This is the score of the Fugue in G Minor KV 401 for piano (organ?),
written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) and completed by Abbe'
Maximilian Stadler (1748-1833), presumably after Mozart's death.  The
source text used is a reprint of the Alte Mozart Ausgabe (Old Mozart
Edition), published by Breitkopf & Haertel in the second half of the
XIX century.

I included a transcription of this fugue for piano four-hands, in
order to overcome the difficulty of playing it using only two hands
(see "Performance Notes" below).  To create the scores, simply type
"make" at the prompt (see "Creating the Scores" below for the complete
list of targets).


* PERFORMANCE NOTES

The score of Fugue KV 401 is extremely difficult to be played,
particularly because of the broad intervals between simultaneous notes
in the left hand (e.g. bars 16-17), which require the performer to
have a very big hand.  In his Mozart's bibiography ("Mozart", Suhrkamp
Verlag - Frankfurt am Main, 1977), Wolfgang Hildesheimer notes that
Mozart "played this piece with no help, while others could manage it
only via a four-hand execution."

It has been suggested that such passages required a modified piano
with pedals like an organ.  Such instruments were used in Mozart's
time with apparently good success, as a passage in a letter by
Mozart's father proves:

    "Since my arrival your brother's fortepiano has been carried from
    the house to the theatre or to another house at least 12 times.
    He has had a big pedal-fortepiano made which stands under the
    grand piano, is three spans longer and surprisingly heavy..."
    (letter from Leopold Mozart to his daughter, 12 Mar 1785)

In his preface to the Eulenburg edition (1981) of Mozart's Piano
Concerto in D minor KV 466 (which contains a passage of similar
conception in bars 88-89), Paul Badura-Skoda embraces this theory and
explicitly mentions Fugue KV 401:

    "There is [...] another composition for organ or pedal piano by
    Mozart which evidently made allowances for such a possibility
    [i.e. to be played on a pedal-piano]: the unfinished Fugue in G
    minor K401 (375e).  An arrangement for piano duet used for
    present-day performances of this Fugue and similarly in the D
    minor Concerto the low bass notes could be played by another
    pianist sitting next to the soloist." (Paul Badura-Skoda, preface
    to the Piano Concerto in D minor K466, Eulenburg 1981).

The fact that such a Fugue could require a pedal-piano is enforced
when noticing that the broad intervals mentioned above appear only in
the left-hand part.

All these facts fully justifies the need for a four-hand version of
the score.  This has been made by simply distributing the four voices
among each hand.


* CREATING THE SCORES


To create the original score, simply write

    make k401-two-hands.ps


To create the score for piano four-hands, write

    make k401-four-hands.ps


To create the two parts for the four-hands score, write

    make k401-four-hands1.ps k401-four-hands2.ps


To create everything scores, simply write

    make


Maurizio Tomasi, March 2008 
