The Art of Fugue

Started by The Mad Hatter, May 23, 2007, 12:37:26 AM

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Scarpia

Quote from: aulos on March 26, 2011, 09:02:15 AM
And I was referring to my own experience, which is that score reading supports the formal analysis of the work, but this attitude did initially prevent me from taking in the expressive qualities of the music. Only later when I had listened to the work a lot of times without any thought of the score, and had experienced the expressive qualities to the full, did I succed in listening to it with my brain and my emotional part at the same time, so to say to listen with both halves of the brain simultaneously.

Another possibility is to listen with the score, then subsequently listen without the score but with the insights that came from seeing the score.  In any case, just my own experience, obviously.

premont

Quote from: Marc on March 26, 2011, 08:54:39 AM
In both cases, Alfred Kern was responsible for the (re)building respectively restoration.

Well, he was responsible for a lot of restorings of old French organs. A kind of French answer to Jürgen Ahrend.
However the organs he built from new are not bad at all, or at least those of them I have heard.
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Philoctetes

Quote from: Il Barone Scarpia on March 26, 2011, 09:06:38 AM
Another possibility is to listen with the score, then subsequently listen without the score but with the insights that came from seeing the score.  In any case, just my own experience, obviously.

And as I, and at least one other pointed out, sometimes it is just the recording. You can hear the lines and the structure without the score.

Marc

Quote from: Marc on March 26, 2011, 08:23:33 AM
[....]
Que, let's merge and mingle! :-*

He did! He did! :-* :-*

Quote from: aulos on March 26, 2011, 09:04:25 AM
Yes please Que, if you would be so kind  :-*

He is! He is! :-* :-* :-*

premont

Quote from: Marc on March 26, 2011, 10:49:53 AM
He did! He did! :-* :-*

He is! He is! :-* :-* :-*

I never doubted he would do everything to please us  :-* :-* :-*
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Opus106

Quote from: Marc on March 26, 2011, 10:49:53 AM
He did! He did! :-* :-*

He is! He is! :-* :-* :-*

Quote from: aulos on March 26, 2011, 10:57:53 AM
I never doubted he would do everything to please us  :-* :-* :-*

Oh, get a room!

;) ;D
Regards,
Navneeth

Marc

In our Room of Music, we join together: Premont, Que and me:



Die Kunst des Kuschelns

:-*  :-*  :-*  :-*

premont

Quote from: Opus106 on March 26, 2011, 11:05:37 AM
Oh, get a room!

;) ;D

Well, there is enough room in the forum for us to express our full satisfaction.  ;D
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Marc

Quote from: Antoine Marchand on March 26, 2011, 07:59:04 AM
Contrapunctus IX/ Contrapunctus I-VIII/ Contrapunctus XIIa (conclusion), from The Art of Fugue, BWV 1080 - Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin:

http://www.wgbh.org/programs/-803/episodes/-25390



On my wish-list now, I'm afraid .... ;)

premont

Quote from: Marc on March 26, 2011, 11:18:04 AM
On my wish-list now, I'm afraid .... ;)

It is very well played, but the variable scoring often seems a bit arbitrary. Very efficient though is Cpt. VII which is played played on harpsichord, except for the four augmented statements of the subject going from bass to discant, which in this recording are played on solo strings, resulting in an effect not far from Rogg´s recording, Rogg playing the augmented statements on the pedal in ascending registers.
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premont

Quote from: Marc on March 26, 2011, 11:15:53 AM
In our Room of Music, we join together: Premont, Que and me:

OK., I have reestablished my username.
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Que


Mandryka

I found this interview with Aimard where he makes this comment about AofF: http://www.deutschegrammophon.com/special/insighttext.htms?ID=aimard-bach&DETAIL=2

Interviewer: So the priorities are contrapuntal and formal clarity and respect for the different styles?


Aimard: Certainly, but that isn't enough. Interpreting The Art of Fugue demands a response to Bach's invitation to bring life and communicativeness to even the most contrapuntally sophisticated pieces. Take, for example, Contrapunctus IV: the main subject is combined with brief running motifs whose freshness, brevity and continual recurrence transform profuse polyphony into a delightful divertissement. The technical complexity of Contrapunctus XII, a mirror fugue - we first hear the subject rectus and then its inversion - can pass unnoticed thanks to its calm and fluid texture. The archaizing style, the pure form (the subject is stated four times, followed by a variant of it a further four times) and the conjunct lines lend a sense of great simplicity to this luminous, heavenly movement.


In Canon IV, a second voice imitates the first by inversion and twice as slowly. The listener doesn't notice the subtlety of the writing, however, but only the poignant anguish of a two-part lament. Bach is constantly operating on more than one level, and ensuring their coexistence is one of the interpreter's jobs.
Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

premont

Quote from: Mandryka on March 27, 2011, 09:59:44 AM
.. Aimard where he makes this comment about AofF...

In principle I think these are wise words.

BTW the music is so hard for him to play, that his words do not always shine through.
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Mandryka

Quote from: premont on March 27, 2011, 10:22:21 AM
In principle I think these are wise words.

BTW the music is so hard for him to play, that his words do not always shine through.

I know -- that's what I thought when I read it.
Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

marvinbrown



  OK I have disappeared for the past week and have spent most of my listening time on Bach's Art of Fugue (Moroney recording).  I have made considerable progress identifying many of the themes that permeate each and every contrapuntal fugue.  Some became more apparent with each additional listening, others remain tenaciously elusive  :(! I have discovered that simply listening to the music as music really does not work for me.  Fugues represent a composer's skill is varying a principal  "theme" and marrying these variations on a principal theme together.  Fugue composition is an exercise in skill after all.

   It will benefit me to seek out other recordings, preferably on different instruments than the harpsichord.

  marvin

premont

Quote from: marvinbrown on March 30, 2011, 01:30:44 PM
I have discovered that simply listening to the music as music really does not work for me.

Taken ad notam.

Quote from: marvinbrown
It will benefit me to seek out other recordings, preferably on different instruments than the harpsichord.

Maybe an organ version? Walcha(DG Archive)  or Rogg (EMI)? Both strike a fine balance between counterpoint and expression.

Or  a chamber version. The newly released by AAM, Berlin (Harmonia Mundi) is quite expressive, and Münchinger´s recording with the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra (Decca) made wonders for me many years ago.
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Que

A new recording performed on harpsichord with interludes on the organ.



FWIW Klassik-heute's reviewer likes it.

Samples

Q

Opus106

#158
Quote from: Que on April 03, 2011, 04:11:42 AM
A new recording performed on harpsichord with interludes on the organ.

Q

I think I noticed about four or five new releases of the AoF in the pre-release charts earlier this year. And this was one of them.
Regards,
Navneeth

Antoine Marchand

Quote from: Opus106 on April 03, 2011, 08:01:56 AM
I think I noticed about four or five new releases of the AoF in the pre-release charts earlier this year. And this was one of them.

I think this is another one (also played on harpsichord), although it was recorded in 2008: