Re: GG: Die Kunst der Fuge (revisited)

[jerry and judy <jerbidoc@zianet.com>]

After reading your comments, and after playing the AofF for forty years
now, off and on, many questions come to mind.

Could the Art of the Fugue have been an any more perfect accomplishment?,
for the serious musician, particularly?

Is the choice of the minor meant as a comment on all of humanity?, or just
as Bach's own personal (personality) choice for this type of huge
'statement'?

Why didn't Haydn and Brahms attempt the 'same thing' (in their own
language/voice)?  They lived long enough and they were supposedly concerned
with the same aesthetics.  Had times changed that much?
On the otherhand, is this simply evidence of Haydn's rapid decline and
Brahms' ultimate 'disaffectation' with all music?

'Amazing what we can learn from JSB, he had such a NORMAL life!  Is this
why GG had his greatest successes with Bach?

I think of Beethoven and Gould as polar opposites.  Beethoven was
(tragically) driven and GG was one of the greatest observers that I've ever
been exposed to! Aren't these opposites?  Just look at the way GG
interpreted Beethoven, there's no love lost, there was no accommodation!
(even with the greatest composer of all time).  heh heh..

Beethoven had 'refined' the objective of Die Kunst der Fuge in his late
sonatas and his late quartets (maybe not intentionally -as a goal), but I
assume that Glenn was never quite convinced of this (at least, in the works
for piano).  He never recorded the Diabelli, for example...
I don't know, I'm asking...

Thanks for reading, and for any replies,
Jerry