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

time, whereas the glory of many a Bach fugue lies partly in the relief afforded by light-
textured episodes.’ 102 At first glance Clementi’s fugues appear to be somewhat
homogeneous. All except one are in common time; there are no examples of either
antico or Spielfuge subjects. Nevertheless, if they have not the prodigious expressive
range of the WTC, closer examination reveals that neither are they all cast from the
same mould. Looking at the systematic textural primitivism of Clementi’s op.2
sonatas it is surprising how readily he took to the discipline of fugue writing; looking
at their rather neutral thematic material, it is equally surprising how cogent and well-
characterised were the subjects he came up with—neither completely outside the
tradition like those of Reicha (see pp.8-9), nor utterly conventional like those of
Albrechtsberger.
It is a measure both of the effect J. S. Bach had upon his music and of the way
in which Clementi’s idiosyncratic way of handling the keyboard permeated everything
he wrote, how much of his normal keyboard style he was able to integrate into his
fugal writing. For example, his fondness for chromatic semitonal appoggiaturas can
be seen in the countersubject to the C minor fugue no.45 (Ex.5.15), and his tolerance
for incidental dissonance in this passage from the B flat major fugue no.57 (Ex.5.16).
102 Plantinga, Clementi, p.82.
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