Bach-Ciach, The Art of Fugue Completion Project: Contrapunctus 14, BWV 1080 (completed by Ciach)
Bach-Ciach, The Art of Fugue Completion Project: A Quadruple Subject Completion of the Final Fugue, Contrapunctus 14, BWV 1080, with 90-measure completion by Brian Ciach
Fugue I: 00:00
Fugue II (Double Fugue): 05:02
Fugue III (Triple Fugue): 07:59
Fugue IV (Quadruple Fugue Completion by Ciach): 09:51
Recorded at San Jose State University School of Music and Dance Concert Hall
Sept. 9, 2022
Steinway Model D (425958)
Brian Ciach, piano
Score available at https://sigh-ackmusic.org/original-wo...
THE ART OF FUGUE COMPLETION PROJECT
I spent half of this past summer completing the last unfinished fugue from Bach’s Art of Fugue (adding 90 measures or about 5 minutes in his style); the other half of the summer was spent preparing the music to present the entire 15-minute fugue. After much analytical study of the previous fugues, readings, and tremendous leaps of compositional and pianistic learning, here goes my version of what I imagine Bach might have done.
TRUE TO BACH’S STYLE
This version explores the keys of Gb major, Cb major, and Ab minor among other distant key relationships with the original key of D minor. These key areas were suggested to me by Bach himself—the BACH fugue subject introduces high chromaticism and modal mixture—one of the chords in the inversion of the subject is Ab major. The context of this chord is always very striking, and Ab, therefore, takes on a special meaning as a pitch and harmonic area throughout my completion. Written enharmonically as G-sharp, it forms the bottom pitch of a diminished third interval (inverted augmented 6th) with B-flat. Resolving this diminished third in either direction to the octave, A (G-sharp to A; B-flat to A), this A becomes the dominant to D minor, which in turn sets the listener up for a harmonically dramatic return of the original key (this is an enharmonic reinterpretation, where the old V 4/2 in E-flat minor is now the inverted augmented sixth in D minor). It is here where all four subjects are finally heard in their original form--upright and not inverted--and in their original key of D minor.
QUADRUPLE FUGUE
My completion is a quadruple fugue (a fugue on four subjects), following the trajectory of the piece as it unfolds up to where Bach put it aside (he did not die while writing this piece). My fourth subject is the original subject from the very first fugue (and developed throughout the work). You can see these fugal parts outlined in the video chapters, mine being the fourth section that combines all previous fugue subjects together like the completion of a musical jigsaw puzzle.