Fantasia contrappuntistica is a solopiano 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 and for orchestra 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. The composer Kenneth Leighton also wrote a Fantasia Contrappuntistica for piano, which won the first prize at the Bolzano Piano Competition, premiered by Maurizio Pollini.
Plan of the Busoni work
Fantasia contrappuntistica is written in twelve parts, and takes about 25 minutes to perform:
Preludio corale
Fuga I
Fuga II
Fuga III
Intermezzo
Variazione I
Variazione II
Variazione III
Cadenza
Fuga IV
Corale
Stretta
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. In the third fugue, there is a returning melody 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.
Fantasia contrappuntistica: Transcribed for large orchestra and organ by Frederick Stock.
* Title: Sinfonia contrappuntistica. Choralvorspiel und Fuge über ein Fragment von J. S. Bach. Original für Clavier von Ferruccio Busoni. In Grosses Orchester und Orgel übertragen von Fr. A. Stock
* Manuscript: Autograph of Frederick A. Stock, Chicago.
* Date of composition: "begonnen Donnerstag, 24. Juli 1911 – beendet Freitag, 11. August 1911. Düsseldorf."
* Note: The Stock orchestration was authorized by Busoni, who heard the first performance with mixed reactions: 'What the layman understands by "music of the angels" was brought into being. Stock's orchestral arrangement is un-mystical and, for my taste, lacking in fragrancy and in transparency, though in some parts brilliant work.' In 1913 Busoni was scheduled to conduct this version for the Royal Philharmonic Society of London. At the rehearsals he began to insist on changes to the orchestration, but there was inadequate time for the new parts to be copied out, so the work was withdrawn. As a result, this version has never been played again.
* Ref: [|Kindermann], p. 249; [|Beaumont], pp. 170, 175; [|Roberge], p. 35.
* Title: Ferruccio Busoni. Fantasia Contrappuntistica. Preludio e Corale "Gloria al Signore nei Cieli" e Fuga a quattro soggetti obligati sopra un framment di Bach. Für Orgel übertragen von Wilhelm Middelschulte.
* Note: Generally uses the text of the two-piano version, BV 256b, but restores some of the cuts in the fugues. Acknowledges debt to Bartók for the choice of instrumentation which resembles that of Bartók's Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta. The first movement of the Bartók piece is also a fugue which employs Bernhard Ziehn's symmetrical techniques.
* Ref: Beaumont, pp. 160, 176; Roberge,.
Fantasia Contrappuntistica: Transcribed for orchestra by Larry Sitsky.
* Title: Concerto for Orchestra: Completion and Realization of Busoni's "Fantasia Contrappuntistica"
