Der Kreisel

After two years looking for it, I have found Glenn Gould’s recording that I first heard in this scene from George Roy Hill’s Slaughterhouse-Five (1972), originally a book by Kurt Vonnegut.

Concerto No 3 for Harpsichord in D major, BWV 1054
3rd movement ‘Allegro’
by J.S. Bach
Glenn Gould, Piano
Columbia Symphony Orchestra
Vladimir Goldschmann, Conductor

I am satisfied for the moment, happy new year!

Die Kunst der Fuge Contrapunctus I-IV | Johann Sebastian Bach

• Glenn Gould piano

So You Want to Write a Fugue? | Glenn Gould

So you want to write a fugue.
You got the urge to write a fugue.
You got the nerve to write a fugue.
So go ahead, so go ahead and write a fugue.
Go ahead and write a fugue that we can sing.

Pay no heed, Pay no mind.
Pay no heed to what we tell you,
Pay no mind to what we tell you.
Cast away all that you were told
And the theory that you read.
As we said come and write one,
Oh do come and write one,
Write a fugue that we can sing.

Now the only way to write one
Is to plunge right in and write one.
Just forget the rules and write one,
Just ignore the rules and try.

And the fun of it will get you.
And the joy of it will fetch you.
Its a pleasure that is bound to satisfy.
When you decide that John Sebastian must have been a very personable guy.

Never be clever
for the sake of being clever,
for the sake of showing off.

For a canon in inversion is a dangerous diversion,
And a bit of augmentation is a serious temptation,
While a stretto diminution is an obvious allusion.

For to try to write a fugue that we can sing.

And when you finish writing it
I think you will find a great joy in it.

or so…
Nothing ventured, nothing gained they say
But still it is rather hard to start.

Well let us try right now.
Now we are going to write a fugue.
We are going to write a good one.
We are going to write a fugue … right now

Reposting because I hadn’t yet seen him playing it, Matt Herskowitz does Bach à la Jazz from the soundtrack to Les Triplettes de Belleville (2003), based on Bach’s Prelude and Fugue No. 2 in C minor from the Well Tempered Clavier.

greenmetro:

Everyone’s favorite video of Glenn Gould fugal madness, replete with seagulls.  Seagulls?  Yes, seagulls.

Man is capable of wonderful things.

Glenn Gould’s So you want to write a fugue?, a playful fugue for four voices aired in 1963 on a CBC show called The Anatomy of the Fugue.

So you want to write a fugue.
You got the urge to write a fugue.
You got the nerve to write a fugue.
So go ahead, so go ahead and write a fugue.
Go ahead and write a fugue that we can sing.

Pay no heed, Pay no mind.
Pay no heed to what we tell you,
Pay no mind to what we tell you.
Cast away all that you were told
And the theory that you read.
As we said come and write one,
Oh do come and write one,
Write a fugue that we can sing.

Now the only way to write one
Is to plunge right in and write one.
Just forget the rules and write one,
Just ignore the rules and try.

And the fun of it will get you.
And the joy of it will fetch you.
Its a pleasure that is bound to satisfy.
When you decide that John Sebastian must have been a very personable guy.

Never be clever
for the sake of being clever,
for the sake of showing off.

For a canon in inversion is a dangerous diversion,
And a bit of augmentation is a serious temptation,
While a stretto diminution is an obvious allusion.

For to try to write a fugue that we can sing.

And when you finish writing it
I think you will find a great joy in it.

or so…
Nothing ventured, nothing gained they say
But still it is rather hard to start.

Well let us try right now.
Now we are going to write a fugue.
We are going to write a good one.
We are going to write a fugue … right now.

I want to write a fugue. Do you want to write a fugue?

The Arrival in Dresden scene, from the cult 1972 film Slaughterhouse Five, based on Kurt Vonnegut’s novel of the same name

I am sorry that the original english dialogue here is in italian, but this is the only video I could find in which you have the complete Glenn Gould played Third Movement (Presto) of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Brandenburger Concert No.4 in G Major BWV 1049, which makes this scene not just visually but also aurally interesting.
Notice how young the german soldiers are, in comparison to the retirement age officer. By the end of the war, conscription age was greatly lowered, in order to supply fresh (but most times poorly trained) soldiers for the ever-demanding war. This is one of the reasons why the book’s title includes the words the children’s crusade.

What an amazing film too, despite being quite obscure.
Schlachthof… fünf. Schlachthof… fünf.