The Art of Fugue

A small ensemble of strings or winds

antares86 wrote:

A small string or wind ensemble

Me too

Personally I prefer this

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LucaCavaliere wrote:

Which instrument(s) do you prefer for this
work? And why?

surely versions for different instruments (one per voice), because voices are indeed different by nature and a single instrument would take away from me... even if the performer makes the piece stand out, their "true" nature.

... did I explain myself well? (well!?)

LucaCavaliere wrote:

Which instrument/s do you prefer for this
work? And why?

..paper?

I mean, it is theoretical music, but it sounds damn well. Let's just say that even my ears might suffice

Lestofante wrote:

... did I explain myself well? (well!?)

You explained yourself perfectly ... and, so far, you are also the only one who has provided a reason for the preference.

I am also quite in agreement with you.

As I have already written, I like The Art of Fugue performed with dying-sound instruments (piano above all) because I sense a twilight spirit in this music.

And therefore the organ is what strikes me most

But - damn it! - what you say about the "voices" is true... and therefore, a clear preference, I wouldn't know how to express it.

I love this one!

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Phew Daniele, I was afraid you'd come out as Gould

antares86 wrote:

Fiuu daniele I feared you would bring up Gould

Gould?

Well, unlike Luca, I never thought that the preferred instrument for The Art of Fugue was the piano but, equally, I have never been particularly satisfied by interpretations linked to the harpsichord or the organ—that is, keyboard instruments that were well-present in Bach's time; and this is because I have always believed that entrusting The Art of Fugue to a single instrument was highly reductive, as it fails to fully express the immensity of the ultimate Bachian peak.

I have therefore always preferred interpretations based on string and wind ensembles. Lately, I also came across Ottavio Dantone and L'Arte Bizantina, and I find their interpretation to be superlative, at least for what I have managed to listen to.

As for Gould—so I also respond to what is being said in another topic—he is usually either loved to madness or opposed beyond belief.

I do not belong to the excesses of either category, and I have a relationship with Gould that, while on one hand recognizing his absolute genius, on the other takes distance from certain interpretations in which I do not see myself.

That being said, the fact remains that the immense emotion caused by listening to his Goldberg Variations has no equal in any other interpretation of the same work.

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ok Daniele.

And you, Antares, why don't you like Gould?

A me, to put it in a few words, because of an approach to Bach that is extremely and deliberately stripped down: "typewriter-like," I would say.

OT... Daniele! If you find them, look for the Four Seasons performed by Dantone and the Accademia Bizantina (either on YouTube or an old Amadeus CD); I believe that performed this way, it will seem to you like music you haven't heard before

Since I have been approaching "philology" and historical instruments for a while now (given that I even build them), let's just say that if Gould didn't drive me crazy before with his... personal style, now, starting to approach Baroque practice on the harpsichord and clavichord, he truly irritates me.

LucaCavaliere wrote:

.

OT... Daniele! If you find them, look for The Four Seasons performed by Dantone and the Accademia Bizantina (either on YouTube or an old Amadeus CD), I believe that performed this way it will seem to you like music you haven't heard before

Yes, I have them Luca. They are two wonderful CDs where Dantone and the Accademia Bizantina perform all of "Il Cimento dell'Armonia e dell'Inventione" op. 8.

At the end of October, they are performing Mozart's academy at the Manzoni... truth be told, I know several members; I miss Dantone, and his new wife Delphine Galou recently married with the whole academy in great pomp

Regardless of the instrumentation, the important thing is that the contrapuntal aspects stand out... I also find operations like those of Anton Webern to be very beautiful (and interesting)

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Frank wrote:

Regardless of the instrumentation, what matters is that the contrapuntal aspects stand out... I also find operations like those of Anton Webern to be very beautiful (and interesting)

The instrumentation of the Ricercar for 6 voices from the Musical Offering by Webern is, undoubtedly, something wonderful, but it is a very different matter from the process of deciding how to give voice to Bach's Art of Fugue which, as is known, had no instrumentation assigned by the composer.

Regarding how to perform and interpret it, the contending parties are divided into two factions: on one side those who maintain that the natural interpreter of the Art of Fugue can only be the harpsichord and, on the other, those who maintain that it should be interpreted with more instruments, and both positions attempt to justify their choice with very pertinent reasons.

Obviously, those who have sided with the multi-instrument interpretation have opted for what they deemed most appropriate from their own point of view, and therefore, there is no commonly accepted formation.

The fact remains that, from my point of view, an ensemble of instruments succeeds more than a harpsichord in highlighting the contrapuntal aspects you are speaking of.

The operation that Webern instead performed in 1933 regarding the Ricercar for 6 voices of the Musical Offering had the aim of adding something absolutely personal to it to declare his own direct lineage from Bach. An absolutely wonderful operation, as I have already said, but of a completely different nature compared to what is done with the Art of Fugue.

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Xenakis wrote:

..the sheet music?

I mean, it's theoretical music, but it sounds damn well. Let's just say even my ears might be enough

se suona bene... non è musica teorica

Donatoni had tried it too

http://www.magazzini-sonori.it/esplora/exitime/arte_della_fuga_orchestra.aspx

micamahler wrote:

Donatoni had tried it too

http://www.magazzini-sonori.it/esplora/exitime/arte_della_fuga_orchestra.aspx

Marvelous!

Webern, Donatoni . . . and to think that someone used to say Bach is 'old'. Even his contemporaries

(from minute 5' 00" to about minute 11)

Ehhh ... Webern, Donatoni .... Bach is not old . . . in the face of many of his "Enlightenment" contemporaries

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