Fantasia contrappuntistica | |
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Solo piano piece by Ferruccio Busoni | |
Catalogue | BV 256 |
Composed | 1910 |
Dedication | Wilhelm Middelschulte, Richard Buhlig |
Published | 1910 Leipzig : |
Publisher | Breitkopf & Härtel |
Duration | 25 minutes |
Scoring | Solo piano |
Fantasia contrappuntistica(BV 256) is a solo piano piece composed by Ferruccio Busoni in 1910. Busoni created a number of versions of the work, including several for solo piano and one for two pianos. It has been arranged for organ (by Wilhelm Middelschulte, dedicatee of the work, whom Busoni praised as "Meister des Kontrapunktes") and for orchestra (by Frederick Stock) under the composer's supervision.
The work is in large part a homage to Johann Sebastian Bach's Die Kunst der Fuge . Conversely, Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji's Opus clavicembalisticum appears to be a homage to Fantasia contrappuntistica.
Fantasia contrappuntistica is written in twelve parts, and takes about 25 minutes to perform:
The first ten pages of the introductory "Preludio corale" are nearly identical to the Third Elegy with a few small cuts and alterations, including the removal of all German expression marks or their translation into Italian. [1] In the third fugue, the subject is composed of four notes, which are B♭, A, C, and B♮. These four notes spell Bach in German, where the H is the B♮, and are commonly known as the B-A-C-H motif.
The manuscripts in Busoni's hand are in the Berlin State Library as part of the Busoni Archive. [2]
Ferruccio Busoni was an Italian composer, pianist, conductor, editor, writer, and teacher. His international career and reputation led him to work closely with many of the leading musicians, artists and literary figures of his time, and he was a sought-after keyboard instructor and a teacher of composition.
An die Jugend(BV 254) is a sequence of pieces of classical music for solo piano by Ferruccio Busoni.
The Art of Fugue, or The Art of the Fugue, BWV 1080, is an incomplete musical work of unspecified instrumentation by Johann Sebastian Bach. Written in the last decade of his life, The Art of Fugue is the culmination of Bach's experimentation with monothematic instrumental works.
The Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565, is a composition for organ by, according to the oldest sources, German composer Johann Sebastian Bach and is one of the most widely recognisable works in the organ repertoire. Although the date of its origin is unknown, scholars have suggested between 1704 and the 1750s. The piece opens with a toccata section followed by a fugue that ends in a coda, and is largely typical of the north German organ school of the Baroque era.
The Fantasy on Themes from Mozart's Figaro and Don Giovanni, S.697, is an operatic paraphrase for solo piano by Franz Liszt, based on themes from two different Mozart's operas: The Marriage of Figaro, K.492 and Don Giovanni, K.527.
Wilhelm Middelschulte was a German organist and composer who resided in America for most of his career.
The Piano Concerto in C major, Op. 39 (BV 247), by Ferruccio Busoni, is one of the largest works ever written in this genre. Completed and premiered in 1904, it is about 70 minutes long and laid out in five movements played without a break; in the final movement a quiet men's chorus intones words from the verse-drama Aladdin by Adam Oehlenschläger.
The Fantasy and Fugue on the chorale "Ad nos, ad salutarem undam", S.259, is a piece of organ music composed by Franz Liszt in the winter of 1850 when he was in Weimar. The chorale on which the Fantasy and Fugue is based was from Act I of Giacomo Meyerbeer's opera Le prophète. The work is dedicated to Meyerbeer, and it was given its premiere on October 29, 1852. The revised version was premiered in the Merseburg Cathedral on September 26, 1855, with Alexander Winterberger performing. The whole work was published by Breitkopf & Härtel in 1852, and the fugue was additionally published as the 4th piece of Liszt's operatic fantasy "Illustrations du Prophète" (S.414). A piano duet version by Liszt appeared during the same time (S.624).
Ferruccio Busoni discography is a list of recordings of music composed or adapted by Ferruccio Busoni. For recordings of music with Busoni as pianist, see Ferruccio Busoni discography.
The Klavierübung, by the Italian pianist-composer Ferruccio Busoni, is a compilation of piano exercises and practice pieces, comprising transcriptions of works by other composers and original compositions of his own.
Elegies, BV 249, by the Italian composer Ferruccio Busoni is a set of solo piano pieces which can be played as a cycle or separately. Initially published in 1908 with six pieces, it was subsequently expanded to seven by the addition of the Berceuse. The set of seven takes just over 40 minutes to play.
The Bach-Busoni Editions are a series of publications by the Italian pianist-composer Ferruccio Busoni (1866–1924) containing primarily piano transcriptions of keyboard music by Johann Sebastian Bach. They also include performance suggestions, practice exercises, musical analysis, an essay on the art of transcribing Bach's organ music for piano, an analysis of the fugue from Beethoven's 'Hammerklavier' sonata, and other related material. The later editions also include free adaptations and original compositions by Busoni which are based on the music of Bach.
The Turandot Suite, Op. 41 is an orchestral work by Ferruccio Busoni written in 1904–5, based on Count Carlo Gozzi's play Turandot. The music – in one form or another – occupied Busoni at various times between the years 1904–17. Busoni arranged the suite from incidental music which he was composing to accompany a production of Gozzi's play. The suite was first performed on 21 October 1905, while the play with his incidental music was not produced until 1911. In August 1916 Busoni had finished composing the one-act opera Arlecchino, but it needed a companion work to provide a full evening's entertainment. He suddenly decided to transform the Turandot music into a two-act opera with spoken dialog. The two works were premiered together as a double-bill in May 1917.
Wilhelm Mayer was an Austro-Bohemian composer who published his works under the name W. A. Rémy. He was also a noted teacher, whose pupils included Ferruccio Busoni and Felix Weingartner. His name sometimes appears as Wilhelm Mayer-Rémy.
Ferruccio Busoni composed his Concerto for Piano and String Quartet in D minor, Op. 17, BV 80, in 1878, at the age of twelve. The original title was Concerto per piano-forte con accompagnamento di quartetto ad arco, Op. 17. Conceived for string quartet, the piano can also be accompanied by a string orchestra as Concerto for Piano and Strings, the title under which it was published in 1987.
Fantasia and Fugue in C minor, BWV 906, is a keyboard piece, likely unfinished, composed by Johann Sebastian Bach sometime during his tenure in Leipzig (1723–1750). The work survives in two autograph scores, one with the fantasia alone, and the other, believed to have been penned around 1738 in which the fugue is incomplete. The piece is notable for being one of Bach's latest compositions in the prelude and fugue format, and for being a showcase of Bach trying his hand at the emerging galant and empfindsam styles of music that his sons were known to compose.