Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner The Art of Fugue: The Opera

There is a project that might be of interest to some people on this forum -- The Art of Fugue: The Opera.

“The opening fugues [of The Art of Fugue], which basically are simple fugues, are put together like old fashioned motets – vocal types of musical writing without any fancy instrumentalisms in there, no virtuosic gestures. So plain counterpoint, YOU COULD ADD TEXT TO IT, SING THE STUFF and it is not a coincidence that Bach makes use of vocal clefs in his notation."

Christoff Wolff, Desert Fugue(2010).


"Bach never wrote an opera. . . ." Anthony Tommasini, The Greatest, The New York Times, January, 21, 2011


THE BASIC IDEA FOR THIS PROJECT:

1) Pick several contrapuncti and canons from The Art of the Fugue;

2) "Add text to it" (and a plot) to come up with a short (20-35 minutes) intermezzo type "opera" (think "La Serva Padrona"); and

3) "Sing the stuff."


There is a Facebook page for this project:
https://www.facebook.com/TheArtofFugueTheOpera

There is also a website:
http://www.theartoffuguetheopera.com/

We are looking for instrumentalists and singers (especially countertenors) to collaborate on this project.

Why not just write lyrics? An opera is completely different from a series of songs. The main difference, and the thing I think is totally unsuited to The Art of the Fugue, is:

Taking purely abstract music and putting lyrics to it is certainly going to destroy the ineffable quality of Bach's music, bringing it down to a very pedestrian, prosaic level. I can't see how that would be very convincing or even interesting.

Regards,

I'm with Bruce on this one. I think the lyrics, singing, staging etc. would only detract from the well constructed structures of the fugues.

I think the outcome of a project like this would depend almost entirely on the artistry and musicianship of the author. What "story" do you want to tell would be the first requirement. Who, how, when, and what you would use to communicate this story using the musical work of Bach's Art of The Fugue would be the next.

I think it is an intriguing idea.

Thanks for your input (all of you, not just Mr. McMorrow).

I like this addition of lyrics to Bach's works.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDMUraUAAY4

I love it! Thanks MALDI_ToF. I posted a link on the Facebook page (giving you credit for the link).