Sense of Community: Bach’s Movable Feast

TTO participated with a short film on the
history of Bach’s mysterious 14th fugue!

March 5th, 2022

Artisan Works, 565 Blossom Rd # L, Rochester, NY 14610

When thinking about Bach’s Art of Fugue, two things stand out: on the one hand, it is one of the hardest pieces of Classical music; on the other, it is the source of more myths than almost any other piece in that repertory. Our film addresses both these points. It implies that the piece is so hard that Bach’s own son, the distinguished composer Carl Philip Emanuel, couldn’t figure out what was going on and wasn’t able to come up with a suitable ending for the 14th fugue. And it also reveals that many of the stories surrounding the score stem from what C. P. E. Bach said or didn’t say.

Since we are big fans of dark humor—Stanley Kubrick’s Dr Strangelove is an all-time favorite—this film is conceived as an allegory about how myths are made and disseminated. Given that we live in the Information Age and are constantly bombarded with both real and fake news, the issue of distinguishing fact from fiction is especially timely. We had great fun juxtaposing real things, such as the beautiful facsimile of Bach’s manuscripts and the image of Chevalier John Taylor, Bach’s eye doctor, with fake things, such as the costumes and sets, and with juxtaposing accurate descriptions of historical materials with deliberate anachronisms drawn from modern popular culture.

As regards, the myths themselves, no one knows for sure why C. P. E. Bach’s first edition of Art of Fugue is so muddled. We do know that Bach senior had started to prepare the score for print and that he died before it reached the press. We also know from C. P. E. Bach’s own autography that Bach senior was his son’s only music teacher. But the autobiography says little else about C. P. E. Bach’s relationship with his father. This lack of information makes us wonder whether he found it hard to follow in the footsteps of history’s most remarkable composers. Certainly, he was not the first son to have a tension with his fathers: just think of young Telemachus trying but failing to string the bow of his father Odysseus.
— Matthew Brown, Director

About This Event

J.S. Bach’s 280-year-old musical tour de force is the basis of a modern-day “moveable feast” at Artisan Works, the grand art space on Blossom Road. Musicians from the Eastman School of Music and the Musikhochschule Freiburg, in small ensembles of varied instruments, will perform excerpts from Johann Sebastian Bach’s Art of Fugue throughout the Artisan Works galleries.

Audiences are invited to wander among the 50 musicians and 500,000 art works, determining which ensembles to hear, whether to linger over art works, and when to find a quiet space for rest. Each set will last one hour (3-4 p.m. for families; 5-6:30 p.m. in general), beginning with a brief musical welcome, and ending with a grand finale. In between, the audience will experience aural harmonies and visual beauty in an aesthetically immersive space.

This event is a collaboration of the Eastman School of Music and the Musikhochschule Freiburg, and is funded through grants from the University of Rochester Humanities Project, the Mellon Foundation, and a private donor.


A Tribute to Th. Emil Homerin

By Matthew Brown

When reflecting on the passing of our dear friend Emil, I can’t help thinking of the character Arkel from Maeterlinck’s libretto Pelléas et Mélisande. Near the beginning of the story, Arkel professes his belief that nothing happens in life without a reason, and near the end suggests that we all crave beauty alongside death. These two moments sum up my relationship with Emil to a tee.

More . . .


Ariane and Bluebeard: From Fairy Tale to Comic Book Opera

Edited By Th. Emil Homerin and Matthew Brown

Coming 2022

Ariane and Bluebeard: From Fairy Tale to Comic Book Opera