Glenn Gould and the Canadian Composer
[...]
For his eight-minute-long string quartet movement, titled Improvisation on 4
Inventions by J.S. Bach, Morawetz was
inspired by Gould's love of the music of
Bach, but also by another of Gould's favourite composers - Richard Strauss. 'Glenn
loved Strauss so much not, I think, because of his emotional romanticism - he was
really not all that fond of most romantic
composers - but rather because he admired
every composer who was a great master of counterpoint, and of course Strauss was one
of the most skilful,' Morawetz has observed.
Morawetz chose four inventions by Bach
(the two-part inventions in D minor, E
major, and F major, and the three-part
invention in F minor) and worked with
them in a style reminiscent of Richard
Strauss or early Schoenberg. The four Bach invention themes (two of which are diatonic
and two chromatic) are each stated and then varied immediately; when all have
been presented they are developed and combined with each other.
[...]
