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

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On the other hand, whilst there is a small amount of non-fugal keyboard ‘filler’ to emphasise this (bb.81-88, and most of b.111 onward), on the whole Beethoven scrupulously preserves the integrity of his three voices; a tour de force given the effectiveness of the keyboard writing. This is perhaps the first serious attempt at a rapprochement between fugal writing and nineteenth-century pianism. It is also something of a sport, however, for although Beethoven’s music continued to develop greater textural sophistication, it is the music of his last period that we particularly associate with fugal activity. 334
LATE BEETHOVEN The land of the last five Sonatas! As often as we have entered it we have been awed by its gigantic rocks and gloomy chasms or made happy by its flower-strewn heaths, true Elysian fields, its secret springs; the night of his fugues, the eased sorrow of his adagios, the defiant conflicts of op.106 and 111 have passed before us, till in the highest, loveliest pastures all is bathed in the strange, gleaming light of chains of trills. Who will ever take in the whole of this land, quite comprehend it, who will solve the enigmas that lie between, above and beneath these notes and sonorities, beyond the playable and the perceptible....? 51 The later works of Beethoven have traditionally been surrounded with a superstitious awe. No other music of his—perhaps no other music at all—has the reputation of being so profound, so obscure, so difficult, so rarefied; in short, so far above ordinary human experience. Piano students practice the earlier sonatas; the middle period works are the staple of the concert hall; the last works remain fenced off, inviolate. George Bernard Shaw made a valiant attempt at demythologisation: why should I be asked to listen to the intentional intellectualities, profundities, theatrical fits and starts, and wayward caprices of self-conscious genius which make up the features of the middle period Beethovenism of which we all have to speak so very seriously, when I much prefer these beautiful, simple, straightforward, unpretentious, perfectly intelligible posthumous quartets .... the difficulties of these later works of Beethoven are superstitiously exaggerated. As a matter of fact, they fail much seldomer in performance nowadays than the works of his middle age. 52 And yet the prestige these works possess is (with the exception of the ninth symphony) 51 R. Kastner, Beethoven’s Piano Sonatas, tr. G. Abraham (Berlin: AFA-Verlag Hans Dünnebeil, 1935) p.28; italics and ellipses in original. 52 Music in London 1890-94, 3 vols. (London: Constable, 1932), vol. III, p.157. 335
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WRESTLING WITH THE GERMAN DEVIL: FI
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ABSTRACT ‘After’ can be taken b
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS There are many peo
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INTRODUCTION ‘Every hearer enjoys
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esponse was: ‘the fugue is no lon
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instrumental fugues of Joseph Haydn
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world of their own. The study concl
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facts and the ‘soft technology’
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DEFINING FUGUE But what are they? W
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elow). For how many voices or parts
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indeed a complete counter-expositio
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on two pitches throughout, tonic an
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already become the historicising na
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Catholic tradition, but Albrechtsbe
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the texture as a whole coincides in
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kind experimentalism of Samuel Wesl
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The clearest sign of things to come
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Perhaps a clue can be found in the
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CHAPTER 1 THE CIRCLE OF J. S. BACH
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FINE DISTINCTIONS (1): MISATTRIBUTE
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sounding object, nothing has change
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Mendelssohn, Schumann, Spitta, Wido
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pieces are known from a single copy
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very good; and the ends of both mov
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ever, could have written it?’ 23
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incorrectly prepared suspended four
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has a number of doubtful features.
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einforces them. Its texture is impo
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of thinking over long spans.’ 44
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W. F. Bach and Krebs have always en
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the equitable distribution of his e
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slender volumes, including many pie
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In style (there is no particular th
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and it is the least comfortable bit
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voices inverted, and serve the purp
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each line in a polyphonic texture a
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If its general type is old, however
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thematic material. The subject coul
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Karl Geiringer makes an almost emba
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prolix F minor fugue, the expressiv
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Kittel, and Krebs himself. 76 Inevi
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[that] a keyboard composer can and
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Ex.1.12b shows the start of a fugue
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Egypt) did not prevent him from bei
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The very slow harmonic rhythm, howe
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If not inimitably characteristic, t
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As we saw in the first part of this
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subject is also expansive; it too c
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to expand and elaborate the surface
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The significance of this sort of st
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By the time the halfway point is re
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‘originality’—of historical p
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to follow in his father’s footste
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CHAPTER 2 J. S. BACH IN LONDON: CON
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of the mark. 4 Handel’s influence
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that would perpetuate his oratorios
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—also remained strongly Handelian
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118
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in the Overture to Alcina (1735). A
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Root-movement is quite unpredictabl
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124
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Superficially they have much in com
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situations; but his influence outla
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130
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ounded too closely by early Methodi
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At first the real focus of attentio
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surprisingly grammatical, confirmin
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138
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the subject (where again he seems n
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in Bath) recommended that Charles
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have, to a head-injury sustained in
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146
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The ending is rather curious: he re
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hectic week, he could choose betwee
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152
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even have had an informal agreement
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Unlike Handel, however, there no tu
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Throughout the nineteenth century t
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Here, however (especially once the
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162
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published separately over the next
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166
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Likewise does the fugue subject of
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A little more Bach can be seen, per
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attitudes were representative, or e
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consciously parodying his Methodist
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his nature to be exclusive about an
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elieve) in German, the compleatly w
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no other way one could hear operas,
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a stretto treatment (at one minim
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have had a rich Treat in chewing th
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admirable Musick might be played in
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At this point one might have expect
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This is soon accompanied by quaver
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The C minor entry in b.50 destabili
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WESLEY’S LAST YEARS During this p
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Wilhelm Friedemann (see chapter 1).
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describes it well: ‘The concertan
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with sixteen-part orchestra’ (Car
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would be of interest to a budding c
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wrestling with the problem of integ
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Clearly, Haydn is letting fugal thi
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By contrast, the fugue which closes
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unknown in any other Haydn fugue (a
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around b.54, homophonic quaver figu
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very little to it, which is of cour
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When Haydn wrote string quartets, t
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place, socially and musically; and
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of the minuet, both here and in man
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The distinction that Kirkendale dre
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variety of keys as well: not just I
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detail. As far as the tastes of Pri
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constructed in an entirely new mann
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Note the extent to which Haydn’s
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A clear example of this can be seen
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Haydn would write only one more fug
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At any rate, the effect of later ei
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appears not wholly to satisfy Kirke
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Junker and others were neither part
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sentimental’ (c.1814?), Haydn’s
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intensity of the debate? This is ho
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is an almost perfect instrument for
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CHAPTER 4 MOZART, FINISHED AND UNFI
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as such—at times even creating th
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thought and practice until very rec
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sonata movement sets up certain exp
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organ music: from the death of J. S
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(to us) the direct influence of J.
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and back without a sign that anythi
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is not necessarily at variance with
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conclusion is not perfectly in acco
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there can be no doubt that Mozart,
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to enclose your letter to me?’ 35
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The Dean was in a state of great ex
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‘passive’ voices; Ex.4.5 shows
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274
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276
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against itself, augmented and inver
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Andante also found favour, but part
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enewed application to this task. Wh
Page 284 and 285: for a child of twelve. The subject
Page 286 and 287: These masses mark the two poles of
Page 288 and 289: After this exposition the cadential
Page 290 and 291: is a much less dramatic tale, of ca
Page 292 and 293: happened, on October 26 1783 at Ben
Page 294 and 295: the voices. There is a single expos
Page 296 and 297: ascending, descending (or both), st
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Page 300 and 301: (apart from particella for wind and
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Page 304 and 305: weight than Süssmayr’s say-so. B
Page 306 and 307: crisis [Lebenskrise] from which, in
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Page 310 and 311: of much that was excellent’. 3 In
Page 312 and 313: continually surpass his own creativ
Page 314 and 315: This ethical approach to music, so
Page 316 and 317: Like Mozart, Beethoven was a great
Page 318 and 319: There are a few reasonably complete
Page 320 and 321: It is, in part, a question of autho
Page 322 and 323: voice ‘Parthie’, an oboe concer
Page 324 and 325: although it is in a different key;
Page 326 and 327: which had such a similar subject (E
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Page 330 and 331: his early life is there a single re
Page 332 and 333: ‘Metaphorically, Beethoven was al
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Page 338 and 339: To thus posit ‘lateness’ about
Page 340 and 341: historical development; 61 all thes
Page 342 and 343: These critics were not necessarily
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Page 346 and 347: hear it more often. Well, once more
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Page 350 and 351: Sometimes, it is just noise, in the
Page 352 and 353: At times, so eccentric are his text
Page 354 and 355: eighteenth century; and however muc
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Page 358 and 359: His opp.1bis, 5, and 6, however, (p
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Page 362 and 363: nineteenth century—the style of H
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Page 366 and 367: movement. There is no danger of irr
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Page 370 and 371: On the other hand, the tonal range
Page 372 and 373: It is with some surprise that we he
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Page 376 and 377: Clementi. In this respect the issue
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Page 380 and 381: None of these, in any case, remotel
Page 382 and 383: traditional form.’ 125 Weber expr
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Arioso into the rest of the movemen
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eturned by b.248. On the other hand
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grise, it nevertheless exerts consi
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century fugal writing more satisfac
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CONCLUSION ‘Like most other disci
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from Fux to Haydn to Bruckner was n
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were written for the organ. 7 While
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prelude/fugue pair. Perhaps rather
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practice is less concerned with the
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Baroque, but did so subtly, without
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periodicity and its fluctuating ton
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eauty with ‘an excess of art.’
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(op.35/1) is a model of textural co
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410
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inhospitable to fugue.’ 30 To the
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W. F. Bach, Fugue in F minor BRA 88
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Exx.2.11-13 S. Wesley, ‘4 Fugues
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Chapter 4 Mozart, finished and unfi
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ed. Joseph Joachim and Andreas Mose
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BIBLIOGRAPHY [anon.] ‘The organ r
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Beethoven, Ludwig van, The letters
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Brown, Clive, ‘Perspectives on Be
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______ Beethoven (Oxford: Oxford Un
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zu Köln 1998, 315-321. ______ and
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Fisk, Josiah, ‘Classical music an
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______ ‘The “Grosse Fuge”: an
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1967). Horowitz, Joseph, ‘Mozart
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______ Fugue and fugato in Rococo a
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und ihrer frühen Rezeption’, Arc
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(1991). MacArdle, Donald W., ‘Bee
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contrappunto sopra il canto fermo (
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Nicolosi, Robert, T. S. Eliot and m
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______ Double counterpoint and cano
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Routh, Francis, Early English organ
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Schwarz, John I. jr, ‘Samuel and
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______ ‘Beethoven’s ninth symph
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Record, 90 (1960), 163-74. ______
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and Baroque’, Church, stage, and
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Winter, Robert S., ‘Of realizatio
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