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Björn Rossby

~ Fugue State

Björn Rossby

Category Archives: Fugues – covers

Re-fugued : Bach’s little fugue in g minor

11 Monday Apr 2016

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Little Fugue in g minor

Bach’s music shouldn’t work.

He was, like several other Baroque composers, highly prolific. A good portion of his output was for teaching purposes, another hefty portion were written for weekly church services. Without the aid of computers and printers he wrote music so theoretically perfect at such a brisk clip it is hard to fathom that all of it is also, unlike all the rest, profoundly beautiful and timeless. I find however, very little of his music particularly catchy.
Bach seemed to thrive in the rule riddled world of baroque composition. No other period of music has had so many rules, and unlike any other period, to break those rules is unforgivable, anyone who couldn’t manage all the rules would have promptly been over-looked and forgotten. The composers since then were much more likely to even flaunt their disregard of the rules, attempting to blaze new trails, but that was simply not tolerated during the baroque period.
In eighteenth century counterpoint you have to keep track of how every note interacts with every other note, horizontally and vertically on the paper. You have to have a firm grasp of all the rules associated with contrapuntal composition, you have to be sharp enough to keep track of how each note interacts with every other note in all the various voices of the composition, and to top it all off, it has to be beautiful, or it was a waste of time. There really was only one composer out of thousands who tried throughout Europe between the 16th and 18th centuries who really managed this to perfection. We trained classical musicians could give you a list of others who wrote some really fantastic baroque music, but it is only Bach, we in general, really care about it.
But Bach’s music shouldn’t really work. Pages of angular melodies and counter melodies made up mostly of quarter notes, eighth notes and sixteenth notes. Mostly, baroque music is great for training musicians, the more time you spend playing Bach, the better your Chopin will be, and it can be really nice background music. But just as Bach is supremely wonderful to listen to, it is also mindbogglingly stunning to study his scores. There is no other composer you can simply geek out to just by looking at the score. The technical prowess is second to none. It seems to me so completely impossible that such a huge output of music by one person in one lifetime can be so theoretically perfect while also being so profoundly beautiful, maybe interesting and compelling, but not so incomparably wonderful.
Back in 18th century counterpoint class I was often driven to the brink of madness trying to complete my counterpoint composition exercises. I have never wasted so much paper as I did in those classes. Every time you put pen to paper you have to go through a process of checking how that note interacts with every other note you have already written. You may want the next note of your melody to be an f# for example, but the rules forbid it, and if you insist, then you have to erase something you have already done. The process is constant checking and rechecking, erasing and experimenting. Like doing the hardest sudoku, and when it is finished, realizing you have just created roughly ten seconds of utterly mediocre music. It is truly maddening. Mozart had it easy by the time the baroque period ended and the classical period got into full swing. They were much more free by then to create music based simply on what sounded pleasing.
One day our counterpoint teacher teased us with what is possible if we master these rules. He turned down the lights and cranked up a recording of Bach’s little fugue in g minor for organ.  A real masterpiece, and maybe, even a little bit catchy.

The real thing, just beautiful:

 

If you would like an example of how classical musicians sit around the proverbial fire and contemplate the sheer madness/genius of Johann Sebastian Bach. Picture grown men walking around a car show mouth open. 🙂

Words cannot express the absolute genius of that one page.

Fugue – Visa från Utanmyra

31 Sunday Jan 2016

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Shortly after moving to Sweden, my sister-in-law gave me a ride back to my apartment. After a bit of chatting she said she had a cd I had to hear. It was Jan Johansson’s “Jazz på Svenska” cd. She said he is Sweden’s best jazz pianist, and I think even Sweden’s best selling jazz album. Having never heard of him and doubtful Sweden could produce some great jazz I was skeptical. Wow was I instantly hooked. Apparently he had collected old folk melodies from around the country and jazzed them up with his bassist.
A nice thing with jazz in comparison with classical is it is easier, or maybe even mandatory to develop a unique and instantly recognizable style and sound. That certainly is also true with this fascinating pianist. Sadly he died young, we will never get to know what heights he might have achieved. Jan Johannson can swing with such phenomenal delicacy, his improvising is quite spare and he utilizes an occasional wrong sounding note so deliciously. I am always instantly drawn into the sound world he creates, please give a few of his recordings a try, I would be quite surprised to hear you don’t also love his sound and style.
This was a particularly difficult melody for me to work with, I think I somehow got lucky when I pushed record that day. I tried to honor the  gentle pulse he creates throughout the piece while also keeping track of what both hands are independently doing trying to improvise contrapuntally. I usually get quite lost when I try working with this melody. His rendition of the nostalgic folk melody is simply outstanding. I am hard-pressed to think of another musician that swings and breathes with such calm finesse.

 

 

Fugue – Schubert’s late A major Sonata

18 Monday Jan 2016

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Schubert’s late A major piano sonata

In all seriousness, is there another composer who wrote as many and consistently lovely melodies as Franz Schubert? It is unfathomable. Really. To take a single note, and then some specific moment in time later offer another, and another and have those strings of tones turn out to be gloriously beautiful melodies that capture the hearts of millions, generation after generation is extraordinarily rare. To have created so many beautiful melodies in his short 32 years is a complete mystery.
When we think of classical music, we are mostly talking about maybe ten really great composers, and a couple dozen more second tier composers. What we ignore is the literally thousands of long since forgotten composers, maybe quite capable in the art of composition, but just couldn’t string notes together into melodies that captivated and endured. Not to mention the long list of already forgotten twentieth century composers who thought that that specific ability was both undesirable and unnecessary. Aha, now I understand! The sheer impossibility of it all meant, composers needed to come up with a way of bypassing the need to first of all have to create captivating or at least catchy melodies. No mystery how that turned out. This possibly may explain why pop music exploded to the extent that it did. The general public got tired of waiting for the presumed stewards of fine music to produce something worth listening to, and have ever since, resisted returning.
Anyway, The main theme from the last movement of his late A major piano sonata is one such melody. I melted into my chair the first time I heard that movement and on a pensive day would place this melody into my list of top five favorite melodies of all time.
This melody was much easier to get comfortable with for improvising and it became a favorite to work with when my mood turned inward.
The recording I most often turn to, which is also the first I heard is a recording by Claudio Arrau. If you have the time, listen from start to finish in one sitting, the whole sonata is fantastic, the second movement is in and of itself a masterpiece, and the final movement, from which this melody comes will make the most sense if you hear the whole thing in entirety. It creates the right setting to delve into the serenity and gentle ebullience of that final movement. Be warned, that requires a good 35 minutes of calm attention.
If you are going crazy wondering where you have heard this melody before, it was used as the opening theme song for the old sitcom ‘Wings’.

Starts at 33:46

Fugue – Autumn leaves

04 Monday Jan 2016

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There is an incredible cd with Chick Corea and Bobby McFerrin. The entire cd is wonderful but I especially love their rendition of the the timeless standard ‘autumn leaves.’ Since then I have loved the simple yet enduring melodies.
Whenever I work on my fugal improvising I alternate between my own melodies I write especially for this purpose and other favorite melodies searching for those that seem to without much resistance work well as fugal melodies. This is one such melody, and when I am feeling calm and melancholic this seems to be a natural choice to train on.
As a child and young teen I loved pop music, especially the hard rock bands of the 70’s and early 80’s. Then rather abruptly, I switched completely to classical music in my late teens. I have never really loved jazz, I have some favorite pieces and a few jazz musicians I love, but as a genre it never became an obsession. The jazz style is fascinating and I admire greatly those that are truly great at it, as I have struggled myself to find the jazz groove and sound. To swing like the greats is still a mystery, something probably most devote their lives to attaining. It probably can’t quite be simply taught in school. I actually think there are only a select few classical pianists that also swing and breathe to perfection.
The reason I think improvising in a fugal style turned out to be so perfect is for, I guess the opposite side of the coin of what I think jazz got so wrong.
When we say we love a particular genre of music, or composer, or band, it’s probably barely true at all. To take an extreme example, can I say I love Vivaldi if I love the ‘Four Seasons’? When I was younger I loved the rock band Jethro Tull. Ian Anderson and his cohorts I will still proclaim are geniuses. Only a few of his many albums although, can I say I love in entirety. Each time they put out an album, I was hesitant to purchase it, completely unsure if I would think the whole album is a masterpiece like I consider a select few. Can I with any accuracy say I love Jethro Tull, or is it more true to say I love a list of their songs? And what that comes down to is, the melodies they create and what they do with them.
I have listened to and studied the scores of all the Beethoven piano sonatas, and even though it is easy to say I love Beethoven, there are plenty of his 32 piano sonatas that I will never listen to again and that is perfectly fine. They simply do not resonate with me like a small list do, the melodies just don’t grab my attention, even if I know they are all masterworks. I would be surprised to meet even an ardent Beatles fan that feels a strong connection to every one of their songs. There is nothing wrong with this, the point I am trying to make is, it is the melodies and the handling of those melodies that captures the imagination of each of us. Certain bands and composers may have a particularly long list of pieces that inspire us, but it must be quite rare that it is 100 percent. That’s my thought anyway, maybe I am wrong, or maybe it’s just semantics.
So what does that have to do with what I think jazz got so wrong. It is quite possible to listen to a jazz ensemble play ‘autumn leaves’ and barely once get to hear the actual unadulterated melody. The swinging of the group can be perfect and the soloing truly expert, but one can be hard pressed often to have any clue what the actual tune they’re playing is. At that point, the phrase “it don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing” isn’t just a catchy phrase to tease the second tier musicians with, but a profound statement on what might be lacking in jazz.
If I can return to the Beethoven piano sonatas, the famous and much loved ‘tempest’ sonata I know is an expertly written sonata, is one I don’t particularly care for as the melodies don’t really capture my imagination. Would even Beethoven have a problem with this if I in the next breath say Beethoven sits firmly in my humble list of top five greatest musicians ever? Each of us creates our own list of music that captivates us, and I think for most of us it is mostly based on the melodies of certain songs and pieces and the handling of those melodies.
If one evening I feel in the mood to listen to a particular Chopin nocturne, I may click through a few possible videos on YouTube, each time I know I will at least be able to hear the melodies I am craving, even if I end up clicking to another pianists rendition a little too hastily.
In jazz the basic jumping off point is to take a song, honor the harmonic structure while “ignoring” the melodic substance, improvising to your best ability. In improvising in a fugal style I get to honor the melodies I love so much while ignoring the harmonic structure of the piece, getting to experiment with different possibilities in that arena instead.
Before you might think I have it out for jazz, if I could swing and improvise like a jazz master and had an equally capable bassist and drummer to jam with I probably wouldn’t look back. And even though it seems to me like the jazz world is struggling, I think the classical music world is struggling far worse, imploding from within, those in charge of handling the future of classical music are doing a poor job of creating any interest, and many I believe, are actually doing the exact opposite of what might be productive at this point. Which, having caught the tail end of the golden years of classical music is hard to grasp and even harder to accept. Many people can become quite avid listeners and consumers of classical music with the right introduction.

Fugue – Smells like teen spirit

02 Wednesday Dec 2015

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I spent the 90’s pretty much only interested in classical music. I quickly became a classical music snob once I got turned on to Beethoven and Rachmaninov for good. It wasn’t very difficult at that point to leave the hard rock I loved from high school behind as the 80’s degenerated into the over the top big stadium hair bands. At some point everyone seemed to reject that music as grunge and rap emerged so confidently shortly thereafter.
I did one day however, happen to see Nirvana’s video for ‘smells like teen spirit’ at a friends house, I found it quite mesmerizing. It remains one of the few pop songs from the 90’s I enjoy, and it turned out to be sung by an enduring pop icon, surely enduring for more than just the obvious reason.
I have now seen several pianists do their own interpretation of the piece on YouTube. Of all the videos I have seen I find the most interesting to be Brad Mehldau’s interpretation of it in a live recording from a concert in Vienna.

That video has sadly disappeared.
Brad Mehldau’s solo recordings are quite captivating as he jazzes up some beautiful and beloved pop songs. I can warmly recommend his cd ‘Live in Tokyo.’
Well, while you are at it, check out Eric Lewis practically destroy a grand piano slamming out his own variant of the piece.

So I thought why not try doing my own take on the classic. As I try out various songs and melodies as an improvised fugue some melodies go easily into a fugue and others I struggle with and many I give up on. The beautiful melodies from ‘smells like teen spirit’ it turned out seemed to be begging to receive a contrapuntal treatment. I especially appreciate the opportunity to get away with some parallel fifths. 🙂

 

 

Fugue – Pathetique

22 Sunday Nov 2015

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Sometimes I don’t know whether to feel sorry for or to feel grateful for Beethoven. Practically every little student of mine wishes to play ‘Fur Elise’ and nothing else of his. They aren’t interested in knowing his name, or even that they are playing classical music, they just, boy and girl alike, want to play the opening melody to the little love song. Would he be proud to have a little piece of his sit so firmly in the hearts of millions of children, or would he be irritated? I can imagine him being irritated.
The gentleman wrote so many timeless classics and it is that little ditty that captures the imagination of so many. To be fair, it does, several years later into their studies open up the possibility of other pieces of his, and for that I am grateful every time I yet again have to work with the little infinite loop. One such piece is the ‘Pathetique.’
It is a well known staple now, but can you imagine a gruff young Beethoven performing that piece live for the first time after a couple of decades of lovely little Haydn and Mozart sonatas. I can imagine half the audience wigging out.
My first idea was to find one melody from each of the great composers that I can use for fugal improvisation. I will probably scratch that idea soon as I have already found several melodies of certain composers I wish to use before even looking at others. Beethoven will probably be a rich source of melodies I am already anticipating.
I love the Pathetique sonata, but I especially love the final movement. I understand it is in a minor key filled with pathos but I find this theme rather ebullient and full of life. It was incredibly fun to pass this theme around, playing the melody in various keys in either hand at about the fastest tempo I could handle. I tried making several recordings of this piece using several melodies from the final movement but finally deciding it was enough to use only the main theme from the opening of the movement. I find it such a perfectly formed melody creating the perfect mood to wrap up the beloved Beethoven staple.
Here is a nice and energetic interpretation of the piece.

 

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