Laibachkunstderfuge - Laibach and Bach at Slovenian Philharmonic Hall

A very special event took place October 27 in Slovenian Philharmonic Hall: iconic band Laibach unveiled their latest project Laibachkunstderfuge to local audiences. Laibachkunstderfuge is an audio-visual arrangement of Johann Sebastien Bach’s Art of Fugue (known originally in German as Die Kunst der Fuge). Most of the material from their album of the same name, released earlier this year, was developed already in 2006 when the band was invited to Germany to present their own interpretations of the German master’s work as part of a special event with the conceptual title ‘Bach — Alternative Compositions on a Historic Foundation’ that took place within the scope of the Bachfest festival.

It was in Leipzig, the town which annually hosts Bachfest, a festival devoted entirely to music by baroque giant J. S. Bach (1685-1750), where the great composer lived during the last period of his life. Kunst der Fuge, one of the most mysterious and puzzling works in the history of music, was also composed during this period. Bach did not write the piece for any specific instrument, and the work is often performed on the organ or by chamber orchestras. It is also not known for certain in which order the individual parts ("contrapuncti") are intended to be played, and performances often vary in this respect. Bach, blind and deaf, allegedly dictated the final contrapunctus to his son from his deathbed. According to popular belief, the work remained unfinished and structurally incomplete — in its abstractness becoming revered as complete, mathematically cleansed music. People began to look at the work and its construction more systematically and began performing it only in the 20th century — mainly after 1927 when the work was first transcribed for instrumental ensemble by Wolfgang Graeser.

Laibach chose to use the computer and computer programmes to serve as their instrument in their interpretation of the Art of Fugue. An interesting work resulted that is close to the spirit of Wendy Carlos and the German musical avant-garde of the 1970’s, presenting Bach as a pioneer in approaching music in the way that electronic music innovators later reached the same goals. Laibach has dedicated their interpretation, in addition to J. S. Bach, also to Schoenberg, Kraftwerk, Captain Georg Hop Verney and chess master Bobby Fischer.