Bach's Testament: On the Philosophical and Theological Background of The Art of Fugue
Written late in his life, J. S. Bach’s The Art of Fugue has long been admired—in some quarters revered—as one of his masterworks. Its last movement, Contrapunctus 14, went unfinished, and the enigma of its incompleteness still preoccupies scholars and musical conductors alike. In 1881, Gustav Nottebohm discovered that the three subjects of the movement could be supplemented by a fourth. In 1993, Zoltán Göncz revealed that Bach had planned the passage that would join the four subjects in an entirely unique way. This section has not survived, but, as Göncz notes, it must have been ready in the earliest phase of composition since Bach had created the expositions of the first three subjects from its “disjointed” parts. Göncz then boldly took on the task of reconstructing the original “template” by putting together the once separate pieces.

In Bach’s Testament: On the Philosophical and Theological Background of The Art of Fugue, Göncz probes the philosophic-theological background of The Art of Fugue, revealing the special structures that supported the 1993 reconstruction. Bach’s Testament investigates the reconstruction’s metaphysical dimensions, focusing on the quadruple fugue. As a summary of Zoltán Göncz’s extensive research over many years, which resulted in the completion of the fugue, this work explores the complex combinatorial, philosophical and theological considerations that inform its structure. Bach’s Testament is ideally suited not only to Bach scholars and musicologists but also intellectual historians with particular interests in 18th-century religious and philosophical ideas.

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Bach's Testament: On the Philosophical and Theological Background of The Art of Fugue
Written late in his life, J. S. Bach’s The Art of Fugue has long been admired—in some quarters revered—as one of his masterworks. Its last movement, Contrapunctus 14, went unfinished, and the enigma of its incompleteness still preoccupies scholars and musical conductors alike. In 1881, Gustav Nottebohm discovered that the three subjects of the movement could be supplemented by a fourth. In 1993, Zoltán Göncz revealed that Bach had planned the passage that would join the four subjects in an entirely unique way. This section has not survived, but, as Göncz notes, it must have been ready in the earliest phase of composition since Bach had created the expositions of the first three subjects from its “disjointed” parts. Göncz then boldly took on the task of reconstructing the original “template” by putting together the once separate pieces.

In Bach’s Testament: On the Philosophical and Theological Background of The Art of Fugue, Göncz probes the philosophic-theological background of The Art of Fugue, revealing the special structures that supported the 1993 reconstruction. Bach’s Testament investigates the reconstruction’s metaphysical dimensions, focusing on the quadruple fugue. As a summary of Zoltán Göncz’s extensive research over many years, which resulted in the completion of the fugue, this work explores the complex combinatorial, philosophical and theological considerations that inform its structure. Bach’s Testament is ideally suited not only to Bach scholars and musicologists but also intellectual historians with particular interests in 18th-century religious and philosophical ideas.

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Bach's Testament: On the Philosophical and Theological Background of The Art of Fugue

Bach's Testament: On the Philosophical and Theological Background of The Art of Fugue

by Zoltán Göncz
Bach's Testament: On the Philosophical and Theological Background of The Art of Fugue

Bach's Testament: On the Philosophical and Theological Background of The Art of Fugue

by Zoltán Göncz

Hardcover

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Overview

Written late in his life, J. S. Bach’s The Art of Fugue has long been admired—in some quarters revered—as one of his masterworks. Its last movement, Contrapunctus 14, went unfinished, and the enigma of its incompleteness still preoccupies scholars and musical conductors alike. In 1881, Gustav Nottebohm discovered that the three subjects of the movement could be supplemented by a fourth. In 1993, Zoltán Göncz revealed that Bach had planned the passage that would join the four subjects in an entirely unique way. This section has not survived, but, as Göncz notes, it must have been ready in the earliest phase of composition since Bach had created the expositions of the first three subjects from its “disjointed” parts. Göncz then boldly took on the task of reconstructing the original “template” by putting together the once separate pieces.

In Bach’s Testament: On the Philosophical and Theological Background of The Art of Fugue, Göncz probes the philosophic-theological background of The Art of Fugue, revealing the special structures that supported the 1993 reconstruction. Bach’s Testament investigates the reconstruction’s metaphysical dimensions, focusing on the quadruple fugue. As a summary of Zoltán Göncz’s extensive research over many years, which resulted in the completion of the fugue, this work explores the complex combinatorial, philosophical and theological considerations that inform its structure. Bach’s Testament is ideally suited not only to Bach scholars and musicologists but also intellectual historians with particular interests in 18th-century religious and philosophical ideas.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780810884472
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date: 12/19/2012
Series: Contextual Bach Studies , #4
Pages: 194
Product dimensions: 5.90(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Zoltán Göncz has been a researcher and lecturer at the department of hymnology of John Wesley Theological College in Budapest since 2008. He served as music editor at the National Philharmonic Agency between 1983 and 1997, then worked in the same capacity with the musical ensembles of the Hungarian Radio from 1997 to 2008.

Table of Contents

Series Editor's Foreword ix

Introduction xiii

Part I On the Philosophical and Theological Background of The Art of Fugue

1 Permutations 3

The Book of Creation 3

Llull's Ars Magna 8

Baroque Combinatorial Poetry 14

Leibniz: Dissertatio de arte combinatoria 20

A Special Type of Permutation Fugue in Bach 25

The Music 26

The Text 29

2 The Algorithms of Perfection 37

The Bach Literature and Leibniz 37

Leibniz's Metaphysics and Bach 38

Toward Simplicity 40

Toward Complexity 47

3 Recursive Symmetries 59

The Structure of Genesis and Revelation 59

Punctus Contra Punctum 62

The Foundation 66

An encoded error 66

Trias harmonica naturalis 67

A and Ω 68

Bibliography 75

Primary Sources 75

Secondary Literature 77

Part II Reconstruction of the Final Contrapunctus of The Art of Fugue

Introduction to the Reconstruction 85

1 The Analysis 89

The First Section 89

The Second Section 92

The Third Section 96

2 General Issues of Continuation 99

The Size 99

The Form Design of Modulation 100

Interchanges of Voices 100

The Spacing 101

3 The Reconstruction of the Third Section 103

The Combinations of the Three Subjects 103

The Combination Passage of the Third Section 108

4 The Reconstruction of the Fourth Section 113

The Combinations of the Four Subjects 113

The Permutation Matrix 129

The Inversion Matrix 133

5 Analysis of the Reconstructed Fugue 145

The Relationships of the Combinations 145

Numerology 146

Symmetries 149

Graphic Charts 151

Summary of the Reconstruction 153

Acknowledgments 155

Index 156

About the Author 178

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