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

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The clearest sign of things to come is the schematic way in which Telemann<br />

seems to have approached the composition of these fugues. Each subject, whether<br />

accompanied at the outset or not, is part of a three- or four-voice matrix which returns<br />

in different keys throughout, with the parts inverted but otherwise unchanged. This<br />

procedure is not an infinite distance from Bach’s practice in the two-thirds or so of the<br />

WTC that have regular countersubjects; but Bach is always ready to reinvent his<br />

‘Neben-harmonien’ (Marpurg) in a way that Telemann seldom does. Telemann is<br />

even further from the common seventeenth-century practice of doing without a<br />

countersubject at all and letting the counterpoint evolve freely from entry to entry.<br />

Although in the XX Fugen there is no polarisation between ‘melody’ and<br />

‘accompaniment’, one gets the impression that Telemann tended to think of his subject<br />

33

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