Geographical Fugue for voices

The Danube River passes through several important centers of music history, but none more significant than Vienna. That city’s roster of native composers includes dozens both famous and relatively obscure. Among the latter we find Ernst Toch (1887-1964), whose name will not be familiar to many here this evening. A prolific composer and influential teacher, Toch has been overshadowed by more famous contemporaries, chief among them Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951). The two men traveled nearly identical paths. Both were Austrian Jews who earned critical acclaim before being forced to flee Nazi Europe in the 1930s. Both taught in the eastern U.S., then migrated westward to Los Angeles. Both wrote important books about rigorous compositional technique, yet each had a vibrant sense of humor. The Geographical Fugue exemplifies one of Toch’s inventions known as “spoken chorus,” while also presenting a strict four-voice fugue. Each voice reiterates a string of delightfully onomatopoetic place names from around the globe, from the punctuated “Trin-i-dad” to “Yokohama” and beyond. Toch’s rhythm captivates as a series of rapid-fire pitter-patter words offset by sustained syllables in other voices. For obvious reasons, it is a favorite of choruses around the world. It also remains among the only examples of Toch’s spoken chorus technique, which never achieved the kind of lasting appeal he expected.

Trinidad! And the big Mississippi and the town Honolulu
and the lake Titicaca, the Popocatepetl is not in Canada,
rather in Mexico, Mexico, Mexico!
Canada, Málaga, Rimini, Brindisi
Yes, Tibet, Tibet, Tibet, Tibet, Nagasaki! Yokohama!

(c) Jason Stell