GROUT ART

How do we imagine a composer composing? Wouldn't we like to see him writing in inspiration, in the moonlight, in a creative frenzy that does not pass until the whole work is completed? Such a romantic vision looks good in... children's fairy tales. Most often, composers wrote (and write) works for a specific order, a given composition or a special occasion. However, there are compositions in the history of music created without a specific order or reason.

One of the most intriguing and ingenious works of its kind, in addition not intended for specific instruments, is the Kunst der Fuge. Johann Sebastian Bach's last unfinished composition is a series of fugues and canons — strict polyphonic forms based on one simple theme. Great music that grows out of the intellectual challenge that the composer threw himself. To this day, it raises many questions. Why didn't Bach point out specific instruments? What role did the Art of Fugue play in his intention? Is it a theoretical work, or maybe (here we return to the romantic vision) a puzzle sent to subsequent generations to analyze and try to guess the composer's intentions. Today we find hundreds of disc recordings made on various instruments, as well as detailed analyses and meticulous descriptions. It doesn't change anything, though. The mystery remains a mystery.

Fig. Ilona Stenyk