Bach's Vortex

In my previous blog, I gave examples of Bach "breaking" the tonal system. In these moments, he seems to envision all the brazen harmonic innovations of the following centuries, right up to our time. One time as I played the dissonant passage at the end of the B minor fugue of the Well Tempered Clavier Book 2, I tried leaving some of the notes out. Lo and behold, it sounded like 20th century atonal music!  That inspired me to compose a short piece I finally titled...Bach's Vortex*. And I would like to share it with you...

Bach's Vortex is a set of short variations based almost entirely on four measures near the very end of that Bach b minor fugue. It begins atmospheric, only playing a few notes in each of the Bach measures. But in each variation that follows, I add a few more notes until eventually all of Bach's notes appear in their entirety. But this dissonant process starts to spiral out of control. Like a clock wound too tightly, the music careens at break-neck speed till it essentially crashes and burns. It picks itself up, only to disintegrate again, note by note, until it finally reveals a hidden "an alter ego"—the first few measures of a well known piece by Schoenberg! Let me know if you can hear this process...  

and the source:

Bach B minor Fugue WTCII performed by Wilhelm  Kempff

*thanks to Rick Schulz for finally approving this title after saying nay to a dozen horrible titles I previously suggested, beginning with Scraping Into Bach! :)