The literature about the unfinished ending of J S Bach’s The Art of Fugue (Die Kunst der Fuga) BWV 1080 is in universal agreement that the work remained unfinished at Bach’s death; some texts go a step further to say that it is unfinished because he died. After giving a series of performances of the work, the author became convinced that this latter view must be incorrect, and that Bach left the work unfinished deliberately. This thesis explores this idea in detail and, by presenting a number of new theories, suggests not only that Bach left the work unfinished deliberately as an invitation to the reader, student or performer to work out his or her own completion, but also that he left a number of clues, hidden to a greater or lesser extent, to indicate that that was his intention and to supply vital information about the content of the missing bars. Divided into two parts, the thesis first considers some of the evidence contained within the manuscript itself, up to and including the final written bar, and then in the second part goes on to consider two essential aspects of the completion. By way of introduction, the first chapter surveys the controversial area of Bach’s use of numbers in his music and draws attention to the number of the final bar, which can be interpreted as a clue to the fact that Bach expects the music to be continued. Chapter Two invites a reconsideration of Christoph Wolff’s famous “Fragment X” theory, which suggests that the continuation of the final fugue was written on a separate, now lost, piece of paper. Many inconsistencies and details in the manuscript suggest strongly that Wolff’s theory is incorrect. As part of this theory, the author reports on his own examination of the original manuscript in Berlin. Chapter Three, through a detailed study of the architecture of the final fugue, makes the bold claim that the author has definitively proved the exact number of bars required to complete the music in accordance with Bach’s intentions: this theory develops and refines the work of Gregory Butler in this area, and, to corroborate the theory, presents a possible interpretation of the unusual markings at the end of Bach’s score and of a significant correction made by Bach in his manuscript. Finally, in Chapter Four, the question of the proposed inverted combination of all four fugue subjects is revisited – a combination that several writers have claimed to be impossible – and a new and convincing solution to this problem is presented and justified.

The literature about the unfinished ending of J S Bach’s The Art of Fugue (Die Kunst der Fuga) BWV 1080 is in universal agreement that the work remained unfinished at Bach’s death; some texts go a step further to say that it is unfinished because he died. After giving a series of performances of the work, the author became convinced that this latter view must be incorrect, and that Bach left the work unfinished deliberately. This thesis explores this idea in detail and, by presenting a number of new theories, suggests not only that Bach left the work unfinished deliberately as an invitation to the reader, student or performer to work out his or her own completion, but also that he left a number of clues, hidden to a greater or lesser extent, to indicate that that was his intention and to supply vital information about the content of the missing bars. Divided into two parts, the thesis first considers some of the evidence contained within the manuscript itself, up to and including the final written bar, and then in the second part goes on to consider two essential aspects of the completion. By way of introduction, the first chapter surveys the controversial area of Bach’s use of numbers in his music and draws attention to the number of the final bar, which can be interpreted as a clue to the fact that Bach expects the music to be continued. Chapter Two invites a reconsideration of Christoph Wolff’s famous “Fragment X” theory, which suggests that the continuation of the final fugue was written on a separate, now lost, piece of paper. Many inconsistencies and details in the manuscript suggest strongly that Wolff’s theory is incorrect. As part of this theory, the author reports on his own examination of the original manuscript in Berlin. Chapter Three, through a detailed study of the architecture of the final fugue, makes the bold claim that the author has definitively proved the exact number of bars required to complete the music in accordance with Bach’s intentions: this theory develops and refines the work of Gregory Butler in this area, and, to corroborate the theory, presents a possible interpretation of the unusual markings at the end of Bach’s score and of a significant correction made by Bach in his manuscript. Finally, in Chapter Four, the question of the proposed inverted combination of all four fugue subjects is revisited – a combination that several writers have claimed to be impossible – and a new and convincing solution to this problem is presented and justified.

The literature about the unfinished ending of J S Bach’s The Art of Fugue (Die Kunst der Fuga) BWV 1080 is in universal agreement that the work remained unfinished at Bach’s death; some texts go a step further to say that it is unfinished because he died. After giving a series of performances of the work, the author became convinced that this latter view must be incorrect, and that Bach left the work unfinished deliberately. This thesis explores this idea in detail and, by presenting a number of new theories, suggests not only that Bach left the work unfinished deliberately as an invitation to the reader, student or performer to work out his or her own completion, but also that he left a number of clues, hidden to a greater or lesser extent, to indicate that that was his intention and to supply vital information about the content of the missing bars. Divided into two parts, the thesis first considers some of the evidence contained within the manuscript itself, up to and including the final written bar, and then in the second part goes on to consider two essential aspects of the completion. By way of introduction, the first chapter surveys the controversial area of Bach’s use of numbers in his music and draws attention to the number of the final bar, which can be interpreted as a clue to the fact that Bach expects the music to be continued. Chapter Two invites a reconsideration of Christoph Wolff’s famous “Fragment X” theory, which suggests that the continuation of the final fugue was written on a separate, now lost, piece of paper. Many inconsistencies and details in the manuscript suggest strongly that Wolff’s theory is incorrect. As part of this theory, the author reports on his own examination of the original manuscript in Berlin. Chapter Three, through a detailed study of the architecture of the final fugue, makes the bold claim that the author has definitively proved the exact number of bars required to complete the music in accordance with Bach’s intentions: this theory develops and refines the work of Gregory Butler in this area, and, to corroborate the theory, presents a possible interpretation of the unusual markings at the end of Bach’s score and of a significant correction made by Bach in his manuscript. Finally, in Chapter Four, the question of the proposed inverted combination of all four fugue subjects is revisited – a combination that several writers have claimed to be impossible – and a new and convincing solution to this problem is presented and justified.

The literature about the unfinished ending of J S Bach’s The Art of Fugue (Die Kunst der Fuga) BWV 1080 is in universal agreement that the work remained unfinished at Bach’s death; some texts go a step further to say that it is unfinished because he died. After giving a series of performances of the work, the author became convinced that this latter view must be incorrect, and that Bach left the work unfinished deliberately. This thesis explores this idea in detail and, by presenting a number of new theories, suggests not only that Bach left the work unfinished deliberately as an invitation to the reader, student or performer to work out his or her own completion, but also that he left a number of clues, hidden to a greater or lesser extent, to indicate that that was his intention and to supply vital information about the content of the missing bars. Divided into two parts, the thesis first considers some of the evidence contained within the manuscript itself, up to and including the final written bar, and then in the second part goes on to consider two essential aspects of the completion. By way of introduction, the first chapter surveys the controversial area of Bach’s use of numbers in his music and draws attention to the number of the final bar, which can be interpreted as a clue to the fact that Bach expects the music to be continued. Chapter Two invites a reconsideration of Christoph Wolff’s famous “Fragment X” theory, which suggests that the continuation of the final fugue was written on a separate, now lost, piece of paper. Many inconsistencies and details in the manuscript suggest strongly that Wolff’s theory is incorrect. As part of this theory, the author reports on his own examination of the original manuscript in Berlin. Chapter Three, through a detailed study of the architecture of the final fugue, makes the bold claim that the author has definitively proved the exact number of bars required to complete the music in accordance with Bach’s intentions: this theory develops and refines the work of Gregory Butler in this area, and, to corroborate the theory, presents a possible interpretation of the unusual markings at the end of Bach’s score and of a significant correction made by Bach in his manuscript. Finally, in Chapter Four, the question of the proposed inverted combination of all four fugue subjects is revisited – a combination that several writers have claimed to be impossible – and a new and convincing solution to this problem is presented and justified.

Dissertation (Ph.D.) -- Florida State University, 2004. / Advisor: James Mathes, Florida State University, School of Music. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed 10-6-04). Document formatted into pages; contains 117 pages. Includes biographical sketch. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Harvard University, 1942. / Typescript. Vol. 2 contains musical examples. Includes bibliographical references (v. 1, leaves [392]-434).

No description available.

L’hypothèse d’une théorie musicale du sujet postule que l’on peut éclairer certaines problématiques de l’existence humaine à la lumière de la fugue musicale, et inversement. A partir du sens technique et musical du «sujet» de fugue, nous opérons dans la première partie une relecture (étymologique, sémantique et historique) de la fugue et du fait musical en lien avec l’émergence de la conscience européenne moderne, au tournant du 16ème siècle. En retour, les enjeux culturels, psychologiques et sociaux de la fugue s’éclairent grâce à l’injonction éthique de faire de sa vie une œuvre d’art - une fugue, dans la vie comme dans l’art. Cette hypothèse, énoncée au terme de la première partie, est explorée dans la troisième partie. La deuxième partie est consacrée à une esthétique comparée des arts de la fugue visant à faire apparaître la transversalité des enjeux et des principes de cette forme particulière. La prégnance de ces manifestations artistiques renforce l’hypothèse selon laquelle la subjectivité de fugue peut fonctionner comme un modèle de compréhension du sujet humain. La troisième partie s’ouvre sur une analyse de la psychopathologie de fugue. Ainsi la description de l’Homo Fugiens, figure anthropologique de l’homme en fugue, s’adosse in fine à une axiologie du sujet : le sujet humain, aux sens psychologique, social et éthique, évolue entre le sens positif (esthétique) de la fugue (œuvre d’un sujet absolu, créateur, en quête de lui-même) et le sens passif (voire pathologique) de la fuite (appauvrissement du sujet, qui peut aller jusqu’à la perte). / The hypothesis of a musical theory of the subject postulates that the musical fugue partly explains human existence, and conversely. Considering the technical and musical significations of the fugue «subject», in the first part we reassess the musical fugue (through etymology, semantics and history) in its relation to the emergence of modern consciousness in Europe, at the turn of the sixteenth century. On the other hand, what is at stake with the cultural, psychological and social aspects of the fugue can be explained through the ethical injunction of making your life a work of art - a fugue, in life, as in art. This hypothesis emerges at the end of the first part and is directly addressed in the third part. The second part is dedicated to a comparative aesthetics of the arts of the fugue aimed at underlining the transversality of the principles specific to this artform. The omnipresent manifestations of the fugue in art reinforce the idea that the subjectivity of / in the fugue can operate as a model of understanding of the human subject. The third part develops from an analysis of the psychopathology of fugue. Accordingly, we show that the description of the Homo Fugiens (the anthropological figure of « man in (the) fugue ») rests on an axiology of the subject : the human subject, psychological, social and ethical, evolves between the positive (aesthetic) meaning of the fugue (the human subject, absolute, in quest of himself, creating his life) and the passive meaning of fugue-as-flight (ranking from the impoverishment to the loss of the subject, which is the pathology of the fugue).

Diss.--Techn. Univ.--Berlin, 1997. / Bibliogr. p. 137-145.

No description available.