Over 40 students came together in the Fugue Fest to explore one of music history’s most intricate and challenging compositional forms. The fabled Well-tempered Clavier by JS Bach with its 48 Preludes and Fugues is considered the pinnacle of contrapuntal art, and has been de rigueur for keyboard students, including Orphée and Ting who both played selections on the harpsichord.
However, the beginnings of the fugal genre were found in the ideas of ‘flight’ and ‘chase’, the idea of musical ideas imitating and chasing each other, often within an improvisational ambit. Some of these early fugues such as the ones by Frescobaldi were deftly played on the organ by Joanne.
After the time of Bach, all aspiring composers of any seriousness would attempt to write a fugue. Chopin’s student work was delicately played by Imogen, and there was a fugue by Clara to admire, too, in the interpretation of Emeline.
The second half took a light-hearted look at this venerable genre, as the fugue’s academic rigour was turned on its head by musical humourists Erik Satie, played by Theodore and Arianna in a duet, and Peter Schickele (aka PDQ Bach) played by Cookie. Their witty takes exposed the absurdities and joys lurking beneath contrapuntal perfection.
The evening culminated in Ernst Toch’s Geographical Fugue for speaking chorus, which brought together the performers in a joyous, collective tribute to the fugue’s astonishing endurance and versatility
