A lot of our modern music relies on single melodies, with other voices providing harmony underneath the leading voice.

But in the Baroque era, composers were experimenting with counterpoint – the art of having multiple melodies playing simultaneously but crafted with such precision that all the voices could be heard at once. The results were new forms of music – the most well-known of which was the fugue – that explored the complexity and challenge of this type of composing.

In this Up Close concert led by Natsuko Yoshimoto, you will hear examples of this contrapuntal writing in exquisite string arrangements courtesy of Mozart’s Adagio and Fugue and an arrangement of music from Bach’s The Art of the Fugue.