- #106
Akay88
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The term fugue was invented by one Jacobus of Liege in 1330 and composers were composing complex contrapunctal music and fugues for centuries before Bach came along.
My 2 cents: The 17th century was truly a transitional phase in European history, in between the middle ages, when European society was consumed by fear, confusion and murderous bigotry, and the technological revolution that was to be a striking feature of the 18th century. In fact, few instances in recorded history remain where the passage of so little time was marked by such a huge transformation in the landscape of human society and the only ones that come to mind were effected by natural disasters or violent conflict.
Interesting historical anecdotes from around this time:
1. William Harvey, the physician who discovered that blood flows through veins was employed by James I to find a way to distinguish between people and witches for a fair trial. This was a step up in the degree of evidence required to convict people of witchcraft, which for example, previously, by his (James I’s) own instruction (he wrote a book endorsed by the CoE) admitted the testimony of children in witchcraft trials. Thus physical evidence was required of being a witch, which came in the form of warts and sores in private places. Pasta Dr Martin Ssempa would be intrigued.
2. Flushable toilets were invented by a watchmaker in 1501. While Indians had known advanced plumbing for well over 4000 years, Europe threw the contents of their chamber pots out the window onto the street below. In France the practice was preceded by shouting “garde a l’eau!” Ahh…Paris!
3. Dom Perignon, a French monk, invented champagne in 1638.
While the subjects of art continued to be the glory of god (that greedy jerk) the likes of Carvaggio and Rubens were already shifting the landscape. The depiction of infant Jesus, in accordance with Christian beliefs as some middle aged midget in middle age art was because they believed that he was already perfect by the time he was born- a homunculus. By the Baroque, he looked more like a baby (thank god, pun intended).
The destiny of music was to be no different, and Bach’s destiny was intertwined with it with such a viscosity (it being that time, it being that place, him being him), that separating the history from the legend would be akin to separating the good composer from his desire to perpetuate his own genetic lineage! Bach was neither the first nor the last master of counterpoint, however his towering influence remains as the pinnacle of western creativity. With the inconsiderate poop flinging of the previous century out of the way, the Holy Roman empire strongly entrenched and Napoleon a twinkle in his mother’s mother’s mother’s (values are approximations and may not indicate reality) eye, business was a booming in Leipzig, a preferred trade route.
The contrapuntal style, especially in fugues in many ways mimics nature. Bachs fugues invariably start with a single voice following a simple pattern flowing along a simple route (elementary, childish, uncomplicated) like natural precursors which hang around, doing nothing (waiting). This is without exception followed by the introduction of a second voice at varied intervals along the rhythm of the first, following the rhythm of the first and both moving along, like little eddies that form when running water in a small brook encounters a small stone, the lines bumping into each other occasionally stretching and squeezing when they meet and leaving little pauses and gaps in their wake.
This is often followed by a third line and by the time this theme grows to maturity, to the average listener, the complexity of separating the lines has already approached that of the three body problem. We are able to intermittently pick up elements of the previous structures, to sneak in between the lines for a little peak here and there, but the overall pace and unyielding forward momentum wrenches us out from the past and propels it towards the future in a cyclical, cynical way (look how easy it is to confuse you jerk) and as the remnants of our thoughts about the past evaporate, we realize there is no keeping up with this. We close our eyes and let the complexity take its course, like the incipient stages of a heroin trip, going deeper and deeper until it and our consciousness are one, the complexity approaching astronomical measures leaving remnants of coherent structures here and there like the simultaneous order and disorder of nature.
Bach didn’t stop there, oh no. He used four, five and even six simultaneous voices which he often designed to be playable by a single human being! The wall of music could only be penetrated by the most skilled ear developed to its pinnacle while the average listener may be left in the dust, confused and sacrilegiously even bored! It is difficult to imagine the intellect, devotion and absolute mastery needed to craft pieces of art from sound, a fleeting, unreliable medium for them to resound with the degree of sophistication Bach has brought and with such prolificacy.
My 2 cents: The 17th century was truly a transitional phase in European history, in between the middle ages, when European society was consumed by fear, confusion and murderous bigotry, and the technological revolution that was to be a striking feature of the 18th century. In fact, few instances in recorded history remain where the passage of so little time was marked by such a huge transformation in the landscape of human society and the only ones that come to mind were effected by natural disasters or violent conflict.
Interesting historical anecdotes from around this time:
1. William Harvey, the physician who discovered that blood flows through veins was employed by James I to find a way to distinguish between people and witches for a fair trial. This was a step up in the degree of evidence required to convict people of witchcraft, which for example, previously, by his (James I’s) own instruction (he wrote a book endorsed by the CoE) admitted the testimony of children in witchcraft trials. Thus physical evidence was required of being a witch, which came in the form of warts and sores in private places. Pasta Dr Martin Ssempa would be intrigued.
2. Flushable toilets were invented by a watchmaker in 1501. While Indians had known advanced plumbing for well over 4000 years, Europe threw the contents of their chamber pots out the window onto the street below. In France the practice was preceded by shouting “garde a l’eau!” Ahh…Paris!
3. Dom Perignon, a French monk, invented champagne in 1638.
While the subjects of art continued to be the glory of god (that greedy jerk) the likes of Carvaggio and Rubens were already shifting the landscape. The depiction of infant Jesus, in accordance with Christian beliefs as some middle aged midget in middle age art was because they believed that he was already perfect by the time he was born- a homunculus. By the Baroque, he looked more like a baby (thank god, pun intended).
The destiny of music was to be no different, and Bach’s destiny was intertwined with it with such a viscosity (it being that time, it being that place, him being him), that separating the history from the legend would be akin to separating the good composer from his desire to perpetuate his own genetic lineage! Bach was neither the first nor the last master of counterpoint, however his towering influence remains as the pinnacle of western creativity. With the inconsiderate poop flinging of the previous century out of the way, the Holy Roman empire strongly entrenched and Napoleon a twinkle in his mother’s mother’s mother’s (values are approximations and may not indicate reality) eye, business was a booming in Leipzig, a preferred trade route.
The contrapuntal style, especially in fugues in many ways mimics nature. Bachs fugues invariably start with a single voice following a simple pattern flowing along a simple route (elementary, childish, uncomplicated) like natural precursors which hang around, doing nothing (waiting). This is without exception followed by the introduction of a second voice at varied intervals along the rhythm of the first, following the rhythm of the first and both moving along, like little eddies that form when running water in a small brook encounters a small stone, the lines bumping into each other occasionally stretching and squeezing when they meet and leaving little pauses and gaps in their wake.
This is often followed by a third line and by the time this theme grows to maturity, to the average listener, the complexity of separating the lines has already approached that of the three body problem. We are able to intermittently pick up elements of the previous structures, to sneak in between the lines for a little peak here and there, but the overall pace and unyielding forward momentum wrenches us out from the past and propels it towards the future in a cyclical, cynical way (look how easy it is to confuse you jerk) and as the remnants of our thoughts about the past evaporate, we realize there is no keeping up with this. We close our eyes and let the complexity take its course, like the incipient stages of a heroin trip, going deeper and deeper until it and our consciousness are one, the complexity approaching astronomical measures leaving remnants of coherent structures here and there like the simultaneous order and disorder of nature.
Bach didn’t stop there, oh no. He used four, five and even six simultaneous voices which he often designed to be playable by a single human being! The wall of music could only be penetrated by the most skilled ear developed to its pinnacle while the average listener may be left in the dust, confused and sacrilegiously even bored! It is difficult to imagine the intellect, devotion and absolute mastery needed to craft pieces of art from sound, a fleeting, unreliable medium for them to resound with the degree of sophistication Bach has brought and with such prolificacy.
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