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

earlier works. The first, in G (the only sonata of Clementi’s with four independent
movements), has a pair of canons in place of a minuet and trio. The Allegro con fuoco
of the second in B minor reduces its texture to a two-part canon toward the end of its
development, while the finale consistently exploits invertible counterpoint, with close
canonic writing that almost plagiarises that in Mozart’s D major sonata K.576. The
last, in D, has a lengthy canonic episode in the rondo finale.
Most unusual, however, and unprecedented in Clementi’s oeuvre, is the fugato
that occurs during the development of the opening movement (Ex.5.14). It is
remarkable, not for so much for any contrapuntal qualities it has in itself, but for the
effect it has in the context of the rest of the movement. After a leisurely exposition
with many digressions, the development begins in a typical way, taking various bits of
material through A minor and F major to an emphatic pause on the dominant of E
minor (Ex.5.14, b.121). Then, in C major, a fugato based on the opening theme rises
slowly out of the depths. It is not really a fugue—the ‘entries’ are all at the unison or
octave; having to answer at the fifth would have disturbed the mysterious stasis
Clementi achieves here. The tail end of the subject is then developed in close
imitation for a few bars until the ‘subject’ returns, first in A minor, then an octave
lower (thus retracing the registral ascent of bb.122-31), then in C, D minor, and E
minor. Over these bass entries a new figure (b.133, derived from bb.44-48 in the
exposition) effectively functions as a countersubject—but not in an orthodox neo-
Baroque manner. Its three constituent motives are at once separated and recombined
in genuine Classical development. While this happens the tessitura is widening (from
a sixth in b.132 to four octaves in b.147), the dynamic level is getting louder, the
chords are getting thicker and more percussive (note especially the bouncing left hand
octaves in bb.145-47).
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