"So You Want to Write a Fugue?" is a satirical vocal piece for four voices and string quartet or piano accompaniment by Canadian pianist Glenn Gould and was a final piece for the TV show "The Anatomy of Fugue", which was aired by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation on March 4, 1963.

The work is in the context of Gould's intensive investigation into compositions of Johann Sebastian Bach, in particular with its late work "The Art of Fugue", which Gould had excerpts recorded in 1962. The structure of the piece is modeled in the form of a Bach fugue; the text, however, has the subject of creating a fugue ("So you want to write a fugue?"). Both the text and the music alike deals not only with the rules and techniques of composition of the genre, but also the relationship between intellectual work and artistic intuition in the creative process ("Just forget the rules and write one"). The decision to finally start with "composing the fugue" only drops with the final chord ("We're going to write a fugue right now"). The piece contains numerous quotes from various works of Bach - including the famous B-A-C-H note sequence and the Second Brandenburg Concerto, as well as a modified quote (changed to C minor) of the Overture from "Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg" by Richard Wagner.

(German Wikipedia)

Please take note that the audio AND the sheet music ARE NOT mine. Change the quality to 480p if the video is blurry.

Original audio:    • So You Want to Write a Fugue? with sc...  
Original sheet music: drive.google.com/drive/mobile/folders/1qyEoTp-0Rby…