JS Bach: Contrapunctus 14 from The Art of Fugue (completed by Lionel Rogg) 

:-O

I disagree, the completion with the main theme is obviously a mathematical/musical enigma for posterity, we have now proof that Bach did stop the writing around 1745, 5 years before he died

Hello! I would like ask how did you contact with Mr. Rogg please? I found his contact on Google, but it does not work. I would like to ask him where can I buy or get the pdf score of his completion. And I am also looking for the the score of the completion by David Goode, do you know by any chance please? Thank you very much!

Best do what I did 40 years ago, get listening and sit at a keyboard with lots of manuscript paper and a ton of patience and you'll get there. You'll also need a CD player ! In my day it was a cassette tape player, Sony if remember correctly. Good luck matey.

Many people do think that the Contrapunctus XIV theme has nothing to do with any of the Art of Fugue material. Thus this statement is wrong, the symmetric theme of the last fugue Bach ever composed is secretly connected with the main subject of the Art of Fugue (not directly) using some some kind of symmetry again. It's definitely not easily comparable and observed.

Zoltan has it correct, I think, in deciding the order of the voice entry in the 4th part. But Indra I think got the jewel of the piece correct - a complete inversion of all 4 voices in combination. Also, Indra used some golden ratios (or was it fibonacci?) to calculate the length of the ending. I just wish he would flesh out his ending and play his own ending.

Twinsunian T, I am sorry for my inadequate English. I would love to discuss this with you, but not before you got some knowlegde. So please read the text to my own completion. If you read the sheet music, please start from 4:30. Simple logic tells us that we can't skip several develpoments. More interesting - Michael Drislane and some other people demand that the unfinish fugue was ment to be a triple fugue, not a quadruple. But again - I looking foreward to discuss this with you, but not before you are familiar to the text to my own completioon.

@@geiryvindeskeland7208 Ok, so put here a link to the best version according to yourself. From what I listened to (and I searched a lot), all the other completions of this fugue sound very boring and non-bach after the original Bach's score ends. Rogg's version is really unique because it brings the piece to an enormous climax which sounds just right and very Bach.

Twinsunian T, quote: ""...so put here a link to the best version according to yourself." Oh gosh, "a link". My knowlegde how to use my computer is at the same level as my poor English, I don't know how to do that. You will find my own completion by writing my name and add completion.(I guess) Read all the text, and listening from 4:30 to 8:24, I now regret the rest of it. Twinsunian T, quote: "Rogg's version is really unique because it brings the piece to an enormous climax which sounds just right and very Bach." Yes, I support you on this. But the real challenge is not to compose a enormous climax. Don't let the mighty sound from the large organ fool you. If we play the climax on the piano, maybe some of the "enormous" disappears? But I am sure that I have heard an another coda from Rogg that sounds even better than this one. Ok, what is the real challenge for everyone who want to compose a quadruple fugue? The challenge beside to compose a large number of counterpoints, we also need ro compose four different fugue subjects that work well in all four positions! I mean, all four subjects can work as soprano, alto, tenor and bass. Rogg only gives us one single development in the quadruple section. Notise that Bach composed four developments in the double fugue. If we don't present four developments also in the triple and the quadruple, the composer can not proove that quality of the quadruple combinations. But as I mentioned before, Michael Drislane and others don't believe in the quadruple theory, and he is roght: The main subject from Contrapunctus 1 don't work perfectly together with the other three subjects. The obituary say that Bach planned to present a development with all four subjects in inversion. Rogg did not present a single development in inversion. In my completion there are two, but Michael Drislane don't accept any of them.

@@geiryvindeskeland7208 Sorry but your version sounds to me like some random mix of Vivaldi and Mozart, there is missing any Bach essence. This is exactly why I love Lionel Rogg's version, because it's hardcore BACH and as I already wrote, it brings the piece to a massive and satisfying climax very effectively.

Twinsunian, quote: "...there is missing any Bach essence." I can not agree with you right here. I used more of Bach's own stuff than Rogg did. Hmmm...imagine that my completion was performed on the mighty organ, and Rogg's completion was played on four strings....:-) And again - it is a technical challenge to compose a fugue with many fugue subjects. For everyone who try to compose a quadruple, he will face a number of problems. Rogg didn't came up with a single triple by himself. And he wrote only one quadruple, the same combination that many before him has written. Because there are so many developments that Rogg skipped, he didn't proove the possibillities of combinations, that is the essence of a fugue with many fugue subjects. I hope that you now are able to understand that a massive climax don't proove anything of the composers talent when it comes to the important part - how do the fugue subjects sounds together in different combinations? An enormous climax don't gives us any answers.