#Contrapunctus XIV

[mikrokosmos]

J.S. Bach - Contrapunctus XIV from The Art of Fugue, BWV 1080

On this day 274 years ago, J.S. Bach passed away and his death was treated as the official end of an entire era. It is cliche to crown him the Best Composer of All Time, but it's hard not to be intimidated in his shadow for how influential he would become in the grand narrative of European music. And maybe it's Fate which brought me back into listening to a lot of Bach lately. At least my ears had been itching to revisit his great organ fugues, and different performances of the Well Tempered Clavier. So I thought I would commemorate his death day anniversary with the "last piece he ever wrote" (citation needed). The Art of Fugue is a collection of fugal exercises based on one theme, each fugue showing different potentials inherent in the theme. Like the WTC, this piece is more of a pedagogical work, originally not scored for any specific instruments so possibly written to be studied more than performed. But there's no reason why even a music theory exercise by Bach shouldn't be played for an audience, or by a musician for their own personal enjoyment.

The beautiful moment here is the last fugue in the set, Contrapunctus 14, which starts as a fugue on a completely different subject than the main theme that ties the rest of the pieces together. Instead, a solemn and contemplative fugue develops from this first theme, and in the middle a new subject emerges with shorter note values and moves forward quickly, bringing back the first subject and then develops as a double fugue. Then, another new subject comes in... so in German notation, they refer to the pitch B as H, and the pitch Bb is called B instead. I don't know why this is, but conveniently it allows Bach to sign his name in notes. But the motif Bb-A-C-B is chromatic and so close together, it doesn't sound like something that would work well for a baroque style fugue (at least, the later B-A-C-H pieces [i'm thinking by Liszt and Reger for example] are much more fitting for Romantic angst and drama). But Bach surprises us with his genius in writing a coherent and harmonically "correct"/"functioning" fugue around this complicated subject. And after the BACH fugue develops, the other two subjects join in and the piece re-introduces itself as a triple fugue.

Or at least, it promises to, but Bach stopped writing at this very moment. It is assumed that had he finished the work, he would have finally brought back the main fugue theme from the other contrupunctus pieces in the set and end with a developed quadruple fugue. And as someone who has tried and constantly failed at writing a decent sounding basic fugue for one subject, the dream of what could have been boggles my mind. Why did Bach stop? The score notes at the very end "While working on this fugue, which introduces the name BACH in the countersubject, the composer died." in CPE Bach's handwriting (one of Bach's many musically gifted sons, nicknamed "the Berlin Bach") but historians believe the manuscript is from a year or two earlier, before his deteriorating vision kept him from finishing. It's also a Romantic notion to imagine that Bach intentionally stopped there, letting the BACH fugue be his personal farewell to life, to composition, to music...a way to wrap up his lifelong work of trying to use difficult and contrapuntally dense music to reflect the glory of God and the intangible heavenly kingdom.

Whether he meant to or not, it's impossible not to feel this profound sense of farewell listening to this work trail off with the last threads hanging loose, as if such anticipated perfection of the quadruple fugue can only be heard in the life beyond our lives on earth. I first heard this piece in high school, and despite being young and naive and stupid in a lot of ways, the final unfinished fugue immediately hit my soul in a way nothing else had at that point, and I listened to it over and over, on piano, on organ, on guitar, as it was written along with different completions by other musicians or musicologists...

and I remember some question on some old web forum asking users "if the world was ending, what's the last song you'd want to hear". Of course I choose this one, and because of the question, any time I listen to Contrapunctus 14, I imagine myself as an astronaut, the last human alive, somehow detached from the ship and floating off into the cold and infinite abyss of the universe, listening to this piece as my oxygen runs out and I lose consciousness looking at the glittering stars, following the remains of the music into oblivion.

[toneburst]

Ryuichi Sakamoto (January 17, 1952 - March 28, 2023) оказывается даже сделал плейлист для своих похорон

Ryuichi Sakamoto made a playlist for his own funeral:

alva noto - Haloid Xerrox Copy 3 (Paris) Georges Delerue - Thème de Camille Ennio Morricone - Romanzo Gabriel Fauré - La chanson d’Eve, Op. 95: No. 10, O mort, poussière d'étoiles Erik Satie - Gymnopédie No. 1 (Orch. Debussy) Erik Satie - Le Fils des Étoiles: Prélude du premier Acte Erik Satie - Elégie Claude Debussy - Préludes / Book 1, L. 117: VI. Des pas sur la neige Claude Debussy - Images - Book 2, L. 111: II. Et la lune descend sur le temple qui fût Claude Debussy - Le roi Lear, L. 107: II. Le sommeil de Lear Claude Debussy - String Quartet in G Minor, Op. 10, L. 85: III. Andantino, doucement expressif Claude Debussy - Nocturnes, L. 91: No. 1, Nuages Claude Debussy - La mer, L. 109: II. Jeux de vagues Domenico Scarlatti - Sonata in B Minor, K.87 Johann Sebastian Bach - Bach, JS: Matthäus-Passion, BWV 244, Pt. 2: No. 63, Choral. "O Haupt voll Blut und wunden" (Live) George Frideric Handel - Suite in D Minor, HWV 437: III. Saraband Lys Gauty - A Paris dans Chaque Faubourg Nino Rota - La Strada - From "La Strada" Original Soundtrack Nino Rota - La Plage Maurice Ravel - Menuet sur le nom d'Haydn, M. 58 Maurice Ravel - Ravel: Sonatine, M. 40: II. Mouvement de menuet Bill Evans Trio - Time Remembered - Live Toru Takemitsu - The Dorian Horizon for 17 Strings Johann Sebastian Bach - Das alte Jahr vergangen ist, BWV 614: Hommage à Reinbert de Leeuw Johann Sebastian Bach - Chorale Prelude BWV 639, “Ich ruf zu dir, Herr” Johann Sebastian Bach - Musical Offering, BWV 1079 - Ed. Marriner: Canones diversi: Canon 5 a 2 (per Tonos) Johann Sebastian Bach - Sinfonia No. 9 in F Minor, BWV 795 - Remastered Johann Sebastian Bach - The Art of the Fugue, BWV 1080: Contrapunctus XIV (Fuga à 3 soggetti) - Excerpt Johann Sebastian Bach - Die Kunst der Fuge, BWV 1080: I. Contrapunctus 1 Johann Sebastian Bach - Die Kunst der Fuge, BWV 1080: XI. Fugua a 3 sogetti Nino Rota - Mongibello David Sylvian - Orpheus Laurel Halo - Breath

[flammessombres]

J.S. Bach - Die Kunst der Fuge, BWV 1080, Contrapunctus XIV

[deborahdeshoftim5779]

BACH Motif & DSCH Motif

Another striking resemblance between Johann Sebastian Bach and Dmitri Shostakovich (obviously influenced by the former): they both made musical motifs from their names. 

Here is the famous BACH motif, most notably heard in Die Kunst der Fuge, Contrapunctus XIV:

And here is the DSCH motif, composed from German musical letter names. These would be D, E flat (Es in German), C, and B (H in German):

Just as with Bach, Shostakovich introduced this motif as his personal signature within a piece, finding several opportunities to introduce it throughout famous works. 

Also, other composers have used both these motifs, too. 

[gargantua]

Bach - Contrapunctus XIV (Glenn Gould)

L’universo in espansione

[namelessengineerbel]

My version for ending Bachs Contrapunctus XIV ;-)  With a reminder of the main theme and a dissonant end chord echoing the unfinished state...

[ojolosoy]

(vía https://open.spotify.com/track/4bmZcy7We6H3tEHMCA2WDg?si=IEtQFoc2SN2w_nNOUGLHPA)

[noanfang]

May Safely Graze (The Soundtrack to @noanfang​)

Piano Concerto No.2 - III-Allegro Vivace // Elena Kuschnerova & Ventapane Quartet | La damnation de Faust, Op. 24, Part III: Merci, doux crepuscule!, "Faust's Aria" // Andrew Kennedy | The Art of Fugue, BWV 1080: Fuga a 3 Soggetti (Contrapunctus XIV) // Schaghajegh Nosrati | Sheep May Safely Graze // Mark Laverty | Thais: Meditation // Tamboura Plays Violin | La fille aux cheveux de lin // Margit-Anna Süß | Préludes, Book II, L 123: VII. La terrasse des audiences au clair de lune (The terrace for moonlight audiences) // Peter Frankl

[intimateunknown]

The Art of Fugue - Contrapunctus XlV 

[flammessombres]

J.S. Bach - Die Kunst der Fuge, Contrapunctus XIV