VL-IV (15) Wachet Auf, pages 323/325

[kelber at mindspring.com]

Question:  does anyone know the origin of the psychiatric term "fugue state"?  It's a form of amnesia, but what (if any) relationship does it have to the musical form?  When the Thanatoids awake are they waking from a some sort of fugue state (in the sense that they're walking around but not engaging with reality)?

Laura

-----Original Message-----
>From: Robin Landseadel <robinlandseadel at comcast.net>
>Sent: Apr 6, 2009 11:33 AM
>To: pynchon-l at waste.org
>Subject: VL-IV (15) Wachet Auf, pages 323/325
>
>Unusually dense musical references here, integrated into the story to  
>a greater degree than anything else Pynchon attempted before this. The  
>Becker/Traverse family reunion is in start-up mode. The second  
>paragraph has the clan waking up:
>
>	. . . clock-radio alarms began to kick on in a thickening radio 	
>	fugue of rock and roll till dawn, Bible interpretation, telephone
>	voices still complaining about yesterday's news.
>
>“Clock-Radio Alarms” and “thickening radio fugue” anticipate J.S.  
>Bach’s “Wachet Auf.”
>
>	Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme, BWV 140, also known as
>	Sleepers, Wake, is a cantata written in 1731 by Johann
>	Sebastian Bach. It is scored for horn, 2 oboes, taille (an
>	instrument similar to the oboe da caccia, today often substituted
>	with an English horn), violino piccolo, violin, viola, basso
>	continuo, and choir with soprano, tenor, and bass soloists.
>
>	BWV 140 is based on the chorale of the same name by Philipp
>	Nicolai. This Lutheran hymn remains popular today both in its
>	original German and in a variety of English translations. The
>	text on which it is based is the parable of the ten virgins in
>	Matthew 25:1–13, a reading that was scheduled in the Lutheran
>	lectionary of the time for the 27th Sunday after Trinity. Because
>	this Sunday only occurred in the church year when Easter was
>	very early, the cantata was rarely performed.
>
>	http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BWV_140
>
>“Wachet auf” has a dense fugal texture and rich orchestration:
>
>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eC35GS88OqA
>
>. . . . making the concept of all those cheap “Tokkata & Fuji”* sound  
>chips all the more absurd. More to the point, the delayed/staggered  
>entrances and harmonizing in this scene are fugal tropes as well and  
>the Beckers and Traverses early morning rituals anticipate [and pretty  
>much describe] "Wachut Auf". We move from a radio fugue to the sounds  
>emitted by silicon chips that were somehow designed to "know" when  
>it’s the “right time” to the subject matter of the Cantata—Sleepers  
>Awake. If this is not a full-scaled “Resurrection” than this is at  
>least a resurrection of sorts for the thanatoids.
>
>	. . . to one of the best tunes ever to come out of Europe, even
>	with its timing adapted to the rigors of a disco percussion track
>	able to make the bluest Thanatoid believe, however briefly, in
>	resurrection, they woke, the Thanatoids woke . . .
>	VL, 325
>
>As soon as we find out about this partial resurrection, the “camera’s  
>eye” moves to Prairie, DL and Takeshi down in L.A.—their scanner tuned  
>into Radio Thanatoid—and the the three swinging into action. Of  
>course, the language of the scene where the thanatoids wake up points  
>us back to the business of Karmic Adjustment:
>
>	“This was like a class-action lawsuit suddenly resolved after
>	generations in the courts.”
>	VL, 325
>
>But just as soon as we are reacquainted with the unavenged dead— 
>seemingly now getting some of that long delayed payback—we are  
>transported back to the city of compromised dreams. And dissolve into  
>yet another series of flashbacks/backstories as we meet up with  
>Prairie’s longtime friend Che.
>
>