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~ SEVEN FUGUES IN C MAJOR ~for keyboardby Ljova (1999)
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I wrote my first fugue a couple of years ago. It was an assignment for a "Literature & Materials of Music" class at Juilliard, and it was for string trio. Since then, I wrote another fugue for wind trio, which is unfortunately lost. The writing of these fugues is accidental. I didn't have any assignments to write fugues, nor did I have any commissions to write anything for piano. It all started when one day, June 23rd 1999, my girlfriend Saniya and I were in a Long Island Railroad train, coming back from a wonderful weekend at my parents' retreat near Riverhead. She was reading a book by Murakami, and I was staring into the window. Eventually, with only about a half-hour to go until Penn Station, I took out my sketchbook, and wrote down the first fugue. Three days later, I wrote another fugue, while also sitting in a Long Island Railroad train, this time going to play a gig in Manhasset. On July 3rd, I was to leave to Germany for a month, to play in the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival. A few days before that, I decided that, while in Germany, I would write a fugue a day, and would come back to New York with approximately 30 little fugues. I would then write two more, totaling 32, and then choose about 15 for publication. All of the fugues would have to be for keyboard, and all would be in C major. None of that really happened. I wrote a "fugue a day" for the first two days, then missed one (because I went out for a walk with a bunch of friends till very late), and then wrote six or seven more. After that I stopped, as I started to see that if my head didn't get much rest between fugues, they wouldn't be of very good quality. In total, I wrote probably 14 little fugues, seven of which I selected, and you now hold. Instead of solely writing fugues for keyboard while in Germany, I also wrote a fugue for string trio (based on a motif from the first movement of Beethoven's Op. 59, #3), a little piece for solo violin (for Vladimir Spivakov), and three other little pieces for piano. Two of the fugues have subtitles. Number four is the "Trombone" and Number Six is "Stockhausen Relief". I think it is rather obvious why the former is called "Trombone", but the latter needs a short explanation. "Stockhausen Relief" was the last fugue to be written, and was composed during the last week of my stay in Germany. During that week, we were rehearsing a piece by Karlheinz Stockhausen, called "Carré", which involved four orchestras and four choirs. It was not a pleasant piece of music, and it was not in any way a joy to rehearse it. And so, I wrote this fugue to relax my mind, and to give the same opportunity to Marianna Schirinjan, who was the solo-pianist for "Carré". Traditionally, fugues are polyphonic exercises. For me, this set is a set of little character pieces. Yes, they're all polyphonic and in C-major, but they all differ in color. Though only two of the fugues have names, the following names can be applied to the other fugues as well: #1 - "Sinfonia"; #2 - "Tragic"; #3 - "Lighthearted"; #5 - "Noble"; #7 - "Final". But, these are only my suggestions. The real beauty of fugues is that they can be played in many different ways, and so, I encourage you to look for other ideas, other characters, and so on. I'm very happy with my little project. I hope it brings you lots of joy. - Ljova Sheet music is available. Interested?
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