Counterpoint

[Mozart]

Billiards?

Probably

So in Bachs famous toccata and fugue is there 3 or 4 things going on? I hear 3 for sure but sometimes I think my brain is inventing a 4th just to drive me crazy.

[Montpellier]

You're probably focusing the wrong way, Mozart.  Just relax and let the music wash over you and in you; then you can gradually pick out individual voices.  Look for every appearance of the fugue subject and you can't go far wrong in understanding a fugue.

Yeah.  Set the focus to infinity, stop your hearing down to about f/16 so you'll hear most of what's in the foreground while the background will still be in focus.

[jochanaan]

So in Bachs famous toccata and fugue is there 3 or 4 things going on? I hear 3 for sure but sometimes I think my brain is inventing a 4th just to drive me crazy.

There are four voices in the fugue; the pedal entry is the fourth.  You're not crazy at all--at least, not for that reason.

[karlhenning]

And of course, in a four-voice fugue, you won't have all four voices present all the time.