DAILY DOSE of BEETHOVEN (July 6, 2020)
In the last C Minor Series post, we traced the first 25 measures of Mozart’s “Fantasy in C Minor”, and found ourselves even in that short time, in terra incognita (certainly for 1785), as we worked through the implications of Mozart’s treatment of Bach's discoveries.
Here again is Uchida’s performance of the Fantasy with score:
https://youtu.be/Ui9pyxdVX6Y?list=RDUi9pyxdVX6Y
“Fantasy” meant something different back then than it does now. “Fantasy”, or “Fantasia”, and “Fancy” all referred to free improvisation—a free flight of the imagination, but guided by rigour, rather than "doing whatever one felt like." In 1753, J.S. Bach's son, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (CPE Bach), wrote a book called "Essay on the True Art of Playing Keyboard Instruments''. Joseph Haydn swore by this book. In the last chapter called "Improvisation: The Free Fantasia," he tells the reader how one goes about improvising such a work:
“It is quite possible for a person to have studied composition with good success...without having any gift for improvisation. But, on the other hand, a good future in composition can be assuredly predicted for anyone who can improvise, provided that he writes profusely, and does not start too late.”
CPE Bach states that the “Fantasy” will proceed through more keys than usual, and that the player would do well to limit his bass lines to the scales of the keys he is passing though.
Here we provide an example: A “Fantasy” by CPE Bach, who was the most famous improviser of his day. Listen to as much or as little as "Suits your Fancy."
Such "Flights of Fancy" usually do pass through several keys, and produce very different ideas, often unrelated. CPE Bach highly recommends what is sometimes known as the "double Lydian", or diminished 7th chord, as an aide to change keys. Mozart uses them in a very different way.
Compare Mozart's “Fantasy”, with CPE Bach's.
We already seen how Mozart challenged CPE's advice about bass lines, and took the bold move of employing J S Bach's descending half-tones as his bass-line, leading into a process of constant ambiguity of key. We can hear how Mozart is advancing over CPE Bach.
The comparison would be easy, had we left out CPE's father. Now, listen to J.S. Bach's “Chromatic “Fantasy in D Minor”, as performed by the great Bach scholar and artist, Rosalyn Turreck:
Progress among human genii is not so linear! Kepler was a unique genius and contributed a huge breakthrough that allowed JS Bach to make that next huge leap in innovation, and now, its Mozart’s turn. This progress is not linear. It would not be human, were it otherwise.
What is it about JS Bach's “Chromatic Fantasia (and Fugue)”? This work is probably composed between 1717-1723. We get the sense of anger, expressing dissatisfaction that the breakthroughs he had so long sought in the Well-tempered System had yet to occur. Could that be so? He never composed anything like it, before or after. It is a unique moment in a great mind. When in the 1800s, Johannes Brahms and Clara Schumann were asked to submit a piece of scientific music to the University of Gottingen, this was their choice. We wonder if they were hoping the scientists would help them figure it out.
We will return in the next installment for the remainder portion of Mozart's great work.