Page 113 - (DK) The Classical Music Book - Big Ideas Simply Explained

BAROQUE 1600–1750 111

particularly evident in the Goldberg In The Musical Offering, his last
Variations, a set of 30 keyboard major keyboard work, written for
variations published in 1741, which the newly invented piano, Bach
were, he said, for “connoisseurs to wrote a collection of 14 canons
refresh their spirits.” and fugues based on a theme
Based on a repeating base purportedly composed by the King It’s the most difficult thing
line, Bach composed every third of Prussia, Frederick II. Rather than I’ve ever approached. You’ve
variation as a canon, but with one always writing out the music in full, got to keep it going; how
extra dimension. The first canon here Bach presents some musical do you do that? … There’s
begins with both voices starting conundrums that have come to be never been anything more
on the same note. In the next canon, called “riddle fugues.” In these, he beautiful in all of music.
however, although the second voice writes out only the main melody, Glenn Gould
is playing the same tune as the sometimes as an acrostic, and Pianist (1932–1982)
first, it plays it one note higher; here then, in Latin, briefly states what
incredible skill is required to create kind of canon it should be and in
melodic material that works and how many voices. The performer
sounds pleasing to the listener’s has to work out how to play the
ear. The next canon presents the piece. He even includes a so-called
second voice two notes higher, “crab canon” where the theme is
and this continues until, in the last played backward and forward at presented The Art of Fugue in the
canon, the voices are nine notes the same time. Interestingly, the same way, perhaps to suggest that
apart. Apparently not content with six-part fugue from this work, it was pure music without being
this plethora of canons, Bach had known as the “Ricercar a 6” is tied to any particular instrument.
14 more sketched out in his copy written on six staves—one staff
of Goldberg Variations, built on the per voice—rather than in an Unfinished legacy
first eight notes of the bass line. arrangement for two hands. Bach The Art of Fugue is the culmination
of Bach’s contrapuntal interests.
Written as 14 fugues and four
canons, each one uses the same
principal theme in some way
to generate music of extraordinary
subtlety and variety. The last
fugue, or “contrapunctus” as he
calls them, presents a series of
three different subjects, each
worked out in four voices before
moving to the next. The final one
presents one of the most poignant
moments in the history of music.
Bach introduces a four-note theme
that spells out his name (in German
notation B = B-flat and H = B, so
BACH = B-flat A C B), but before
he finishes working it out, the
manuscript trails off. ■

Glenn Gould, a brilliant 20th-century
Canadian pianist, seen here recording
Bach’s keyboard music, was noted for
his skill in clearly articulating the
texture of the preludes and fugues.

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