Title: Dritte Stimme zu Bachs zweistimmigen Rätselkanons
Instrumentation: For any keyboard instrument
Year: 2023
Duration: 15 min.
Performer: Duo Clavichord
The added third voice to J.S. Bach’s “puzzle” canons from A Musical Offering, appears to behave in a manner consistent with the rules of Bach’s counterpoint. Yet the presence of jarring cross-relations and passing consecutive dissonances destabilizes the harmonic hierarchy of Bach’s canons that support the symmetry of the puzzle canon structure. As a result, the added third voice acts as a virus that imitates the contrapuntal actions around it while infecting their capacity for harmonic stability. Such an infection of Bach’s canons allows for a more materialist listening that is not manipulated through harmonic progressions but focussed rather on its contrapuntal relations.
Link: www.wisemusicclassical.com/work/79715/Dritte-Stimme-zu-Bachs-zweistimmigen-Ratselkanons–Ming-Tsao/