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

around b.54, homophonic quaver figuration takes over entirely. Twenty five bars
later, the fugato texture resumes with a close stretto—not difficult to manage with a
scalar subject like this one—which leads to a vigorous, emphatic cadence on V/vi, and
thence to the first return of the theme.
The second episode begins with a brief stretto passage, substantially the same
as bb.87-92, but any pretence at serious contrapuntal working disappears after b.146.
This is followed by some fine minore blustering (b.152), after which we hear the ghost
of a recapitulation (b.186), 19 and the movement ends in typical fashion with the
orchestra banging away on I and V. Clearly Haydn has been taking advantage of
fugue’s capacity to generate a continuously evolving texture, suitable for episodes
between recurrences of the very four-square rondo theme.
More unexpected is the use Haydn makes of a fugal texture in the finale to his
Symphony no.101. For most of its length, this movement is a typical sonata/rondo
finale in his late manner. The clearly demarcated rondo theme is followed by a
powerful, sonata-like shift to the dominant, complete with a ‘second subject’ (derived
from, but not the same as the first) and a big cadence in the new key, at which point
the rondo theme returns. There is now a substantial minore episode, which prepares us
for the final return of the rondo theme.
Instead, however, we have a substantial fugato based on the rondo theme—
probably the most comprehensive since that of Symphony no.70. Accompanied by a
new countersubject, there are no fewer than five complete entries and many partial
ones, mostly on I and V, but also iii and IV . The elegantly transparent counterpoint is
mostly given to the strings, although an attractive detail of the orchestration is the
series of false entries (first three notes of the subject) given to pairs of wind
instruments in bb.218-225. Superficially it recalls the elementary woodwind writing
19 A ‘ghost’ because only the first four bars of the theme recur, harmonised in a tonally ambiguous
manner.
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