Page 110 - (DK) The Classical Music Book - Big Ideas Simply Explained

108

IN CONTEXT
BACH IS LIKE AN FOCUS

Baroque counterpoint
ASTRONOMER WHO … BEFORE

c. 1606–1621 Sweelinck
composes the Fantasia
FINDS THE MOST chromatica, one of the first

works to demonstrate
WONDERFUL STARS contrapuntal development
of a single subject.

1725 Fux publishes Gradus
THE ART OF FUGUE (1751), ad Parnassum (“Steps to
Parnassus”), which includes
JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH exercises in how to write
fugues. Mozart later studied
this work.
AFTER
1837 Mendelssohn publishes
Six Preludes and Fugues,
Op. 35, demonstrating the fugue
as a viable Romantic genre.

1910 Busoni publishes the
Fantasia contrappuntistica, a
homage to The Art of Fugue
which includes a postmodern
completion of its last fugue.

n contrast to later music that
frequently depended on a
I single melody line over a series
of harmonies, Baroque music was
often constructed by combining
a number of independent and
interlacing melody lines, or
voices. This technique, known as
counterpoint, allowed composers
to create works of overwhelming
complexity and drama, reflecting
the richness of other contemporary
art forms. However, it also required
consummate skill to compose long
spans of music with sufficient
variety and interest.
The rise of the Classical style,
and its emphasis on simplicity and
preference for more slowly changing

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