Geographical Fugue

[Mat]

I came across this piece a few days ago. I liked it very much and I thought you might like it as well.
It was composed by Ernst Toch and performed first in 1930 as a third movement of his suite - Gesprochene Musik.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAY2rhqqxnM&feature=related[/youtube]

Enjoy!

 

[wljmrbill]

interesting and we thought rap was modern.. this was 1930 ish

 

[marval]

Thank you for that Mat, it was very interesting.


Margaret

 

[Contratrombone64]

Sorry, but "what a load of horsepoo" was my first thougth, and I've struggled, I really have, to say something positive about this but it elludes me.

 

[Soubasse]

Hmm, can appreciate it in terms of it being a rhythmic, imitative take on the "Sprechsang" techniques (or however the hell one spells it), but it's really crying out to have notes put to the rhythms (it may have been easier to perform as well, you can hear them get out of sync a couple of times). If one was being really pedantic, it's not technically a fugue unless it's pitched so that you can do the successive entries of the subject in different keys (traditionally, tonic-dominant-tonic-dominant, etc). Granted, it's an interesting exercise in rhythmic delivery of text (thankfully without being rap which IS a load of horsesh*t!) but I'm not sure how successful it is.

 

[JHC]

I found the rhythms very interesting so did one young girl on the left, really getting into it, I am going to suggest that our "All Blacks" adopt it as a pre game warm up instead of the Haka.

 

[Contratrombone64]

(clutches sides rolling on the floor laughing) @ J.H.C

 

[parthenon]

Get a life, please, everybody. Toch's Geographical Fugue is a fun piece, not exactly a novelty but a rhythmic fugue. (No, a fugue needn't be pitched to be a fugue: fugue is a texture, a design, not a form, and there is certainly nothing strict about Bach's fugues, for instance: every one of them is different.)

I have fond memories of performing the Geographical Fugue back in the -- let us say it was within the last quarter of the last century -- under Paul Maynard back at Copland School of Music. The piece builds to a frenzied climax and is exciting to perform and to witness.

Thanks Mat for posting it.

 

[Contratrombone64]

I have a life, and one I'm quite fond of, your comment is risible in the extreme.

 

[Mat]

Glad you liked it, parthenon. I've performed it with a bunch of my friends some time ago, we did have fun rehearsing it.

And btw, welcome to the forum.