ABSTRACT
Anyone who sets out to talk about Bach's parody process, or even about the problems associated with parody, must understand that he is going to stir up uneasiness in people who would rather simply close their eyes to it, or annoyance in those who have been lectured to all too often on the subject. Such a rejection of the topic, more or less intentional, is certainly not conditioned by the field of inquiry itself, because there has not been a complete treatment of this issue to date. It is more likely due to an obstinate, peculiarly one-sided assessment of the issue, settled somewhere between a smug, knowing smile on the one hand, and a tendency, either open or concealed, to make apologies on the other.
