sign in sign up
<<
Home , Counterpoint, Counterpoint (Schenker), Davitt Moroney, Fugue, Gustav Leonhardt, Stretto

CAL PERFORMANCES PRESENTS

Sunday, April 7, 2013, 3pm Hertz Hall

The Art of

Davitt Moroney,

PROGRAM

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) , bwv 1080

1–4 Four Simple

5–7 Three Counterfugues in

INTERMISSION

8–11 Two Double Fugues and Two Triple Fugues

12–13 Two Mirror Fugues

14 Quadruple Fugue (completed by )

Harpsichord by John Phillips (Berkeley, 1998), after Nicolas Dumont (, 1707)

Cal Performances’ 2012–2013 season is sponsored by Wells Fargo.

CAL PERFORMANCES 5 PROGRAM NOTES PROGRAM NOTES

Johann Sebastian Bach Johann Sebastian Bach The Art of Fugue The Art of Fugue bwv 1080 bwv 1080

four simple fugues

Fugue 1 [on the Art of Fugue theme]. Fugue 2 [on the Art of Fugue theme].

Fugue 3 [on the melodically inverted version of the Art of Fugue theme].

Fugue 4 [on the inverted version of the Art of Fugue theme, and a little “cuckoo” motif].

three counterfugues in stretto (on regular and inverted versions of the Art of Fugue theme, combined)

Fugue 5 [using two different versions of the Art of Fugue theme, (a) regular and (b) inverted; the second half presents them combined in strettos]. Fugue 6, in the French Style, by [using four different versions of the Art of Fugue theme, (a) regular, (b) inverted; (c) regular, twice as fast, and (d) inverted, twice as fast. All versions are presented combined in various strettos]. Fugue 7, by Augmentation and Diminution [using six different versions of the Art of Fugue theme: (a) regular, (b) inverted; (c) regular, twice as fast, (d) inverted, twice as fast; (e) regular, twice as slow, and (f) inverted, twice as slow. All versions are presented combined in various strettos].

6 CAL PERFORMANCES CAL PERFORMANCES 7 PROGRAM NOTES PROGRAM NOTES

two double fugues two mirror fugues

Fugue 9 [using two themes, the first of which is new; the two are combined together in various ways, Fugue 12a [the first section is based on the main theme; the second section is based on the second in “ at the 12th,” so the lower theme can also be a fifth lower, or the upper theme a version, an ornamented statement of the theme]. fifth higher].

Fugue 12b [an exact mirror inversion of 12a, inverted top to bottom]. Fugue 10 [using two themes, the first of which is new; the two are combined together in various ways, in “Counterpoint at the 10th,” so they can be doubled in thirds and sixths].

Fugue 13a [a three-voice counterfugue, using both the regular and inverted versions of a lively trans- formation of the main theme]. Fugue 13b [an exact mirror inversion of each individual part in 13a, but with the order of the parts juggled].

two triple fugues

Fugue 8 [three-voice triple fugue, on three themes, the first two of which are new and the third of which is a rhythmic modification of the inverted version of the Art of Fugue theme].

quadruple fugue (completed by Davitt Moroney)

Fugue 14 [quadruple fugue on four themes, the third of which spells out Bach’s name and the last of which is the Art of Fugue theme].

Fugue 11 [triple fugue in four voices using the same three themes as Fugue 8, but not inverted; this time the Art of Fugue theme starts, in its regular form].

2

8 CAL PERFORMANCES CAL PERFORMANCES 9 PROGRAM NOTES PROGRAM NOTES

he art of fugue is Bach’s musical tes- When it comes to The Art of Fugue, most The Art of Fugue on a keyboard. Reply: This d´´´). Once it is accepted as definitely keyboard Ttament. It gives tangible form to rhetorical of the flat-earthers rely on pseudo-arguments. ignores the fact that harpsichord keyboards are , the question still remains: Which key- ideas of exceptional nobility, partly by means (1) This work, they say, was not written for any different from keyboards; notably, they board? One feature in particular argues strongly of an imposing musical architecture but even specific instrument. Reply: Such a belief ignores are a little smaller and have a shallower key dip. against Bach having conceived it with organ more by the warmth and richness of Bach’s the evidence of Bach’s 1,100 other works, always The perceived “impossibility” of certain pas- primarily in mind: the line in his big or- musical imagination. In other words, the power written magnificently and idiomatically for the sages relates to a modern piano keyboard. (And gan works always shows unmistakable signs of Bach’s intellect unpinned his extraordinary instruments chosen. The work was understood what do these people imagine ten-fingered harp- of having been composed for the feet, not the capacity to use complex counterpoint for expres- right into the middle of the 19th century to sichordists actually do when they play the work fingers; those signs are entirely absent from The sive and emotional purposes. be a keyboard work, and the idea that it is not in public? Whistle the notes they “can’t play”?) Art of Fugue. (2) For the printed edition (1751), The work lay unfinished at his death, with one is just a 20th-century invention. (2) This One of the strangest claims about The Art of Bach decided to change the order of the pieces 18 pieces (14 fugues and four canons), one of work can therefore, they say, be played on any Fugue is that it is “abstract,” and should perhaps by comparison with his autograph manuscript which lacks its last page. The surviving manu- instruments. My favorite recorded version in not even be performed. Writers have waxed lyri- (ca. 1745); but the print was finally published script of the last fugue breaks off near the end. this camp is the one on a saxophone quartet; cal about how this is some kind of “music of the nearly a year after his death and unfortunately Scholarship has shown that somewhere between there are versions for , full roman- spheres,” perhaps best read from the page and his revised plan was not carried out correctly by 30 and 40 closing measures are now missing, but tic , steel drums, synthesizer, and so not heard as notes sounding in a performance. his executors. Fortunately, the intended order Bach had no doubt brought it to full comple- on. Reply: This illogical leap ignores the realities Such a view stems from a post-Romantic view can be reconstructed without much room for tion in his mind. (Were they on a different sheet of the keyboard features of the work and many of counterpoint as something belonging to the doubt. (See below for a more detailed discussion of paper, now lost?) Even more unfortunate is refined details in the writing that Bach modi- world of the intellect, and even as something of this point.) (3) Any reconstruction of the order the fact that his carefully planned scheme for fied in order to make it more easily playable by “anti-musical” and “anti-expressive.” But Bach must indeed include the final unfinished fugue, The Art of Fugue was all but destroyed when the the hands. (3) They claim that since The Art of clearly liked keyboard counterpoint when it was since we now know that Bach allotted six pages collection was published, less than a year after Fugue is counterpoint, the linear nature of the expressed by ten fingers controlled by one brain. to it in his pagination scheme. The absence of his death, by the addition of irrelevant pieces, music is better served when each line is played He seems to have thought it was a good way of the work from the main autograph manuscript and so there is now a severe confusion in the by a different musician.Reply : This ignores the writing strong and expressive music. is a sure sign that it is one of Bach’s very last order of works in the second half of the cycle (as immeasurable benefits for the counterpoint There are also three fundamental practical compositions. As for the missing motto theme, explained in detail below). Bach’s scheme has when a single brain is in charge not just of playing questions that keep resurfacing. (1) Is The Art it must have been scheduled to appear on the been restored relatively recently.* all the parts but overseeing their exact harmonic of Fugue really a harpsichord work? (2) In what last page, and needs therefore to form the cen- and rhythmic interrelationships at all moments. order should the pieces be played? (3) Should terpiece of any reconstruction of the last page. (4) They point out that the open-score notation the famous unfinished fugue be considered debunking the myths used for this work presents each melodic line part of the cycle, despite its being absent from on a separate musical staff, “proving” it was not the autograph manuscript and lacking the uni- in praise of counterpoint Many conflicting ideas have been proposed written for keyboard. Reply: This ignores Bach’s fying motto theme that is common to all the about this work. There has been so much non- own notational practice elsewhere for keyboard other pieces? Extensive research by many dif- I will stress here just a few features that particu- sense written about it that even some of the cra- music, as well as the open-score notation pre- ferent scholars has now replied firmly to all larly help listeners to The Art of Fugue. ziest notions still need to be patiently dismissed ferred by most of serious keyboard three questions. Newer research will undoubt- Inversion. An important part of Bach’s lan- and some of the most evident rational conclu- counterpoint over the previous 150 years. edly continue to shed light on these and other guage is the idea of turning a theme or melodic sions still need to be reiterated. Logical con- (5) They sometimes claim that several solo points, but it is hard to see how the current fragment upside down (known as melodic “in- clusions will never convince people who prefer instruments can play certain fugues faster than scholarly answers to these three questions will version”). The intervals are inverted (usually, but to fantasize and leave aside rationality, so I do a single player can manage them. Reply: This be seriously contradicted. not always, pivoting around the third degree of not quarrel with those who insist on having a ignores the fact that Bach changed the level of The questions are easy to answer. (1) Bach the scale). What went up, comes down instead. mythologized view of this work, any more than notation for almost all the fugues originally did indeed specifically write the work thinking So a theme that sounds the notes “D, E, F, G, A” I would with flat-earthers or creationists. The notated in 16th notes, but unfortunately he died primarily of practical performance on the harp- can invert (pivoting around the F) to “A, G, F, world of Bach’s music has always been one where before finishing his notational revisions so he sichord. The entire work is playable by the ten E, D.” Bach uses this principle throughout The irrational silliness coexists side by side with seri- did not apply the slower note values to the last fingers of two hands. The open-score notation is Art of Fugue, announcing it right at the start, in ous reasoning based on evidence. couple of pieces. This means that some pieces a standard keyboard notation for counterpoint. the first four pieces: fugues 1 and 2 are based on

* My edition of the work is available as Die Kunst der Fugue, ed. Davitt look as if they should be played fast but in fact The top note (high e´´´, found in fugue 13) is a the normal version of the theme, while 3 and 4 Moroney (Munich: G. Henle Verlag, 1989). The intellectual under- they should not. (6) Finally, they claim trium- rarity in Bach’s works; it was available on harp- are based on the inverted theme. So in the motto pinning of my edition drew notably on the scholarship of Gustav Nottebohm (1881), Donald Francis Tovey (1931), phantly (when all other arguments fail) that in sichords in the 1740s but usually not available theme that unites all the pieces in the collection, (1952), R. Koprowski (1975), Wolfgang Wiemer (1977), and Gregory any case, it is impossible for ten fingers to play on organs (whose top note was normally c´´´ or “D, A, F, D, C-sharp,” becomes “A, D, F, A, Butler (1983).

10 CAL PERFORMANCES CAL PERFORMANCES 11 PROGRAM NOTES PROGRAM NOTES

B-flat” when turned upside down. There’s noth- direction, while the child-like fastest versions easy but is difficult to do convincingly, so that have not met. These works are “double fugues.” ing clever about this. Although the thus (with the notes in rhythmic diminution) rush all the result sounds natural. Without this invert- They remind me of non-parallel lines. They start created has new pitches, the ear can easily recog- over the place. ible counterpoint, Bach would not be Bach; it is in different places, and at different angles, but nize that the inversion is related to the original Double counterpoint. In almost every piece the musical language that he speaks most com- we know from the start that they will certainly form because the has not been altered, Bach wrote there is more than one short mel- fortably, the contrapuntal air that he breathes. intersect. Part of the musical pleasure comes only the pitches. A normal version and its inver- ody, and these are combined together One important feature of Bachian counterpoint from finding out when and how this happens, sion will have identical . Even the inter- to make . The two-partInventions are is his way of reinforcing the independence of the and the fact that we are waiting for it. vals have not been altered, so an upward leap of in two-part counterpoint, always based on two lines by making sure that they all have strong Some such fugues even have three or (very a fifth remains a fifth but leaps downwards, and ideas being tossed back and forth between the rhythmic profiles, different speeds, and different rarely) four separate themes, introduced at a stepwise motion remains stepwise. By the end hands. In “two-part invertible counterpoint” starting moments. The thematic threads rarely considerable time distance from each other; of a concert of The Art of Fugue, the listener has almost every melodic fragment found in one start or end together, on the same beat, and these are all large-scale, highly imposing struc- heard the theme well over 200 times, about half hand will appear somewhere in the other hand this feature helps him weave his lines into the tures, but the purpose is the same. Once theme in each direction, and often substantially modi- when the counterpoint is “inverted.” Any musical texture. 2 has been introduced, it will be combined with fied rhythmically. melodic passage can become the accompani- Whereas double invertible counterpoint can 1; and after 3 has been introduced, it will be Counterfugues. Fugues that systematically ment and any accompanimental passage can invert into only one different position (since combined with 1 and 2. There is something su- use both melodic versions of the theme, normal become principal melody. But the concepts of either theme 1 is on top and theme 2 under- perbly inexorable about the contrapuntal mech- and inverted, as known as counterfugues. In The “principal melody” and “accompaniment” are neath, or 2 is on top and 1 is underneath), triple anism behind these works. And of course Bach’s Art of Fugue, Nos. 5–7 and 11–13 are particu- fundamentally misleading here. There is little invertible counterpoint is much more exciting compositional process in such cases will cer- larly elaborate counterfugues. hierarchical distinction between melody and and flexible, because the three themes can com- tainly have started with the combinations that Stretto. Bach also often uses a device known accompaniment, since the whole point of the bine together in six, not two, different ways, and only appear at the end. From them he unravels as “stretto,” especially in fugues 5–7. The term is exercise is premised on their essential equality thus be superimposed vertically (harmonically) the strands and weaves pages of extraordinary close to the word Italians use for a dense coffee and interchangeability. in six positions. Anyone with an elementary music from each thread, before allowing the with not too much water in it, ristretto, and in Triple counterpoint. In practice, Bach is at understanding of factorials, permutations, and grand combinations to crown the edifice. Works Bach’s music it means much the same thing; it his happiest when combining not two, but three combinatorics will understand this point easily with two themes are nowadays called “double can certainly have a kick to it. In a stretto, the thematic elements, in triple counterpoint. The enough. Three factorial—or 3! to mathemati- fugues” and works with three are “triple fugues.” main melody is heard playing against itself in themes are short, sometimes just one measure cians; that is, 3x2x1=6—implies the six possibil- (Anyone with a taste for this kind of thing another voice, so you hear the theme twice at and rarely more than four measures. Although ities: 1/2/3, 1/3/2, 2/1/3, 2/3/1, 3/1/2, and 3/2/1. might want to give a close listen to Bach’s the same time, but with one part starting just one theme is usually announced at the start of So four measures of carefully composed triple No. 50, Nun ist das Heil und die Kraft, after the other. In other words, the theme har- a fugue (it is generally on the longer side and invertible counterpoint can generate for Bach, bwv 50; it is a stupendous sextuple invertible monizes with itself in a sort of short canon. The referred to as the “subject”), it is not necessar- as he rings the changes, 24 measures of excel- counterpoint set into almost unstoppable com- multiplicity and variety of the stretto treatment ily the most important melodic element in the lent music. But since he also inverts the positions binatory motion. Most listeners would never in The Art of Fugue is astounding, but also amus- work. Usually Bach combines the layers rapidly and changes the keys (dominant, , know its interior mechanism. It sounds joyful, ing. Fugue 7, in particular (where six versions by immediately adding a second theme in coun- relative major or minor, etc.), not only do the strongly assertive, thrilling, and playful. Bach of the theme coexist in a joyous chaos, all tum- terpoint, and then a third, so that after about six sound quite different but the differ- must have had fun with it, and of course he does bling about and falling over each other), makes measures three different elements are already in ent versions are placed in different parts of the not use anywhere near all the 720 possibilities me think of a description of the Bach household play together. Only then does the musical fun keyboard, in new relationships with each other. offered by the 6! combinations....) given by one of his many children. The house really begin; Bach juggles with his themes to find Although Bach generally likes to introduce Understanding this combinatorial prin- was always so full of children and other musi- new harmonies, like someone turning a three- his three melodic elements right at the start ciple and learning to listen to more than one cians running in and out that C.P.E. Bach dimensional object round to see new angles. and move into the combinations as quickly as melody at a time is perhaps the most fruitful described it as being rather like a pigeon coop, His contrapuntal language is usually com- possible, in some remarkable fugues he intro- way of learning to appreciate Bach’s music. But with birds always flying in and out. Fugue 7 is posed within the particularly playful discipline duces them in distinct sections, at a consider- other features can also be helpful. They tend to definitely a pigeon-coop fugue. The four state- called “triple invertible counterpoint.” As its able distance from each other. After several long be rather jargon-heavy, which is unfortunate ments of the very slow version of the theme, name implies, this depends on there being at paragraphs dealing with the first theme (dur- and can be somewhat inhibiting. But the ideas grandfather-like (with the notes in rhythmic least three melodic lines (called “voices”) in play ing which other melodic fragments are tossed themselves are rather simple to understand and augmentation), supports the whole structure, for most of a piece. “Triple” because there are around in chatty invertible counterpoint), a not particularly difficult to hear. The main point rising steadily through the four voices (bass, three melodic elements; “invertible” because any second theme is formally introduced. The pur- of this fiery combinatorial part of his compo- tenor, , soprano), around which the normal of these three lines can be on the top, on the pose of such a scheme is to create a third section sitional process is to present his three melodic versions of the main theme scurry about in every bottom, or in the middle. This makes it sound bringing together two themes which, until then, partners, and to present them equally.

12 CAL PERFORMANCES CAL PERFORMANCES 13 PROGRAM NOTES PROGRAM NOTES

There can be few approaches more destined the Centre Pompidou in Paris, and Berkeley’s The way fugues are often played, I feel that the of their three children, the result is both unfair to kill young musicians’ appreciation of the own Wurster Hall. I like to think of all these themes are “brought out” rather like skeletal and unjust. Bachian counterpoint absolutely nature of Bach’s counterpoint than to encour- buildings as being rather fugal. bones on an emaciated body. The free counter- requires equality of treatment among the age them to “bring out the theme” by playing All of the musical matters I have men- points are the beautiful, warm, living flesh and themes, not bringing out one theme at the it louder. The famous 19th-century musical tioned so far refer to musical structure and are are more attractive; they can be the source of expense of the others. analyst Hugo Riemann wrote (in his Catechism essentially the ’s business as musical more sensual pleasures for players and listeners. There are two common keyboard instru- of Fugal Composition, 1890) that Bach’s fugal engineer. Or to take another metaphor, they are The sensuality of counterpoint depends on this. ments that, by their nature, will always give full writing made “possible the constructing of like the ingredients that go into a cake, yet it equality to all simultaneously combined contra- longer pieces of compelling logic using only a would be easy to make a bad cake with exactly puntal themes: the organ and the harpsichord, single theme.” A more blind (and deaf) view the same recipe. Bach pays great attention to the in praise of contrapuntal instruments because the player’s fingers cannot destroy or fal- of Bach would be hard to imagine, and in fact freely created new melodies that are like the con- sify the essential balance needed to present such Riemann’s own understanding of Bachian trapuntal icing on his carefully structured layer Since the theme in a Bach fugue is precisely what counterpoint. Bach’s keyboard counterpoint, counterpoint was more sophisticated than his cake. Writing in four parts using triple invert- never changes, “bringing it out” on the piano is with its constantly changing multiple combina- statement implies; but not everyone’s is, espe- ible counterpoint allows him always to have one essentially drawing attention to what is static tions in every measure, grows from and depends cially today. What made possible Bach’s “con- free voice with which to be inventive. This non- in the work rather than to what is constantly on the fundamental nature of these two instru- structing of longer pieces of compelling logic” structural melodic material is present through- changing. Bach’s free around ments. At first, they seem to be poles apart: the was not the use of a single theme, but rather the out Bach’s fugues. To use a last analogy, it adds the themes, his flesh around the bones, is more organ has pipes and is a wind instrument where multiplicity of thematic material being used, ample and individualized “flesh” to Bach’s “skel- seductive and is constantly changing. I prefer the notes do not decay towards silence as long as constantly, in triple invertible counterpoint of a etal” structural combinations. Playing fugues to concentrate on that, and to try and draw the the finger is playing the note; whereas the harp- richly permutational kind. and concentrating only on the themes is like attention of listeners to the most changing and sichord has strings that are plucked and do decay A misguided stress on monothematic con- being an expert chiropractor or surgeon rather imaginative part of a fugue, not to its stick-like relatively rapidly once the finger has played the struction is at the basis of most bad fugue than an admirer of the warm beauty of a living skeleton. And this is where the harpsichord note. The fact that Bach chose to write so much playing today. Each generation sees and hears body. Listening to (and playing) Bach fugues comes into its own. are capable of great of his highly expressive contrapuntal music for in Bach what it wishes to see and hear. The while concentrating less on the skeletal themes dynamic gradations; playing without using that keyboard instruments that cannot “bring out obscurantism of Riemann’s reductive formula- and more on the palpable melodic outbursts that dynamic resource takes away something that notes” by playing them louder (rather than for tion almost willfully obliterates the essence of are not thematic can lead to a richer appreciation is fundamental to the inherent nature of the violins and flutes, for example) implies he was Bach’s counterpoint. Virtually none of Bach’s of Bachian counterpoint. instrument. Yet triple invertible counterpoint not at all bothered by the absence of this fea- fugues are based on developments of single The fiery “bits in-between.” Bach has a depends on all three melodic elements being ture. Since all his other music is highly expres- themes. His works are full to the brim with oth- trump card up his sleeve when using his con- equal, as they get juggled in their permutational sive and emotional, his way of playing these two er fragmentary melodic ideas that get thrown trapuntal combinations so that these works shifts. In other words, the ways of making good objectively “less expressive” instruments must around in various combinations. (that could be rather intellectual bits of musi- expressive are in complete harmo- also have been highly expressive; but it can only Nevertheless, the first four fugues of The Art cal engineering) avoid becoming—to use his ny with the nature of the best music written for have been so in a way that was radically different of Fugue do not use these technical features, and own phrase—“like dry sticks.” He wanted them them, but these expressive means are fundamen- from the kind of playing that is most natural to their restraint is precisely what is so remarkable to have “fire” in them. He always develops the tally different from the ways of making good a piano. about them. They are composed on a theme that passages where the main theme is not actu- pianos expressive. The magnificent possibili- The period during which most of the fin- was deliberately designed to produce an extraor- ally being sounded anywhere (like the curving ties offered by the modern piano, including the est contrapuntal music for keyboard was com- dinary variety of strettos and inversions, yet arches between the solid pillars). These are what kind of “volume-by-touch,” exist essentially in a posed was the period when the harpsichord and they studiously avoid contrapuntal fireworks, English-speaking musicians call “episodes,” but beautiful parallel world that is largely irrelevant organ were the two principal keyboard instru- concentrating instead on pure, free counter- I prefer the French name, divertissements, a word when playing Bach. When you think about it, ments, so there is a chicken and egg situation. point. In these first four fugues, the themes are that correctly implies that Bach, the player, and triple invertible counterpoint is really a partic- Did harpsichords and organs develop in the way therefore perhaps the least important element. the listeners are having fun. Bach called them ularly curious kind of musical style to try and they did in the 16th and 17th centuries because Free counterpoint. Fugues are complex the Zwischenspielen, the bits played in-between. play on the piano, an instrument whose nature the music that composers were writing was structures, but construction is not everything. These free counterpoints, with their playful is fundamentally antithetical to the procedure. essentially polyphonic? Or did composers How many people look at modern buildings and interludes, add not only fire but warmth to To make such counterpoint sound convincing, develop their compositional styles for keyboard think of the girders holding them up? Engineers the music. the piano has to give up much of what makes music because the instruments they had under and architects, perhaps. In some cases, impor- Bach seems to have thought of the articu- it a piano. The ability to bring out one theme their fingers responded in the way they did? The tant features of the engineering are laid bare for lation of themes alone as cold, dry sticks, and means that players do in fact bring out themes. answer is that both are true. The organ traces all to admire, as with the Golden Gate Bridge, of the added free counterpoints as a warm fire. As with parents who unfortunately favor one its roots back many centuries; as a sophisticated

14 CAL PERFORMANCES CAL PERFORMANCES 15 PROGRAM NOTES PROGRAM NOTES instrument with keyboards well adapted to the and the Vom Himmel hoch fugues are strikingly comparable to Buxtehude’s several pieces in order to bring them in line with fingers, it dates back to at least the 15th century. variations for organ, and in 1748 by the six two four-part movements in (each the main notational level of the collection. So That is also the time harpsichords first devel- “Schübler” organ . In the light of his also entitled “Contrapunctus” and each hav- several pieces originally written in eighth notes oped in forms recognizably comparable to the preoccupation with publishing some of his key- ing its mirror-like “evolution”), published in his and 16th notes were renotated in quarter notes ones we know. board pieces, we can see The Art of Fugue, Bach’s Fried und freudenreiche Hinfarth in 1674. These and eighth notes. (Modern players who misun- By Bach’s time, these instruments had final summary of keyboard fugue, as a fitting works, composed in memory of Buxtehude’s derstand Bach’s purpose can easily unwittingly already had the benefit of a longer period of climax to 20 years of activity, filling a gap in his father, may be the models for Bach mirror play these pieces at inappropriate speeds.) All of development and a gradual process of perfection published work that might have seemed strange fugues in D minor, entitled “Contrapunctus” these corrections date from about 1747, when that had lasted for longer than the entire his- to his contemporaries since keyboard fugues (Nos. 12 and 13 in The Art of Fugue). Bach’s work was probably interrupted by his tory of the piano until today. In other words, were one of the things for which he was most It seems likely that Bach embarked on seri- composition of the Musical Offering and the whatever relation the finest modern concert famous. (At this point he clearly still had no ous work on The Art of Fugue only after finishing Vom Himmel hoch variations. grand piano has to the earliest pianos was more plans to engrave and publish The Well-Tempered the second book of The Well-Tempered Clavier. There is an additional element that sheds or less the relationship that Bach’s harpsichords Clavier.) The Art of Fugue was engraved, as The sketches and autographs of the earliest ver- light on what Bach may have had in mind. and organs had to the earliest known such Wolfgang Wiemer showed, by J. H. Schübler sions are lost. Probably in about 1745 or 1746 he In June 1747 he joined the “Mizler Society,” a instruments. There was nothing remotely primi- during the last year of Bach life. It was published made an autograph score of all of the material he rather learned group of musicians, set up by his tive about Bach’s instruments, or about his way only in 1751, a year after his death. had composed up to that point. This fair copy friend and student Lorenz Mizler. Telemann of playing them. By his time they had, for over Bach’s other preoccupation in his last de- does survive. It is in open score, with each of and Handel were already members. Bach waited 300 years, been developed by wonderful crafts- cade, a private interest in strict fugal and canon- the four melodic lines on a separate staff, with to join until he could be the 14th member. This men for superb keyboard players; they had been ic , comes to the fore in several ways. all the notes designed to be played by the ten was in all likelihood an in-joke, another refer- improved, in order to make them perfect for During the 1730s, he had been putting together fingers of two hands. It contains twelve fugues ence to his name. One condition of membership playing the particular kinds of music that com- the manuscript collection that would become the and two canons. obliged Bach to agree to submit a “scientific” posers wrote. That music was essentially poly- second book of The Well-Tempered Clavier (basi- This total of 14 may have been a deliber- work, in published format, and it might have phonic and contrapuntal. cally assembled in 1742), but the works to which ately self-referential gesture indicating Bach’s been the extremely complex six-part canon (six he then turned all had other features in com- own name, like a signature, since according parts derived from three different melodic lines) mon as well as the contrapuntal intricacy. The to the age-old principle A=1, B=2, C=3, etc., that is now associated with the appendix of 14 background information “” (1741), with their nine B+A+C+H=14. Bach was well aware of the fact canons added to the “Goldberg Variations”; he canons (and their appendix of 14 supplementary and exploited it in many ways. He added 14 is shown displaying this complex canon in his If both the complicated history of The Art of canons, discovered 30 years ago), the Musical canons to the “Goldberg Variations” (ending best known portrait, painted by Elias Gottlob Fugue and Bach’s clear intentions are to be Offering (with ten canons and two exemplary with “etc.,” implying he could go on, but 14 was Haussmann in 1746; we know the little canon understood, some background knowledge is es- fugues), and the five canonic variations onVom enough), and exploited both 14 (=BACH) and was printed since at least one copy of the original sential. During the 1740s, Bach seems to have Himmel hoch, all reflect Bach’s increasing obses- its numerical reverse 41 (=J. S. BACH) in other print survives. A further condition of member- had two overriding preoccupations: a desire to sion with complex counterpoint, but each col- works. However, for The Art of Fugue he changed ship in Mizler’s society was that Bach should publish his keyboard music and a more private lection is also unified by a single key and is based his mind and added two more fugues and two submit a new published work, in similarly “sci- interest in the expressive possibilities of intricate on a single theme. It is not surprising, therefore, more canons, bringing the fugues themselves entific” vein, every year until the age of 65. This canon and counterpoint. His publishing plans that during the 1740s Bach should have started up to 14 and the canons up to four. Perhaps he was maybe his motivation for printing the highly for his organ and harpsichord music are easy work on a large-scale series of fugues and can- intended to write a total of 14 canons but was complex Vom Himmel hoch variations (1747) in a enough to identify. He started with three vol- ons (each one here called “Contrapunctus” by interrupted by the total blindness that caused teasingly incomplete form visually, meaning they umes of Clavierübung, or “keyboard practice”: in Bach, a Latin name stressing the contrapuntal his final illness and death in July 1750. (The four cannot be played directly from the publication 1731, he published his six harpsichord Partitas, language of the fugue), demonstrating in a mag- canons are omitted in today’s performance.) without first working out “scientifically” how to in a volume carrying the charmingly mislead- isterial manner the expressive art of keyboard His autograph manuscript contains many derive the missing canonic voices. In 1748, Bach ing annotation “Opus 1”; four years later, in counterpoint, but also presented with all the corrections and modifications, including com- may have offered his Mizler colleagues copies of 1735, he issued the Italian Concerto and French works in the same key (D minor) and all con- plete reworkings of two pieces (one fugue and the printed (very learned contrapuntal Ouverture; and still four years later, in 1739, he structed on the same theme. one canon). Equally significant, at some point works) from the Musical Offering; he printed 100 published a massive collection of organ pieces. The idea for such a work may have been slowly Bach took a critical overview of the inconsis- copies but by October 6, 1748, most of them had In the last decade of his life, Bach moved into germinating all Bach’s adult life, ever since 1705, tent (and incoherent) notational levels he had been “given away.” It is possible, therefore, that top gear. The fourth volume ofClavierübung , the date of his famous visit “to Lübeck, in order been using, and instructed his assistant—his Bach thought of the printed edition of The Art of the “Goldberg Variations,” appeared in 1741, to comprehend one thing and another about his teenage son Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach Fugue as being his final offering to the members followed in 1747 by the keyboard ricercars of art” (as he himself succinctly put it); the mirror (1732–1795)—to double the note values for of the Mizler Society, probably intended as his

16 CAL PERFORMANCES CAL PERFORMANCES 17 PROGRAM NOTES PROGRAM NOTES

1749 gift; after March 1750 he would be off the the errors in the first edition (2) They changed Bach’s logical musical (5) Finally, and most surprisingly, they hook, since he would have turned 65. order of the canons. The fourth canon is the added at the end of the volume the complete- The Bach family (probably with C.P.E. Bach most complex (at the interval of the fourth ly irrelevant organ prelude Wenn wir making the decisions, and making the mis- below, by augmentation and inversion) and its in höchsten Nöten sein. They explained in an bach’s illness and death takes) found themselves in a difficult spot. They composition gave Bach much trouble, as we explicit apology that the chorale was offered as tried to finish the work on the edition, perhaps know from his earlier drafts. By placing the a sort of compensation for the incompleteness of However, things did not quite turn out as hoping to raise some money. (Bach did not die three-page fourth canon in front of the three the last fugue. planned. By mid-1749 Bach had already gone a wealthy man, and his widow was soon des- rather simpler two-page canons, they destroyed In short, the family not only displaced two blind and his work on The Art of Fugue ground titute.) In their confusion, they misguidedly something important in the musical structure of works (the 14th fugue and the first canon) but to a halt, despite the help of young Johann placed the last fugue (No. 14)—which was in- the group. also added four movements that do not belong Christoph Friedrich. The first part of the collec- complete—at the end of the volume, after the (3) They robbed the great unfinished fugue to the printed cycle of The Art of Fugue. tion (comprising the first ten fugues) was sent off four canons. Gregory Butler has convincingly of its rightful place as the climactic 14th fugue. Bach’s revised scheme for the work is simple. to the engraver and corrected; we are therefore demonstrated (using infrared photography of This is the piece whose third theme is derived It consists of 14 fugues built on the same theme fairly sure about what Bach intended for these the page numbers, which have been altered) that from Bach’s own name. “BACH” in German (or on transformations of that theme), organized ten fugues. Among them were at least one new Bach originally allowed the six pages follow- notation spells out the chromatic theme “B-flat, in two groups of seven. They are arranged in fugue (No. 4, not found in the autograph manu- ing fugue No. 13 for this last fugue. His study A, C, B-natural.” It is thus the last new theme order of increasing complexity. In the first script) and one heavily revised fugue (No. 10, should therefore have laid to rest the erroneous introduced into the whole of The Art of Fugue. group, there are four simple fugues followed by which was given a completely new opening). idea that Bach did not intend the unfinished It cannot be a coincidence that Bach introduces three inversion fugues (contrafugues) in stretto. He was probably able to check and correct the fugue to form part of The Art of Fugue (an idea his melodic signature precisely at the end of In the second set, there are four fugues on two engraved plates for these pieces. By June 1749, unfortunately supported by certain earlier writ- fugue No. 14, since 14 is also the number equiv- or three themes (Nos. 8–11), two mirror fugues however, his eyesight (which had always been ings by Gustav Leonhardt). alent of the letters BACH, as mentioned above. (each presented first in normal version then troublesome) had deteriorated badly, due to a Bach’s sons were in no doubt that it belonged Following these errors, the family commit- repeated in its mirror version), and a concluding cataract, and he could hardly work at all. Bach’s with the collection; their only doubt was where ted two more, by including other pieces that fugue on four themes, one of which was Bach’s health was cause for such general concern that to place it. Butler has not only shown they were have no place in the work. own name spelled out in musical notation, as a his employers actually auditioned his successor right to include it, but also confirmed the fugue’s (4) They included two arrangements of the fitting signature to the whole. To this principal at that time, so sure were they that he was about correct place in the cycle. (Tovey had, in 1929, three-part mirror fugue (No. 13), as reworked scheme he added, as a sort of appendix, four to die. already proposed that it should be positioned as by Bach for two harpsichords, in four parts— canons built on the same theme and similarly He rallied, however. Although almost to- fugue No. 14.) The family’s decision to place the and they even managed to print them in the intended to be placed in order of increasing tally blind at times, he continued work, dic- unfinished fugue (the surviving portion of which wrong order! These arrangements have no logi- complexity. (This structure is restored in my tating revisions of existing works (and perhaps occupies only five, not six, engraved pages) at cal place in Bach’s tightly constructed cycle of 1989 edition for Henle Verlag.) some final compositions) to those of his younger the end of the whole work was very unfortunate; fugues. The error is understandable, since the sons who were still living at home. It was prob- this created a six-page gap in the pagination arrangements are based on the motto theme and ably at this point that he was able to put fugues between the end of No. 13 and the first of the therefore seem at first glance to be part of the completion of the last fugue 11–13 in order and start work on the concluding four canons. They filled this gap—thereby sow- collection. Bach made many such transcriptions fugue, No. 14. At the end of March 1750, he had ing the seeds of immense confusion—by add- during his lifetime; one movement for unaccom- A further word is necessary concerning my com- a painful eye operation. Death finally came on ing the three-page early version of fugue No. 10 panied violin was transcribed for full orchestra pletion of fugue No. 14. As with almost all of the evening of July 28, 1750, following a stroke. and by displacing the three-page fourth canon (including organ, trumpets, and drums), and the problems associated with The Art of Fugue, No one seems to have known precisely what into first position. In this way, Bach’s inheritors others were arranged for harpsichord; this does Bach’s intentions can be deduced and a comple- his intentions were. At the time of his death committed a series of simple but fundamental not mean that the transcriptions belong with the tion of the fugue can be proposed without much the corrections to the second half of the col- blunders that have plagued The Art of Fugue set of works for unaccompanied violin. In the difficulty. Gustav Nottebohm was the first to lection had not been carried out. The remain- ever since. case of the two arrangements of fugue No. 13, propose (over 130 years ago) that, although the ing pages were hastily engraved. The inventory (1) They included an early version of a fugue both pieces make fine works for two harpsi- fugue has three separate themes and was given for Bach’s estate lists a small payment due to that had already been engraved and printed as chords, but this does not alter the fact that the the title “Fuga a 3 Soggetti” in the posthumous “Mr. Schübler”; since this was equivalent to No. 10. In revising that fugue, Bach had added original three-part version makes a splendid pair edition, the completion planned by Bach must less than the value of Bach’s two dozen pewter 23 measures to the opening and had made innu- of mirrored pieces for solo harpsichord. It is the have introduced the motto theme. This idea has plates, it seems unlikely that very many pages merable corrections to the rest of it. There can- three-part version alone that belongs with the been attacked as often as it has been defended. remained to be engraved on the metal plates that not be any question of his having intended the Art of Fugue cycle. I side with Nottebohm (and with Tovey and were used for printing at that time. earlier version to be printed.

18 CAL PERFORMANCES CAL PERFORMANCES 19 PROGRAM NOTES ABOUT THE ARTIST many others). Since we now know that this signature theme. I have refrained from indulg- avitt moroney was born in England in fugue was indeed intended to follow fugue ing in a final tonic pedal, following the example D1950. He studied organ, , and No. 13, the completion must contain the motto of fugues Nos. 8 and 11, the longest complete harpsichord with Susi Jeans, , theme, like every other movement in the collec- fugues in the cycle. Comparison with the six- and Gustav Leonhardt. After studies in musicol- tion. The title’s reference to “fugue with three part from the Musical Offering, itself one ogy with and Howard M. Brown subjects” means nothing, since it was almost of Bach’s grandest fugal constructions, is helpful at King’s College (University of London), he certainly added (by C.P.E. Bach?) after Bach’s here. By 1750, Bach was more interested in con- entered the doctoral program at UC Berkeley in death. All of Bach’s own titles in this collection cision than in lengthy perorations. (Just for the 1975. Five years later, he completed his Ph.D. are in Latin, not Italian. Tovey noticed, in a par- record, my last measure is a deliberate reference with a thesis, under the guidance of Joseph ticularly intelligent observation, that the motto to fugue No. 8, a fugue I particularly like.) Kerman, , and Donald Friedman, theme supplies the missing rhythmic link when on the music of and William all four themes are combined (the quarter notes Byrd for the Anglican Reformation. In August of the motto fill in the single passage where Davitt Moroney 2001, he returned to UC Berkeley as a faculty there is a rhythmic vacuum in an otherwise member and is a Professor of Music as well as seamless flow of notes; see the musical example University Organist. on page 11). He here drew attention to a highly For 21 years he was based in Paris, work- characteristic feature of Bach’s counterpoint. ing primarily as a freelance recitalist in many

Since Gregory Butler showed that Bach countries. He has made over 60 CDs, espe- Scott Hewitt allowed six pages for the fugue, and since the cially of music by Bach, Byrd, and Couperin. surviving portion already occupies five, Bach’s Many of these recordings feature historic 2009, he was visiting director of a research planned completion cannot have contained 17th- and 18th-century harpsichords and seminar in Paris at the Sorbonne’s École pra- more than about 40 measures (assuming the organs. They include Bach’sFrench Suites tique des hautes études. His recently published sixth page to have been full). I have constructed (two CDs for Virgin Classics, shortlisted for research articles have been studies of the mu- by 30-measure completion around the only two the Gramophone Award), The Well-Tempered sic of (in the Journal of the usable statements of the final combination of Clavier (four CDs), the Musical Offering, the American Musicological Society), of François all four themes. (I mean “usable” in the sense complete for flute and harpsichord, and Couperin, of Parisian women composers under of “playable by the ten fingers,” like the rest of for violin and harpsichord, as well as The Art of the Ancien Régime, and a more personal article the work.) I give the first combination in G mi- Fugue (a work he has recorded twice; the first on the art of collecting old music books. nor with the motto theme in the soprano voice, recording (1985) for Harmonia Mundi France, In 2005, after tracking it down for 18 years, because the introduction of Bach’s own name, received a Gramophone Award; the second re- he identified one of the lost masterpieces of the starting on a B-flat, pushes the music towards cording (2000) accompanies the edition of The Italian , Alessandro Striggio’s Mass the subdominant; and I give the second in the Art of Fugue published by ABRSM Publishing, in 40 and 60 Parts, dating from 1565–1566, the tonic, D minor, with Bach’s own name in the London). He has also recorded Byrd’s complete source for which had been lost since 1724. He soprano voice, since he seems to have wanted to keyboard works (127 pieces, on seven CDs, us- conducted the first modern performance of this sign the whole work with his name. I have linked ing six instruments), and the complete harpsi- massive work at London’s Royal Albert Hall in these two statements with a three-part stretto on chord and organ music of (seven July 2007 (to an audience of 7,500 people, and a the B-A-C-H theme; this triple stretto has not CDs, using four instruments). His recordings live radio audience of many millions of listen- yet been used by Bach but he was undoubtedly have been awarded the French Grand Prix du ers) and conducted two performances at the aware of it (and even hints at it); I assume he was Disque (1996), the German Preis der Deutschen Berkeley Festival & Exhibition in June 2008. saving it for the last, climactic episode, so that is Schallplatenkritik (2000), and three British Two further Berkeley performances took place where I place it. Gramophone Awards (1986, 1991, 2000). For his in February 2012, for Cal Performances (“The The music of these three portions of my services to music he was named Chevalier dans Polychoral Splendors of Renaissance Florence”), completion, like three large “bricks” making up l’Ordre du mérite culturel by Prince Rainier of and included first performances since the 16th nearly 20 measures, can be said without undue Monaco (1987) and Officier des arts et des lettres century of other newly restored “mega-works” exaggeration to be more than mere speculation. by the French government (2000). by Striggio’s contemporaries. He has recently The “cement” I have added around these bricks In 2000, he also published Bach, An recorded the sixth CD of his set of the complete is designed to maintain the wild Extraordinary Life, a monograph that has since harpsichord works of François Couperin (ten that Bach himself unleashed with his musical been translated into five languages. In spring CDs for the Plectra label).

20 CAL PERFORMANCES CAL PERFORMANCES 21