GG - Wtc2 E major

[Bradley P Lehman <bpl@umich.edu>]

On Tue, 8 May 2001, Baldwin, Daniel wrote:

>         An excellent example of GG's Schoenbergian thinking is his analysis
> of the E major fugue from WTC II in the video "An Art of the Fugue." I
> recall him saying that the greatness of this fugue lies in the fact that
> (among other things) "everything is material to the material." This ties in
> more with the theory and practice of 12 tone music than it does with Bach.

...And it's interesting that this fugue's material was borrowed by Bach
directly from JKF Fischer's _Ariadne Music_ (various copies exist from
1702/1710/1715), a direct predecessor of the WTC.  Fischer in turn may
have got the subject from Froberger.  New piece, old cloth.

The Fischer is a well-written little piece, too.  (Track 13 at
http://web02.hnh.com/scripts/newreleases/naxos_cat.asp?item_code=8.550964
)  It's in "stile antico" and its notation is in white notes...so it's
Fischer and Bach each doing something deliberately archaic in style,
reminiscent of the 16th century!

Was Gould aware of that history?  (I haven't seen that video.)  In his
1972 essay introducing an edition of WTC1 (see the _Reader_, p15) he
mentions this piece from WTC2 and gives a few bars as a musical example.
But all he says is: "Other fugues, like that in E major from volume 2,
exhibit much the same sort of modulatory disinclination; and here so
tenacious is Bach's loyalty to his six-note theme, and so diffident the
modulatory program through which he reveals it to us, one has the
impression that they intense and fervently anti-chromatic ghost of
Heinrich Schutz rides again."  So, clearly GG recognized the archaism, but
did he have the Fischer thread?


Bradley Lehman, Dayton VA
home: http://i.am/bpl  or  http://www-personal.umich.edu/~bpl
CD's: http://listen.to/bpl or http://www.mp3.com/bpl

"Music must cause fire to flare up from the spirit - and not only sparks
from the clavier...." - Alfred Cortot