Analysis of J.S. Bach's forty-eight fugues by Ebenezer Prout

Author:Ebenezer Prout [Prout, Ebenezer]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Bach, Johann Sebastian, 1685-1750
Published: 2012-06-28T03:00:00+00:00

FUGUE 21

B PLAT MAJOR (THREE VOICES).

This beautiful little fugue is one of the most perfect in construction and artistic finish of all the collection—a veritable gem.

Exposition.—The subject is as follows:—

This is given out in the treble, and answered in the alto. The answer is tonal. The bass enters with the subject in bar 9, and the treble has a redundant entry, of the answer, in bar 13. There are two countersubjects, each with a marked individuality, and present with every entry from bar 9 onwards. The first (which we shall mark as CS i) extending from bar 6, last quaver, to bar 9, will be readily recognized by its syncopations and iterated notes, the second (CS 2), bars 9 to 13, by the detached semiquaver figures and rests.

Middle Section.—There are two interesting episodes. The first (bars 17 to 22) begins with a sequential continuation of bars 15 to 17, with the lower voices reversed, after which the bass is formed from a bar of the subject by inverse movement The second episode (bars 30 to 35) is a free inversion of the first, and will repay close study.

The first group of middle entries (bars 22 to 30) begins in G minor, with the subject in the alto, CS i in the treble and CS 2 in the bass. The answer follows in the bass, modulating into C

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