Bach&#039;s Testament: On the Philosophical and Theological Background of The Art of Fugue

Zoltán Göncz

doi:10.5771/9780810884489

Summary

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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Bibliographic data

Edition: 1/2012
Copyright Year: 2012
ISBN-Print: 978-0-8108-8447-2
ISBN-Online: 978-0-8108-8448-9
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham
Language: English
Pages: 178
Product Type: Monograph

1. Contents No access
2. Series Editor's Foreword No access
3. Introduction No access
1. 1. The Book of Creation No access
  2. Llull's Ars Magna No access
  3. Baroque Combinatorial Poetry No access
  4. Leibniz: Dissertatio de arte combinatoria No access
  5. 1. The Music No access
    2. The Text No access
2. 1. The Bach Literature and Leibniz No access
  2. 1. Toward Simplicity No access
    2. Toward Complexity No access
3. 1. The Structure of Genesis and Revelation No access
  2. 1. The Foundation No access
    2. An encoded error No access
    3. Trias harmonica naturalis No access
    4. A and Ω No access
4. 1. Primary Sources No access
  2. Secondary Literature No access
1. Introduction to the Reconstruction No access
2. 1. The First Section No access
  2. The Second Section No access
  3. The Third Section No access
3. 1. The Size No access
  2. The Form Design of Modulation No access
  3. Interchanges of Voices No access
  4. The Spacing No access
4. 1. The Combinations of the Three Subjects No access
  2. The Combination Passage of the Third Section No access
5. 1. The Combinations of the Four Subjects No access
  2. The Permutation Matrix No access
  3. The Inversion Matrix No access
6. 1. The Relationships of the Combinations No access
  2. Numerology No access
  3. Symmetries No access
  4. Graphic Charts No access
7. Summary of the Reconstruction No access
Acknowledgments No access Pages 155 - 155
Index No access Pages 156 - 177
About the Author No access Pages 178 - 178