In 1740, Johann Sebastian Bach started to write “Die Kust der Fuge”, a collection of compositions, which will remain incomplete due to his death in 1750.
Specific to this collection was the absence of indications about the instruments that should be used to play it. Moreover, no orchestral instrument of that age corresponds to any of the ranges of the voices in “Die Kust der Fuge”. Even when executed with a harpsicord, some pieces would required a very uncomfortable or imposs...ible position of the hands. The musicologist Roland de Candè claimed that this was a “fake problem” and that it was acceptable any instrument able to play that collection.
In 1968, Wendy Carlos (in the past better known as Walter Carlos) published Switched-On Bach, an album that collects some of the most famous arias and the whole concert n° 3 of Johann Sebastian Bach in Brandeburg, executed completely and exclusively with a Moog modular synthesizer.
In 2016, FM_Kantor publishes “Die Verkehrung der Fuge”, taking inspiration from Wendy Carlos’s work and executing “die Kunst der Fuge” once again, exclusively with a Yamaha DX7 digital synthesizer, the first digital synthesizer released on the market and the first instrument which can produce sounds through frequency modulation synthesis (precisely, through phase modulation synthesis).
Every sound recorded in that album was produced by DX7 (and TX7) and no effects were added to the sound.
“Die“Verkehrung der Fuge” contains 21 tracks:
1. Contrapunctus I
2. Contrapunctus II
3. Contrapunctus III
4. Contrapunctus IV
5. Contrapunctus V
6. Contrapunctus VI, a 4 in Stylo Francese
7. Contrapunctus VII, a 4 per Augment et Diminut
8. Contrapunctus VIII, a3
9. Contrapunctus IX, a 4 alla Duodecima
10. Contrapunctus X, a 4 alla Decima
11. Contrapunctus XI, a 4
12. Contrapunctus XII, a 4
13. Contrapunctus XIII, a 3
14. Canon alla Ottava
15. Canon alla Duodecima, in Contrapunto alla Quinta
16. Canon per Augmentationem, in Contrario Motu
17. Canon alla Decima, in Contrapunto alla Terza
18. Contrapunctus XIV, Fuga a 4 Soggetti
19. Canon alla Ottava (reprise)
20. Canon alla Decima, in Contrapunto alla Terza (reprise)
21. Canon alla Duodecima, in Contrapunto alla Quinta (reprise)
