Stefano Flavoni!

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Music 156 - Analysis!
Bach Fugue in c minor!
Franck Bedrossian!

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Bach: Fugue No. 2 in c-minor, Well-Tempered Clavier!

Contents!

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I. Historical Background!
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II. Unity and Diversity!
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III. Continuity and Contrast!
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Abstract!
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Bachs second fugue in the Well-Tempered Clavier features an effective subject

providing melodic motivation for the work. Set in three voices, there is a creative
alternation between the voices in both restating the subject material and introducing
episodic and development material.!

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I.
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Historical Background!

A fugue is a technique of composition in which a piece of subject material is used

imitatively in two or more voices. The fugue is made up of several entries of the subject
material in the various voices, supported by various counter-subjects and episodes
(non-subject material). Ultimately, the fugue is not so much a formula for composition
per se, but rather a general idea or style of motivic composition.!

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Bachs Well-Tempered Clavier is a collection of keyboard works separated into preludes
and fugues in each major and minor key. Book I, completed in 1722, contains 24
Preludes and Fugues. While the preludes are typically meant to embody an
improvisatory style, the fugues all exhibit a very well-defined architecture. Ranging from

two to five voices, the fugues frequently employ techniques such as stretti, inversion,
retrograde, and complex counterpoint, albeit in a very simple package. !

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II. Unity and Diversity!

It is superficial and almost non-analytical to state that the fugue is unified in the imitation
of the subject. However, the pieces true unity comes in the sense that the fugues in
Book I are designed to be very simple, which means Bach must be very economic in
how he uses the subject and counter-subjects in imitation. The fugue spans 31
measures, which makes the two-bar-long subject rather long in comparison. The subject
in and of itself is composed of a repetitive motive. !

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The subject repeats a pattern in the same metrical position (C-B-C). By starting on the
offbeat, especially since the accompanying prelude is provided momentum by a
perpetual motion idea performed entirely in the same note value as the first two notes in
the fugue subject. !

The subject also provides motivation for the counter-subjects. The first counter-subject,
for instance, features a descending scale beginning on the same opening metrical
position as the subject. In addition, when superimposing the subject and first counter-

subject, the parts follow standard rules of counterpoint, constructing a florid harmony
implicitly interspersed in the work. !

The second counter-subject follows in the footsteps of the first, descending down the
last three eighth notes, and then doing so again on the off-beat of the next beat, giving
the line a steady sense of momentum. Once again, the line is constructed
contrapuntally, and the harmonies that form from the three superimposed lines are rich
and tonal.!

However, the true beauty of the work lies in how the three lines do not line up perfectly,
in so doing providing even richer harmonies than before. The first entrance of the
subject is followed by the second entrance, albeit shifted into the key of the dominant. !

This sort of interlocking of parts continues through the work at each major entrance of
the subject material. However, every other module of the work is composed of episodic
material, which only makes reference to the subject material without actually performing
an imitative restatement. The first episode (mm. 5-6), similar to the ones following it, for

instance, uses the same neighbor-leading-tone as the subject does, but without the
consequent material, just giving a hint of the subject without necessitating a full
entrance. !

While clearly providing a sense of unity, what allows for diversity in the piece is the
variation in voicing of the three major statements. For example, after the third episode
(mm. 15-17), the subject is sandwiched between the first counter-subject from above
and the second counter-subject from below. !
There is also a sense in
diversity occurring through
interpreting what Bachs three
main phrases are intended to
emphasize. While the very
clearly implied harmony by
each individual line is sure to
give rise to a crescendo
through the bar until the performer reaches cadence midway through the second bar of
each phrase, there can also be a an interpretation of a secondary set of dynamics, in
which each sub-phrase of the counter-subjects decrescendo individually, with the

rhythmic ostinato on the off-beats perpetuated in all parts (but especially the two initial
sub-phrases of the second counter-subject) give rise to a near-pulsating series of
crescendi (shown below in the upper voice of measure 27). !

III. Continuity and Contrast!

In setting up a structure for continuity in the piece, Bach has a regular pattern in entries
of the subject, around which he fills in the contrasting material. His pattern consists of
the subject appearing in the middle voice, then upper, then lower, then upper again.
This pattern is exhibited in the work twice, which sets the fugue up nicely to conclude
with the subject in the upper voice, set above cadential material and a tonic pedal. This
pattern also, because of the odd number of modules, sets up point symmetry about the
piece. What arises is a sort of palindrome effect, in which following the pattern both
forwards and backwards from the beginning and end, respectively, as well as down and
up the registers, creates a uniform pattern of motivic development. If typed out, this
would be shown as:!

S-CS1-CS2-CS1-S-CS2-CS1-CS1-S-CS2-S-CS1-CS2-CS2-CS1-S!
This pattern is nearly a mirror image of itself, which, if Bach planned on from the
beginning, would give an overarching structure of continuity through this chiasmus
effect. There is also a semblance of continuity between the Prelude and Fugue.
Because the Prelude ends so auspiciously with the almost out-of-place cadenza, the
beginning of the Fugue featuring sixteenth notes is surely meant to parallel the
perpetual motion of the beginning of the prelude. !

Providing clear contrast, though, is the fact that, while the Prelude featured short
phrasing, an even shorter pulse, and a slow harmonic rhythm, because of the nature of
the way the subject material and counter-subjects interact, the Fugue contains longer
phrases (running the length of the subject line itself), a slow pulse that almost feels like
in cut time, and a harmony that changes rapidly sometimes even multiple times in the
same beat. !

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Because of the constraint of simplicity Bach used in the composing of the Book I
Fugues, it can be said that this is an effective use of the subject material. We began
with a relatively slow exposition of a fairly repetitive subject phrase, but with many
contrasting scale patterns moving closely between both hands, Bach is able to create a

very full texture and rich color with only three, simply-designed voices. Ultimately,
because Bach does not utilize stretto to drive the work to a close, he allows the natural
symmetries and architectures of the fugue do so for him. Bachs laborious efforts
towards effective contrapuntal writing shone through the work. As he said so himself, I
was obliged to be industrious. Whoever is equally industrious will succeed equally well.