Treatise on the Fugue
The treatise on the fugue , based on the principles and examples of the best German and foreign masters , is a textbook on music theory by Friedrich Wilhelm Marpurg . The two-volume work was used well into the 19th century as a classic guide to learning counterpoint and especially the fugue technique .
content
First volume
The first volume, published in Berlin in 1753, is dedicated to the Capellmeister Telemann . In a humorous preliminary report , the author describes the fact that numerous contemporary composers have given up contrapuntal and canonical writing , despise it as a plaything, compulsory schooling and the like , and limit themselves to mere writing of melodies - an allusion to the gallant style prevailing at the time .
This volume is divided into eight chapters and begins with a definition of three music theory terms: repetition of the same note values in the same voice; Offsetting (i.e., transposing ) a sequence of notes by a specified interval; and imitation , d. H. Processing of a sequence of notes by repetition or transfer.
In the further course Marpurg discusses the different possibilities of the setting of Dux and Comes , the fugue topic and its answer, which are called here leaders and companions .
Second volume
The second volume, also published in Berlin in 1754, is dedicated to the most defensive brothers Wilhelm Friedemann Bach and Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach . This is no coincidence, as the author reminds us of their father Johann Sebastian Bach in the first few words :
"I take the liberty, Ew. Hochedelgeb. to demonstrate the principles of an art that owes in particular to the excellent efforts of your glorious father to improve it. "
In terms of content, the second volume deals with more complex forms of counterpoint. For example, one chapter is entitled On the retrograde contrapunct , which means cancer :
"If a composition is such that it can be performed not only from beginning to end, but also from end to beginning, that is, backwards: it is called a reversing contrapunct."
In numerous places in the treatise, excerpts from Bach's fugues are given as examples, especially from the art of fugue . But the musical sacrifice is also discussed, as well as his two-part inventions .
Impact history
Marpurg's treatise enjoyed a high reputation as early as the 18th century. It was translated into several languages and studied by Padre Martini , later by Johann Baptist Cramer and Robert Schumann . The new edition by Siegfried Dehn in 1858 promoted the Bach renaissance and thus the interest in Bach's fugues, which Anton Bruckner also dealt with.
An extract from Beethoven's copy of Marpurg's treatise has been preserved, which the composer probably used for teaching music theory to his pupil and patron Archduke Rudolph . Beethoven's copy came to her teacher Frédéric Chopin through Friederike Müller , and later to Hans Conrad Bodmer , and is now kept in the library of the Beethoven House in Bonn .
expenditure
Friedrich Wilhelm Marpurg: Treatise on the fugue, designed according to the principles and examples of the best German and foreign masters. I: With LXII note boards. II: With LX notepads and registers. Reprographic reprint of the Berlin first edition. Georg Olms Verlag, Hildesheim - New York, 1970.
Web links
- Treatise on the Fugue : Sheet Music and Audio Files in the International Music Score Library Project
Individual evidence
- ↑ Volume I: p. 130. Volume II: pp. 28, 35 and 37.
- ↑ the theme in C minor that the King's Majesty gave him . Volume II, p. 123.
- ↑ Volume I, p. 94.
- ^ Wilhelm Seidel: Marpurg, Friedrich Wilhelm. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 16, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-428-00197-4 , p. 235 f. ( Digitized version ).
- ^ Josef Sittard: Marpurg, Friedrich Wilhelm . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 20, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1884, p. 407 f.
- ^ Library of the Beethoven House in Bonn