PUTNEY-On Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 5, Johann Sebastian Bach's The Art of Fugue will be performed at Yellow Barn.
Bach's contrapuntal masterpiece will be performed in its entirety in a free concert at the Big Barn by Albert Cano Smit, with responses and anticipations improvised by Mikael Darmanie. The evening will conclude with an informal discussion with Smit and Darmanie hosted by Yellow Barn Artistic Director Seth Knopp.
"You will not find Johann Sebastian Bach's name on your ballot this Election Day, but the musical design of his The Art of Fugue is democracy most beautiful and true," Knopp wrote in a news release. "Its beauty lies in its simplicity, a single melody that never leaves us; its truth in the multitude of voices taking up that melody, each in its own way, a whole that soars well above what any one voice can achieve."
Knopp added that Yellow Barn "offers this performance in honor of this day, and as a reminder of the infinite potential of our humanhood and community."
There will be a pre-concert introduction to the piece at 4 p.m. From 4:30 to 7:30 p.m., performances will take place in 50-minute intervals to allow audience members to arrive and depart as desired.
This event will be streamed live by Yellow Barn in partnership with the Walter W. Naumburg Foundation. On the day of the performance, the livestream link will appear on the Naumburg Foundation's YouTube channel at youtube.com/@TheWalterWNaumburgFoundation/streams.
This Arts item was submitted to The Commons.