June 12, 2021
I wanted to take this opportunity to bring to light a quote about Bach (and music in general) by his first biographer, Forkel, that I’ve been meaning to post for weeks. What Forkel writes in the quote below explains what counterpoint is and why it is so important to music and to me … and why I’m so crazy about fugues and Bach!
“If the language of music is merely the utterance of a melodic line, a simple sequence of musical notes, it can justly be accused of poverty. The addition of a Bass puts it upon a harmonic foundation and clarifies it, but defines rather than gives it added richness. A melody so accompanied ... used to be called "homophony." But it is a very different thing when two melodies are so interwoven that they converse together like two persons upon a footing of pleasant equality. In the first case the accompaniment is subordinate, and serves merely to support the first or principal part. In the second case the two parts are not similarly related.
New melodic combinations spring from their interweaving, out of which new forms of musical expression emerge. If more parts are interwoven in the same free and independent manner, the apparatus of language is correspondingly enlarged, and becomes practically inexhaustible if, in addition, varieties of form and rhythm are introduced. Hence harmony becomes no longer a mere accompaniment of melody, but rather a potent agency for augmenting the richness and expressiveness of musical conversation. To serve that end a simple accompaniment will not suffice. True harmony is the interweaving of several melodies, which emerge now in the upper, now in the middle, and now in the lower parts.”
Me again :) All that being said, marvel below at this beautiful counterpoint. This is an example of a form of counterpoint called a fugue.
A "What is a Fugue?" post will be soon to follow! Cheers!
Too much information for me. I do enjoy the amazing music, without understanding how it works. Love it. Gracias 😍
I wish I could understand music as well as you do