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

Italian contemporaries as ‘Fugues or, as the Italians name them, Canzone alla
francese’.
And this brings us to the second problem. The early history of fugue surely
covers not just the relatively tiny number of pieces transmitted under that designation,
but the vast welter of imperfectly distinguishable contrapuntal genres of the period:
ricercares, canzonas, fantasias, capriccios and the like; not to mention the vocal masses
and motets in which they had their origin. As we have just seen, some pieces were
transmitted under more than one title. Even in Bach, movements that are unmistakably
fugal occur under the title of Praeludium, Imitatio, Sinfonia, Invention, Duetto,
Chorale (what we would call a ‘chorale prelude’), Sonata, Concerto, Toccata,
Ouverture, Contrapunctus, as well as the older genres given above. In short, a history
of fugue—the thing, that is, rather than the name—is likely to both exclude a fair
number of pieces so-called, and include many that are not.
If the idea of fugue, as opposed to its verbal denotation, is so clear (and surely
such movements as the ‘Duetti’ of Clavier-Übung III are self-evidently fugues in all
but name) then one might have thought that defining such an idea might pose little
problem. Unfortunately, the third problem with our definition is that this is precisely
where the most disagreement occurs—disagreement between teachers of composition,
music historians, and composers.
To take one small example, the Oxford dictionary of music begins its definition
thus: ‘Type of contrapuntal comp. for particular no. of parts or “voices” (described
thus whether vocal or instr., e.g. fugue in 4 parts, fugue in 3 vv.).’ 13 Now this is true
enough for most of J. S. Bach’s mature output, and probably (of necessity) for most
choral or chamber fugues. But what about the keyboard fugues of (say) Handel, or
Mendelssohn? Or the Italian and south German organ traditions (discussed pp.270-73
13 ‘Fugue’, The Oxford Dictionary of Music, 2nd ed. rev. Ed. Michael Kennedy, Oxford Music Online
http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/opr/t237/e4041 (accessed 14 July 2008).
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