Fantasia contrappuntistica

As mentioned, Bach did not complete Contrapunctus XIV, which has inspired several later musicians to try their hand at a completion. Going several steps further, Ferruccio Busoni (1866-1924) composed the Fantasia contrappuntistica as an homage/completion/fantasy on the material laid out in The Art of Fugue. The Fantasia exists in several quite similar versions beginning with a solo piano edition (1910) and concluding with a more robust, two-piano version (1921) heard tonight. Busoni explores such incredibly dense and erudite counterpoint at times that the ear of any listener not armed with a score cannot follow the interconnecting, manipulated fugal subjects. It helps to observe the Fantasia’s overall plan (see below). But since that plan contains twelve distinct sections, including several chorale variations, four fugues, and a virtuosic cadenza, there is no getting around the architectonic grandeur that Busoni covets.

Chorale prelude on “Ehre sei Gott in der Höhe”
Fuga I
Fuga II
Fuga III (on B-A-C-H)
Intermezzo
Variazione I
Variazione II
Variazione III
Cadenza
10. Fuga IV
11. Chorale
12. Stretta

The opening series of variations on “Ehre sei Gott in der Höhe” occupies almost one-third of the entire 30-minute work. Here one can more easily track the chorale tune as it weaves in and out of the texture of thick chords and rippling arpeggios. Fugue 1 shows kinship with The Art of Fugue theme, and the D-minor tonality will also call to mind Bach’s magisterial Chaconne for solo violin in that same key. (No coincidence, too, that Busoni’s most famous work is a towering arrangement of the Chaconne for solo piano.) Throughout Fugue 2 and into Fugue 3 Busoni builds an incredible crescendo of activity, culminating with a triple fugue. The application of variation technique with fugue shows a debt to Liszt, who explored these devices in his Sonata in B Minor, and the sparkling trills evoke the coloristic timbre of Scriabin. These cross influences are significant because Busoni’s music is overtly eclectic, sampling bits and pieces of musical styles from the Baroque to the present. Finally, in Fugue 4, he presents the motto subject from The Art of Fugue.

(c) Jason Stell