The Art of Perfection

On Friday a former teacher offered me free tickets to see The Orion String Quartet and Windscape (a ny based woodwind quintet) play the complete Art of the Fugue by Bach. The piece was never given a specific instrumentation by Bach and simply written out on four staves by Bach. It seems he almost meant it as an exercise in composition instead of a piece meant for performance. This arrangement by Samuel Baron for string quartet and woodwind quintet was quite interesting. With 9 available instruments for 4 possible voices it created doubling opportunities to bring out important lines and build intensity throughout the piece. Some of the fugues were only for a few of the instruments so he was able to explore various combinations.

These pieces in particular really show Bach at his greatest strength. Having analyzed fugues in theory classes and even having attempted to write parts of fugues, I understand the complexity and difficulty involved. Bach makes it look easy. His subjects are clear and catchy. His countersubjects are distinct and recognizable. His overall counterpoint, impeccable. Even more than that though is where he is able to take a fugue. The first several fugues have such similar subjects but each ends up in such a different place! When looking at the music of a fugue and doing analysis it becomes easier to recognize strettos, restatements of the subject and countersubjects, invertible counterpoint etc. But when simply listening to a whole four voice fugue it can become difficult to keep track of all the material. Yet somehow it just feels right! This is one of the reasons I think Bach was so successful. His music is certainly complex, yet the music is not difficult for the listener to listen to and enjoy. In fact I think it is the complexity in the music that makes his music so enjoyable to listen to. Perhaps modern composers should strive for a complexity that is also enjoyable for the listener.

Before each half of the program, the musicians spoke a little bit about some of the meaning behind the piece. Their discussion of the canons and mirror fugues really illuminated the intricacies behind the pieces. For example the canon where one voice is four times as slow as the other voice. The second to last piece on the program as Bach's incomplete Quadruple Fugue. Bach "signs" the pice by using his name as the subject for one of the last fugue statements. This one in particular was more haunting then the others and you could feel Bach sensing his death. Bach did not get to finish the piece and no one has successfully finished it for him. Thus the musicians just stopped at the point Bach stopped his composing. The moment was quite powerful. Composers are brought to life through their music, so the music stopping represented his death in more than one way. The Final Chorale Prelude was the finale of the program and according to the musicians, the last thing Bach wrote. Bach dictated to one of his son in laws while on his death bed. Surprisingly I found this piece much lighter then some of the intensity before it. Perhaps Bach had accepted his death and achieved a state of anticipatory bliss.

The musicians also mentioned the emotion in the Bach pieces, even suggesting a connection to romantic music. Although emotion probably isn't the first thing that comes to mind with Bach, it was certainly present in many of the fugues. The climatic polyphony of the voices, especially in the fugues set for all the voices, were quite moving. The musicians gave wonderful performances and brought out the technicality and emotion in the pieces. In the parts where two or more instruments were doubled on the same line, the intonation was impressive. The string quartet sat traditionally and the woodwind quintet formed a semi circle around them. Although this looked like it might have created difficulty communicating, the musicians kept together very well. It's not easy to perform a piece that feels perfect, but the musicians truly brought it to life.