Re: hanging with the Art of Fugue (was "portrait in Great Pianists")

[Bradley Lehman <bpl@umich.edu>]

At 05:36 PM 9/17/2000 -0700, Jim Morrison wrote:
> If there's anyone else out there like me, almost a total non-musician, who's
> had trouble hanging with the Art of Fugue (though individual contrapuncti we
> find moving) I suggest doing something similar to what I just did.  Lay off
> the Gould and listen to almost nothing but fiery romantics for two weeks,
> that is, Horowitz and Richter and Rachmaninov playing Scriabin, Rachmaninov
> and Schumann, and then turn in the evening to the Art of Fugue.   I suspect
> you'll be moved by the piece in ways you've never been before.  The poise
> and grace of the music will sound more refined and the joy of the more
> livelier sections will also become more apparent.  It will be sort of like
> going home again and finding it better than you remembered.  The version I
> listened to was Robert Hill's exceptional Hanssler edition recording.

This weekend we rented "This is Spinal Tap" since my wife and some friends
had never seen it.  There's that scene where Nigel Tufnel is working on an
original composition and he's basing it on a repeated chord progression: (d
min, Bb maj, A maj, G maj).  It's in "d minor, the saddest of all keys."  I
suddenly realized today that he's playing a reasonable harmonization of the
Art of Fugue subject!

Of course, it's got all kinds of parallel fifths in it, as a Nigel
Tufnelesque rock musician would do it (not having had training in classical
voice-leading).  But it sort of works.  Either this is brilliant, or quite
a coincidence.  In some way or other it goes to eleven.

> Thanks for the recommendation, Bradley.   Why didn't you tell me he was
> playing on one of his brother's harpsichords?  Has Keith ever made a thin
> sounding harpsichord?

All of Keith's harpsichords that I've encountered have been tonally excellent.

Bradley Lehman
Dayton VA
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~bpl