Fugue for 13 Solo Strings by Witold Lutoslawski: Between the Author’s Commentary and Musicological Reflection

Abstract

Fugue for 13 strings by W. Lutosławski, one of the illustrative examples of sonorous interpretation of the Baroque form, has more than once become the object of musicological attention. The tradition of its analysis was laid by Yu.G. Cohn, his research took as its starting point the composer’s statements about this opus. Subsequent approaches to this work (the most important ones belong to V.S. Tsenova and N.A. Simakova) are largely focused on the conclusions made by Kohn. In this regard, the ideas about Lutosławski's fugue that exist in Russian musical science are largely determined by the composer's commentary and do not cover all units of the form. The analytical part of the article raises issues not previously addressed in the research literature. It shows how, under the influence of sonorics, the textured appearance of the theme, the logic of theme-response relations, opposition of theme and opposition; what determines the choice of means in the developing and final sections of the form, how the poetics of the fugue changes. In general, the article continues and develops what Yu.G. Kohn's position on the reinterpretation of the fugue form in Lutosławski and seeks to create a holistic idea of the transformation of the fugue in sonoric terms.

Keywords: sonorous fugue, Witold Lutoslawski, Preludes and Fugue for 13 Solo Strings, Yuzef Kon, reinterpretation of the form

For citation: Koposova I. V. Fugue for 13 Solo Strings by Witold Lutoslawski: Between the Author’s Commentary and Musicological Reflection [Electronic source]. In: Sovremennye problemy muzykoznaniya / Contemporary Musicology, 2022, no. 1, pp. 136–155. (In Russ.) DOI: 10.56620/2587-9731-2022-1-136-155