JAVS Spring 2025

Example 4. BWV 997, Fuga. mm. 63-79.

Example 5. BWV 997, Fuga. m. 87.

Example 6. BWV 997, beginning.

texture, such as singling out the head motif in fugal texture. 23 A similar concept can be traced back to lute in tabulation of the fifteenth century, when lutenists began transcribing popular madrigals and chansons to be played on one lute. 24 Three scholars represent three different perspectives of Bach’s implied polyphony in his unaccompanied string works: Jaap Schröder presents the performer’s perspective,

Implied Polyphony Implied polyphony is a compositional phenomenon that is widely used in unaccompanied instrumental music to condense multi-voice music into one instrument. It allows one instrument, particularly melodic instruments such as violin or flute, to produce an illusion of multiple players simultaneously making a sound. Representative examples of implied polyphony include rearranging or arpeggiating chords or depicting the most important

Journal of the American Viola Society / Vol. 41, No. 1, Spring 2025

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