Pianophilia

The form of fugues has fascinated a lot of composers in the time after Bach. Throughout the 19th and 20th century there were a lot of composers who continued to write fugues for the piano. Reicha comes to my mind or of course Hindemith with his Ludus tonalis, Julius Weismann with his "Fugenbaum" and of course Shostakovich. This thread is intended not only to post works in fugue form but also to discuss the different ways of writing fugues.

I kick off this thread with a scan of a rare work which comprises 24 fugues in all major and minor keys by Austrian composer Arthur Willner (1881-1959). Wikipedia gives him as Czech because he was born in Teplitz which is now a Czech town, but he was Austrian and German speaking. He wrote a lot, but like many other composers who fled from the Nazis his music is not well known.

The first book of "Von Tag und Nacht" shows him as a good craftsman, firmly staying on the grounds of (widened) tonality. I guess alfor will like it.

The score is very rare; I couldn't find any reference in a German library. So if anyone knows about book2, I would be grateful to hear.

I thought I recognised the name of Arthur Willner - he fled to London to escape the horrors of Germany after 1933.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Willner

Might I suggest someone correct and perhaps expand the Wikipedia article?

Thanks klavierelch!

The Bibliothek Des Herder-Instituts Marburg, Germany lists a copy of Vol. 2 in WorldCat!

Looks like interesting music

BR,

G

Thanks for the hint. I will check that!

The Nirenburg prelude and fugue that Malcolm posted on the Russian composer site is interesting and qualifies as a 20th century composition.

Willner "Von Tag und Nacht" Heft II is available from the
Bayerische Staatsbibliothek and
Stadtbibliothek Leipzig (I will borrow it there within this year).

I am also looking for Willners sonata(s) and
4 Intermezzi by Hermann Kögler (although not at all fugal).

Strange, when I checked KVK at the weekend there was no result. Maybe they had a server problem!?
And thanks for checking the Leipzig library for part 2, alfor.

klavierelch wrote:Strange, when I checked KVK at the weekend there was no result. Maybe they had a server problem!?
And thanks for checking the Leipzig library for part 2, alfor.

P.S. I do have Heft I

Bumping this thread with another suite of fugues; this time by Fritz Gersbach of whom I couldn't find out much. He obviously was Swiss, lived (at least temporarily) in Basle and was also a conductor of amateur choirs. The "Fugensuite" was published by him in 1946 - at least I found a bill in the score which claims that the score was sold as a "nova" in September 1946. It offers 10 little fugues in free form. Does anyone know more about Gersbach?

klavierelch wrote:Does anyone know more about Gersbach?

Not in Grove.

Regards
Fred