J. S. BACH Jonathan Berkahn - Victoria University - Victoria ...

In this fugue, Stanley derives most of his semiquaver figuration from the subject itself.
There are a number of strongly differentiated kinds of material (bb.25, 32, 41, and 48),
which both assert their independence from the fugue subject and yet are clearly derived
from it. There is even a kind of ‘second subject’ (b.24), which is recapitulated in the
tonic (b.51)—a curious anticipation of Classical practice. This is precisely the
opposite to Handel’s procedure in the Alcina ouverture. Although he does not
‘develop’ his subject like Stanley, it retains its primacy because no other material
achieves a sufficiently strong and regular profile; Handel retained the seventeenth-
century knack of writing free, non-thematic, non-periodic figuration. By contrast,
nearly all of Stanley’s material falls into regular patterns of sequential repetition. The
continuation in b.21 represents one of the most common types of passage in the post-
Handelian fugue, 7-6 suspensions over a walking (or in this case running) bass.
Although such material sounds vaguely ‘Handelian’, it is surprising how seldom it
occurs nakedly in actual fugues by Handel—less than half a dozen brief passages in
the Six Grand Fugues for example—whereas it became one of the most common
means of filling out episodes for his successors. Nowhere in Stanley’s fugue does this
sequential writing become excessive; his music merely shows a greater tendency
toward smoothness and regularity (and lightness of texture) than that of Handel. But
from discreetly simplifying and streamlining Handel’s style it was only a step to
watering it down, as Ex.2.7 has shown. 18
Handel’s influence was equally persistent in the realm of sacred choral music:
anthems, services, and oratorios. During the years after Handel’s death, a very large
proportion of ‘new’ oratorios were in fact Handel pasticcios—warmed-over extracts
from Handel’s less well-known works given new words and made to fit new
18 It will be seen that the ‘hidden fugal paths’—the evasive and unpredictable voice-leading—that
William Renwick (and Heinrich Schenker) traced in Handel’s fugues constitute precisely that aspect
of his style that was not transmitted to succeeding generations: W. Renwick, ‘Hidden Fugal Paths: A
Schenkerian View of Handel’s F Major Fugue (Suite II)’, Music Analysis 14/1 (March 1995), 49-67.
This article contains an insightful comparison between Handel’s fugal style and that of J. S. Bach.
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