ABSTRACT
This chapter is a discussion of significant research into the complexity, logic and ingenuity of Bach’s counterpoint published since around 1975.
Bach’s Compositions of His Last Years Christoph Wolff”s 1968 dissertation was on Bach’s relationship to the stile antico,1 and in the years following he pursued systematic study of most of the major works from Bach’s last decade, when the composer turned to older music and strict counterpoint for study, performance, and inspiration. In the article, “Toward a Definition of the Last Period of Bach’s Work,” first published in 1988, Wolff considered the validity of identifying a “late period” in Bach and concluded that the composer’s success in “clearing his plate” of significant official duties in the late 1730s, due in part to a certain disenchantment with his superiors, provided him the opportunity to explore certain compositional projects purely of his own interest.2 The controversy with Scheibe, begun in 1737 and credited by many scholars with inciting Bach to explore ever more conservative and esoteric compositional projects, is seen by Wolff as less important than has been assumed.
