My choice for today’s offering of Beautiful Music in Difficult Times is Johann Sebastian Bach’s THE ART OF FUGUE. A “fugue” is defined by the Harvard Dictionary of Music as “… a form of imitative counterpoint, developed in the 17th century and brought to perfection by J.S. Bach.” His gift was taking a short melody, or “subject,” and twisting, turning and layering it in infinite ways. THE ART OF FUGUE was composed in the last years of Bach’s life, and the composer did not specify the instrumentation. So today I offer you several choices, including The Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, Glenn Gould performing on organ and piano, the Emerson String Quartet, and a two-harpsichord version played by Ton Koopman and Tini Mathot.