The MIDI version I created at the end of the episode is BWV574b.)

Today’s sponsor is Modartt. I am playing the organ using their wonderful software, Organteq. Read about the physical modeling here. Thanks to them, and thanks to all my listeners.

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