Re: Re: GG: Die Kunst der Fuge (revisited)

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

>Jerry--
>
>I have long thought ART OF THE FUGUE wass an aesthetic-pushing experiment
>(that which is possible rather than likely), and it is safe to say it has
>rarely been equalled and never surpassed.  I seriously doubt that Bach ever
>intended it to be something that got played.  It always struck me as his
>personal kaballah -- the diary of JSB's secrets.
>

Interesting, but I would have to disagree (emotionally not intellectually)
with the notion that this music wasn't intended to be played, because it's
sometimes the only music that I can intensely and repeatedly listen to
(some would call the way I use it as running it as 'background' music, of
course it isn't the same!).  In JSB's time, you're right he probably never
foresaw it as 'performable' music, and especially not as dinner or
background music.  :)  Aren't we sophisticated today!?!  Well, that's
debatable!

>Beethoven didn't seem to see music that way.  He saw music as something that
>one wrote which was subsequently performed.  He was a bottom-line guy.

True, the thought of performance probably stroked his ego, not that that's
a bad thing.  ;)

>Now Charles Ives, on the other hand, wrote what he heard in his head under
>the impression that it would probably never be played, which is closer to the
>ART OF FUGUE ideal.

Yes, he had the luxury of income from his business and so I guess he didn't
need to compromise anywhere in his art, unless of course he wanted his
pieces to be played. ;)  Some he did, and some were just, but not merely,
'idea pieces'.  Did GG ever play the Concord?  probably wouldn't have been
his cup of tea, because it would be stretching things to try to reduce it
to a contrapuntal essence (as a foundation, and as a performance approach).

>Just a thought that I've carried around for a bit, but that seems to tie in
>with your idea, somewhat.

Yes, we're talking the same language, it would seem.  No disagreements,
what happened?
Thanks Skip,
Jerry

>
>best--
>Skip Heller