Let us be clear: this theme is work. It was not tossed off in a moment's inspiration, light as air. It is heavy, gradual, painstaking (too heavy, too painstaking). And when the other voices enter, it gets worse, more bogged down; too many strings are attached. What possessed the man to create this alien, chromatic landscape? What made him choose precisely these bizarre voice-leadings, these ungrateful leaps?
But the fugue is visited three times by a miracle. The theme vanishes, and in its place we have bars of fluid counterpoint... These bars are not "difficult" like the theme, and they require no special compositional prowess: they are simple, almost banal. If the theme is an exercise in complexity, these passages, too, are like compositional exercises, but in a primer: dissonances and resolutions for three voices, example 1a. But they have an amazing power. They are a voice from beyond the fugue ... they feel otherworldly, the excessive gravity of the piece seems to lift.
They are scattered through the fugue irregularly: twice close together towards the beginning (as if trying to intervene)... and then the fugue proper takes over again, we are plunged into more and more elaborate counterpoint. We think, perhaps, it will never come again. Then, finally one last visitation, near the end. I think "visitation" is the right word, the appearance of a divine spirit, a revelation which must vanish, which must be postponed for the next life. Back to the chromatic vale of tears. And me, too, back to the piano, to get something done.
1 comment:
This fugue is absolutely mind-blowing. The main theme (and the whole fugue) is as cruel as truth can be, as subtle as
an emotion can be, as rich as life can be. I particularly enjoy the bars 15 and 16 -- dunno why, perhaps cos of the intense bass line and the big sound of decima at the beg of 17. Interestingly, the simple yet miraculous bars you are talking about come right after the bars 15, 16. I hope I will find time to learn this fugue some day.
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