Peter Elyakim Taussig

The Art of Fugue Peter Elyakim Taussig

When a pianist arrives one early morning at a Manhattan recording studio, ready to record J. S. Bach's "The Art of the Fugue", he finds no one there except an old homeless black man sitting by the window. Thus starts a magical odyssey in pursuit of a lost Bach manuscript, taking him back two and a half centuries to Bach's apartment in Leipzig, to a slaver ship off the Guinea Coast of west Africa, and to Patton's 3rd Army during WWII. Along the way he'll meet a colorful cast of characters, a Victorian grave robber, a Nazi manuscript hunter, an ex-Baader-Meinhof terrorist, and the greatest forger of manuscripts in the history of music. The Art of Fugue poses the question what is genuine and what is fake? By interlacing life-stories as in a musical fugue, it weaves together a panoramic tapestry across time and space, a tale of obsession and revenge, heartbreak and deceit, and ultimately love and redemption. Albert Einstein once said, "Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one." Sometimes though, not being sure what is real can lead to the most startling discovery.