Jörg Widmann (b.1973)
Versuch über die Fuge (Attempt at the Fugue), Fifth String Quartet with Soprano (2005, rev.2009)

“The Fifth String Quartet with Soprano represents the genesis of a fugue and is not a fully developed fugue structure.  The term is however taken literally as a ‘flight,’ a multitude of approaches towards a fugue theme: thematic fragments with closely interwoven motifs and phrase abbreviations appear and then break off suddenly.  They are breaking apart and yet become ever more closely related to one another.  A playful underlying gesture contrasts the almost analytical illumination of each fugue entry.  To be more precise, these are primarily canons and mirror canons, the strictest of all fugal forms.  These are however not developed or ‘unfolded’ in a classical sense, but circulate hermetically around each other.  The typical ‘flow’ of a fugue alongside the ‘flight’ only develops very gradually.  The predominantly Latin bible texts as laconic signposts (preacher: Vanitas vanitatum) only give way to their German translation when the issue of man and his perspective is thrown up: ‘The fundament of all things lies deep, so deep that who will be able to find it?’”

—Jörg Widmann