Geographical Fugue

Mat

Sr. Regulator
Staff member
Sr. Regulator
Regulator
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!
 

Contratrombone64

Admiral of Fugues
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

New member
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

Chief assistant to the assistant chief
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.
 

parthenon

New member
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.
 

Mat

Sr. Regulator
Staff member
Sr. Regulator
Regulator
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.
 
Top