New classicalnotes posting: Bach's Art of the Fugue

[peter gutmann]

I’ve just posted a new classicalnotes article on Bach’s Art of the
Fugue, including a survey of some significant recordings. As always,
please let me know if you find any factual errors. Thanks, and enjoy!

http://www.classicalnotes.net/classics4/bachart.html

[William Sommerwerck]

"peter gutmann" <pgut...@wcsr.com> wrote in message
news:c0ebf122-77f6-4a88...@s14g2000vba.googlegroups.com...

What about the William Malloch arrangement?

[William Sommerwerck]

"...whose resources are used discretely for subtle gradations of balance and
dynamics..."

Discreetly, I think.

[peter gutmann]

> What about the William  Malloch arrangement?

I haven't heard it (yet). Based on Jed Distler's commment quoted on
Amazon.com -- "His peppery orchestrations chop up and toss the
counterpoint into a crazy salad of orchestral invention. Percussion
effects are liberally sprinkled throughout, from wispy castanets to
full blown disco handclaps. Malloch also takes kooky compositional
liberties. Contrapunctus #9, for instance, strays through Beethoven,
Mendelssohn, Mozart, and Shostakovich without missing a beat." -- I'm
tempted to try it, but only at a reasonable price, and it sounds more
like a free fantasy (or, perhaps, desecration?) inspired by Bach than
a recognizable relative of the original concept.

[peter gutmann]

> What about the William  Malloch arrangement?

[William Sommerwerck]

"peter gutmann" <pgut...@wcsr.com> wrote in message

news:90fd7cfb-4c67-439e...@p11g2000vbi.googlegroups.com...

Nope. It's real Bach. Only Contrapunctus #9, takes any real liberties, and
they are to add, rather than subtract or alter.

http://www.amazon.com/Art-Fugue-Bach/dp/B0000009EE/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1350841359&sr=1-1&keywords=malloch

Is $12 for a used copy too much?

[mandryka]

Hats off to you for tackling this.

I'll read it through carefully sometime this week and let you have any
factual feedback that comes to mind.

The obvious glaring problem to me though was you pretty well ignore
HIP. Walcha's record is wonderful, but he was pre-HIP.. Leonhardt was
a pioneer of HIP, but not in that recording. He later said he was
unhappy with the way he plays the music in those early Vanguard
records.

[peter gutmann]

> Is $12 for a used copy too much?

That sounds great -- when I looked it up earlier, all I found was $45+
at http://www.amazon.com/Art-Fugue-Bach/dp/B0000009EQ I'll definitely
check it out -- thanks for the pointer (and typo correction).

[John Wiser]

"William Sommerwerck" <grizzle...@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:k61cj6$nih$1...@dont-email.me...

Yes. It's jocose crap, without taste or feeling.

JDW

[William Sommerwerck]

> [The Malloch arrangement] is jocose crap, without taste or feeling.

Why am I reminded of Mozart making a morose face as a representation of what
he thinks of Salieri's music?

Not even an Edge of Glory would sharpen /you/, Mr Wiser.

[Kip Williams]

I read it and enjoyed it. I only noticed one typo, "sting" instead of
"string," but I wasn't really looking for such things.


Kip W

[Gerard]

Kip Williams <mrk...@gmail.com> typed:

> I read it and enjoyed it. I only noticed one typo, "sting" instead of
> "string," but I wasn't really looking for such things.
>

It was your day off?

[Josquin]

On Oct 21, 12:20 pm, peter gutmann <pgutm...@wcsr.com> wrote:
> I’ve just posted a new classicalnotes article on Bach’s Art of the
> Fugue, including a survey of some significant recordings.  As always,
> please let me know if you find any factual errors.  Thanks, and enjoy!

Thanks so much for writing this - I found it extremely interesting and
thought provoking. Another interesting discovery I saw in your
footnotes is a complete recording done on MIDI: http://www.flagmusic.com/aof.php?r=main.
This also includes a completion of the final fugue.

And since you asked:

You mention "New York Woodwind Ensemble" - but isn't the group "New
York Woodwind Quintet"?

And two typos in the "Performance challenges" section - "rather
**than**" and "abstract **splendor**".

And thanks again for writing such a great essay!!

[peter gutmann]

Thanks to all who offered corrections and comments. I’ve now added a
new section on “The Art of Fuguing,” the Malloch “arrangement” (for
which I have decidedly mixed thoughts, at
http://www.classicalnotes.net/classics4/bachart.html#deepend ) and
mention of the Zoltan Golcz completion based on his “permutation
matrix” toward the end of the http://www.classicalnotes.net/classics4/bachart.html#structure
section.

[peter gutmann]

Guilty as charged! Relying largely on my own collection, it's true
that I did not include any recordings of the "Art of the Fugue" that
were intended to be historically-informed (other than the Malloch
arrangement, which may have had that professed intent, but went rather
far afield in trying to achieve it). I'd appreciate if you could
suggest HIP performances of the "Art of the Fugue" that you find
interesting, whether solo or ensemble. Thanks!

[mandryka]

Well I think you should include Leonhardt's DHM.. And I enjoyed Gerd
Zacher's cd too.

[mandryka]

Oh I forgot. You should also include Kenneth Gilbert's, who uses an
earlier version. And maybe Koopman, with his wife (tini Mahot (?))
They play all the fugues (i think) as duets, not without reason. The
texture and ornamentation is very distinctive.

[peter gutmann]

Thanks for the suggestions. Gilbert and Koopman sound especially
interesting. I'll look for those and hope to add a further section in
the future.

[William Sommerwerck]

"peter gutmann" <pgut...@wcsr.com> wrote in message\

news:6863303a-8d2e-4ea3...@b19g2000vbt.googlegroups.com...

> Guilty as charged! Relying largely on my own collection, it's true
> that I did not include any recordings of the "Art of the Fugue" that
> were intended to be historically-informed (other than the Malloch
> arrangement, which may have had that professed intent, but went
> rather far afield in trying to achieve it).

I don't see the Malloch as being in any way historically informed. It should
not be judged positively or negatively on that basis.

As you pointed out, "The Art of Fugue" has no specification for performance.

[peter gutmann]

> I don't see the Malloch as being in any way historically informed. It should
> not be judged positively or negatively on that basis.
>
> As you pointed out, "The Art of Fugue" has no specification for performance.

I certainly agree that the percussion-fueled result is a far cry from
anything Bach is likely to have recognized (although Malloch claims
justification for the percussion when he writes in the accompanying
booklet that the Art of Fugue's "language seems to contain allusions
to popular or folk musics of Bach's (or our) time"). Rather,
Malloch's broad condemnation of the vast majority of performance
conventions certainly suggests that he feels that his approach is more
valid in terms of uncovering and presenting what he believes was
genuine in Bach's outlook. In that sense, whether or not he actually
uses the techniques of Bach's time, he seems to consider his approach
as historically-informed.

[peter gutmann]

I was able to find the Gilbert and Koopman recordings on YouTube, so
I’ve added a short paragraph on HIP performances (which I may expand
as I hear others) to the end of the section on harpsichord recordings
(http://www.classicalnotes.net/classics4/bachart.html#harpsichord).
Thanks again for your guidance.

[mandryka]

OK, but I think that Leonhardt's DHM was historically extremely
influential and important, the most important and infuential recording
after Walcha's.

But now the glaring problem is that you are so old fashioned -- the
latest in there is Koopman's I think which is 20 years old. Things
have moved on very excitingly in that 20 years.

What about Vartolo? Or as I suggested before, Zacher? Baroque music is
at the leading edge, but your review makes it looks like something
that has stagnated for the past quarter century, and nothing could be
further from the truth.

And another thing. The whole thing seems a bit skewed against organ
-- it was written with the organ primarily in mind you know.

Sorry to be so hard, but you asked for criticism.

[td]

Yes. More than a little hard, and a mite smug about the "revelations" of HIP.

God give us real musicians who can play instead of musicologists with no fingers (or imagination).

Lord only knows what you might say about Casals or Fischer playing Bach, or even Landowska playing Scarlatti, given your apparently negative view of Helmut Walcha.

I am tempted to cry: "Will nobody rid my kingdom of these pesky HIP priests"?

TD

[peter gutmann]

Hey, that's OK -- I'm a lawyer so I can take a little criticism,
especially when it's fundamentally constructive, as I construed
mandryka's to be. (Although I certainly don't have a sufficiently
thick hide to survive as a politician ...)

I am interested in expanding my article and will try to hear some more
recommended HIP recordings. I do find them interesting and a valid
approach, although, I don't hear as radical a difference between HIP
and other harpsichord renditions as, say, with the Brandenburgs or
solo string pieces. Also, while I do try to hit the highlights,
perhaps it's worth repeating that I don't purport to be an expert or
to craft definitive or comprehensive surveys (or I'd be stuck on the
same piece for a year). Rather, I try to mention the pioneering
recordings, which I consider inherently significant, as well as some
representatives of different performing approaches. Indeed, I hope
folks don't just use my mentions as a thorough checklist but are
tempted to go exploring on their own, with the benefit of others'
views as well.

[mandryka]

Fischer playing Bach is interesting TD. I was in France on holiday a
couple of weeks ago and the only thing I had to listen to was EF
playing WTC,. So I listened to it whenever I could

He seems to keep a really tight rigid pulse in one voice and be very
free in the others -- often speeding up and rushing ahead..I really
don't know what to think of it.

I'm not negative at all about Walcha, by the way. If I said that it
was wrong. I love his Art of Fugue.I said it wasn't HIP, but that
doesn't stop it from being good. I like what Casals does too in the
preludes -- Casals in the prelude to 6 is one of my favourite records
of anything.

Landowska and Scarlatti, hmm. I like the anti aircraft gun. But the
truth is that that with Scarlatti there are very very few performances
I've heard which has really made me appreciate the music.There's too
much virtuoso bravura for me most of the time -- it's not my sort of
thing. One Scarlatti CD that stands out for me is Leonhardt's DHM.