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November 14, 2006
Fugue in Four Parts, by David Cornwall
Here is a podcast of Fugue in Four Parts, recorded at Dave's funeral yesterday. It was the first time the piece had ever been performed publicly. Dave composed it in late 2004, beginning a period that would prove to be the peak of his creative output. Though Dave had been experimenting heavily with 20th century classical music inspired by Witold Lutoslawski, Igor Stravinsky, Gyorgy Ligeti and Morton Feldman, he never turned his back on his love for Bach. Given Dave's background as a software engineer, he loved the mathematical precision of Bach's fugues. In the liner notes of two CDs he made for Susanne and me, Dave described the piece as
a full Baroque fugue in four parts, written according to the rules of counterpoint espoused by Bach. This piece begins and ends in C Major, but modulates into many major and minor keys during its episodic development.... Each of four voices state the main theme in a different part of the scale, until all are intertwining in the harmonic glory of fugue.
The recording is far from perfect, captured on a digital camera and performed by an organist who had almost no time to practice. But Dave would have still loved it. -andy
Posted by acarvin at November 14, 2006 6:59 PM
Listen to a computer-generated podcast of this article
