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

Clearly, Haydn is letting fugal thinking shape his practice, even at this, the
most sensitive point of the sonata process. A brief stretto of the four-note theme
serves here for a recapitulation of bb.1-25, followed by the orchestral tremolandi of
bb.34-38 and the ‘second subject’, now in the tonic. This ‘second subject’ is repeated
over a dominant pedal, and then the movement concludes with an orchestral unison
passage derived from Ex.3.2. Much has been made of Haydn’s apparent
monothematicism; perhaps too much, in that his remarkable melodic fertility has been
somewhat overshadowed. But here it is nothing less than a literally accurate
description of his procedure. The material is utterly commonplace—anything more
individualised could hardly submit to such treatment—but it is worked into a scheme
of unexpected originality, a genuine fusion of fugue and sonata.
There are two other complete fugues among Haydn’s symphonies, both finales.
Unlike that of no.3, the fugues which conclude symphonies no.40 and 70 are
completely fugal in structure, showing no binary tendency and none of the
hybridisation we have just seen.
That of no.40 (1763) has a rather long, straggling sequential subject (Ex.3.5),
reflecting perhaps one of the less appealing aspects of the Viennese fugal tradition. 16 It
16 Kirkendale, Fugue and fugato, pp.129-30.
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