J. S. Bach, Contrapunctus I from "Die Kunst der Fuge", solo guitar arragement 

These comments are filled with so much warmth. Thank you, everyone!

organist here, you did an amazing (and wonderfully creative) job arranging the voices -- bravo!!! (extra credit for the vocalized d-pedal at the end!) this made my day, thank you sir...

Impressing. Would not have guessed a 4-part would go on a guitar. Thank you for your effort, and for playing a Bach work. I am so fond of him.

To whom it may concern: I have been considering to share the score for a long time indeed since it took me a few months to finish the arrangement. It might be foolish to share it for free, considering how much musical litter is to be paid for all around, but it was the great Bach who wrote it, not me. I’m a mere translator. Bach’s wife died in poverty while current three-chord-pickers relish the benefit of copyright law. So here is the score. An important notice: I wrote it in two staves to make the voices clear and comprehensible but it is not meant to be a two-guitar arrangement however; if so it should have been arranged in a different manner. refraktorian.rajce.idnes.cz/Contrapunctus_l%2C_J._S._Bach/

Hello Matêj. It’s your nearly famous English friend here 😄 That guitar is perfect for this piece. It has a sound quality which cannot be reproduced on a modern instrument. Beautiful.

One of the greatest masterpieces of music. Also that guitar is wonderful

I heard that Bach's favorite instrument was the clavichord, a small, quiet instrument with an intimate and nuanced expressive capability, particularly suited to his musical style. As such, I believe JS would approve here.

Unrelated to the performance, but what a stunning instrument. WOW

Amazing❤🎉🎉& thank you for generously sharing the score! 🎉🎉

My god I just realized you were humming at the end. You pull out all the tricks to make this happen. Really creative stuff!

Sir, you did something almost impossible and extremely hard. 4 voices fugue on a guitar, it sounds crazy. But you did it and it sounds great. Bravo !

Astonishingly good. Bach is like humanity’s great great grandfather

It is so nice to see you making videos again! Please do more! Every time I play my acoustic guitar, I play the first ragtime video you did with the pink walls in the background. My son, now 14 remembers me playing that song for him at bedtime. You are an amazing talent and thank you for enriching future generations. Thank you. Joseph

WOW so crazy of your passion for Bach, Guitar, and Fuge !!! Great Job

no way you can say 'im not a classical musician'. you play classical (well, baroque) music brilliantly, so i would say that makes you one without argument :) most classical guitarists play instruments that have a very bassy sound, but the 1830 anonymous guitar is quite thinner and tinnier, so it reminds me of a lute, and i quite like it, because it gives nice separation to the voices. of course, your amazing technique and arrangement matters more than anything else when it comes to your great sound :)

Bach studied each instrument to its technical, `chromatic` edges and limits first... He would have applaused, Sir ! Thank you so much !

Bravo 👍🙂!

The fact that you are not a classical musician is probably your strength! Beautiful performance and arrangement, thanks for the inspiration

In 1985, I first got acquainted with Bach's "Kunst der Fuge" performed by "Ars Rediviva" on a Supraphon record. I could listen to this great work for hours every day, and I still consider the orchestral performance of "Ars Rediviva" to be the best! I am very glad that someone else loves and performs this work by Bach. Good luck and further improvement to you!

Love the French sailor outfit

I give the poster two thumbs up 😊, first for the honest recording of the sound of this modest old instrument and secondly for his excellent arrangement and rendition. Congratulations!

This is the best performance of this I've heard. And I've listened to a lot of them...

Wonderful playing, with soulfulness and musicality. Your guitar sounds and looks amazing. Thank you Sir.

Proof that there is hope in humanity. Not once but 4 times: The composition, the arrangement, the playing and that guitar Oh my Wakan Tanka:)))))

Very good arrangement and performance, subscribed, greetings.

Просто молодец!Просто-восторг!Спасибо!

The fingering move at 1:11 is cool as hell!

wonderfull

Despite your modest disclaimers, an excellent arrangement and performance! Just... a great job!

Amazing!!! awesome work Sir!

Wow !!

This is fantastic!!

This arrangement is incredible, bravo!

Your playing is wonderful, and the arrangement is creative and accurate

What a stunning display of intellectual and physical athleticism, worthy of the composer!

An absolutely magnificent transcription!

This actually touched me. Lots of mechanical play out there. To be honest I hear even more poetic possibilities. Taking more freedoms in expressing the emotion of the theme. This is wonderful in it's musicality. Thank you.

Wow… holy f*** man, that’s incredible. Super cool guitar first off, but this version is mind blowing. It’s like nails on a chalkboard when I hear musicians with formal training butcher baroque music. I’ve always felt like it was just meant to be a “here are the notes, go shred my brethren” kind of thing when this stuff was originally put down on paper. There’s sooo much emotion in this piece - and you bring it across in the right way

!!!! GREAT, GREAT, GREAT !!!!

I started as an organ player, and at teens became more familiar with guitar. Never played the contrapunctus myself on either instrument, but naturally familiar with the B A C H structural idea, beautiful arrangement and dedication to the craft. Kudos to you, sir.

Oh my gosh. I love this piece i never thought this possible on guitar! Thank you ill try learning this one by using your video

I never get tired of hearing this version. Truly sublime. ( Can we expect, maybe, Contrapunctus IV in the future? 😮). But seriously, Hell of a job

Wonderful and creative arrangement! This Guitar sound is amazing! Thank you for this!

This is the only version except Glen Gould on piano that I love to listen and im coming back again and again to listen to it, great job, Sir! Thank You. I wish I have tabs for guitar for this because I can read notes easy for piano/accordion but im totally stupid as for notes on guitar because I learned guitar by myself and I never used notes for that and im too lazy and my brain is too old I guess for this kind of learning now. Ok, I know it's always possible, lets just say I'm just too lazy, anyway thanks for giving us notes of your interpretation, I believe that I will translate it to tabs one day, the day when I will find mental strenght to do it because knowledge isn't the thing that run the life force, at least in my case.

That's a superb arrangement and brilliantly played. Quite stunning.

so good to see you back!! please upload more ragtime!!

This is nice!

This is very nicely done! Thank you for sharing it with us.

I´d like to be as Non-classical musician as you are. This is delightful. And the guitar is amazing.

Your attention and devotion to this really shows. Good job.

good to see you again-your music brings me to joy again and again-1000 thanks

This is superb. Huge work! Bravo 👏👏👏

That guitar is lovely wow. Sound is very unique almost has this lute overtone quality its really nice to listen to

Great! Thank you so much!

It's so perfect

beautiful!

What a Great surprise, it's been so long. I love your arrangements, if your not a classical musician then I dont know who is. Your one of my favorites! Do you think you could do some intermediate Guitar tutorials. That would be awesome.

Super metal

Tremendo! Felicitaciones!

I'd say you did an extraordinary job!

Qué bello

Loistavaa Matti ❤❤❤

Wonderful ! and on a beautiful old guitar

Sounds like actual counterpoint, way better than all the classical musicians, great stuff

Beautiful, also love your guitar

Superb.

Lovely arrangement and playing.

ba meu deus do ceu arrepiei

That guitar is gorgeous...

Increase the speed at 1.25 it sounds much better

First of all great arrangement! It's beautiful! What kind of guitar is that? It's beautiful! I'd like to get one!

I tried an alternate arrangement of the end, using a thumb tremolo for the sustaining D in the bass, but it did not work to my satisfaction. First it is quite difficult to be performed, but first of all it sounds too modern and attacks the composition rhythmically.

Now C9!

That's a very unique looking guitar to me. Is it really old? Or custom made for you?

Hello Mr. Rak, superb work and interpretation. what is the tuning of the guitar please? E A D G B E ? Thank you very much

Great performance! I love it! What kind of guitar is that? Forgive my ignorance but I've never seen anything like that, it's beautiful!

nice shirt :)

You made an amazing arrangement! Would you, please, have the scores for this piece?

Wow, never though that you could translate a 4 voice piece to the guitar. I me an it has 6 Strings and we have 5 fingers per hand but still...Did you have to make many compromises, like shifting octaves etc? And is this standard tuning?

Amazing. I wish I had the tabs for how you did this piece.

Post more videos! Been too long.

4段譜を一つのギターで編曲するのは難しいと思いますが、かなり成功していると思います。演奏が難しすぎる部分は少し簡単にした方が演奏の完成度が上がると思います。

Матрос, ты крут! А сколько лет твоей гитаре?

Hey, how did you manage to get this guitar? And what kind of strings are you using with it? How's the volume on it? Thanks!

Nice arrangement and presentation! In my opinion it could be actually a little bit more simple. Because in your arrangement there is so much going on, it’s hard to control all the levels of fugue.

How can I learn this sir.??

I can´t find the damn guitar tab!!! please share it XD

You should share your arrangements,

I need this tab ☆_☆

1o.

Do you have the score pls?

Un sonido muy pequeño. Las uñas demasiado largas del maestro, no ayudan mucho. Sus manos son muy grandes. Su ejecución, por cierto, debe ser maravillosa en guitarras de concierto actuales.

The sound he gets is not clean enough. Too many twangs and overplucking.