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

of three different homophonic textures leads to the dominant and the repeat. After the
double bar there is one more reference to the subject (in the dominant); the rest of the
movement is built entirely of the homophonic material of the first half. It would
obviously be stretching a point to call this a fugue, but most of the binary fugues
(Kirkendale’s ‘fugatos’) likewise tend to lose sight of the subject toward the end of
each section. The counterpoint also tends to simplify itself, and all of these fugatos
conclude both sections in a completely homophonic manner. There is no sense of
juxtaposing two quite different kinds of material such as we saw in Trio no.39,
however. The counterpoint is not elaborate, with one pair of voices often moving in
parallel thirds and sixths against the remaining voice; when the third voice enters one
of the others frequently drops out. These movements progress by easy stages between
genuine (if simple) Fuxian counterpoint, pseudo-polyphony, and pure homophony
(Ex.3.8).
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