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

on two pitches throughout, tonic and dominant, partly because the coincidence of key,
theme, and cadential articulation that is so essential to sonata styles is nowhere near as
prominent—indeed, often systematically avoided—in fugal writing. Fugue is not a
‘sensitive’ form, with precise requirements of balance and symmetry: it can be
extended almost indefinitely as long as long as interest is maintained (which is exactly
what Bach did when revising some of his own fugues). 24 If, then, we accept with
Tovey that fugue is a kind of texture, rather than a form, what may we reasonably
demand of such a texture?
All we can ask categorically is that the subject be kept sufficiently in mind, and
that the texture preserve a certain amount of contrapuntal interest. ‘Sufficiently.’ ‘A
certain amount.’ It is clear that these are rather fuzzy criteria: exactly how much
textural elaboration is enough? How long before the subject is altogether lost to sight?
A couple of practical examples may help bring the problem into focus.
Consider, for example, Mozart’s Zauberflöte overture. After an Adagio
introduction, the main Allegro movement begins with a perfectly regular exposition of
its subject (borrowed, it would seem, from Clementi’s Sonata op.24/2). This subject is
brought in on the tonic (alto), dominant (soprano), tonic (tenor), dominant (bass). The
answer is quite correctly tonal, and there is a recurring countersubject for both halves
of the subject. All the requirements are present and correct. Is this movement, then, a
fugue? Or rather, when—and how—does it cease to be a fugue? It begins like a
fugue. In fact, the material of the subject is kept in play for nearly the whole
movement. It is no answer simply to point to the quantity of non-fugal material.
Many—perhaps most—of Handel’s instrumental fugues contain extensive
homophonic episodes, as do some of Bach’s (the ‘Wedge’ fugue for organ BWV 548,
that in E minor from WTC I, those from the unaccompanied violin sonatas). Of even
24 Ibid., p.174.
23