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

eturned by b.248. On the other hand, the rather weak shift to B flat in b.279 sounds
like just such a parenthesis, but in fact proves to be the definitive return to the tonic.
Sounding at first anything but, it takes the remaining third of the movement (which
stays largely in and around B flat) to convince us that, yes, this is indeed the home key,
and to balance the peregrinations of the first part.
The ‘Hammerklavier’ fugue maintains the same metre from start to finish, but
this does not mean that its rhythmic movement is uniform throughout. Aggregate
semiquaver motion is very common, of course, but there are also substantial passages
where quavers predominate, beside the more indeterminate passages where trills
dominate the texture. Most remarkable is the sempre dolce cantabile subject in even
crotchets which appears which has already been noted in Ex.5.9. In one sense the
presence of several levels of rhythmical activity in the same fugue had not been
uncommon throughout the Baroque: WTC I in C sharp minor, for example, or several
examples from Eberlin’s toccatas and fugues. In these cases, however, the rhythmical
progression always works in the opposite direction, slow to fast, and the slower rate of
movement is simply absorbed into the faster. In op.106 Beethoven at first insulates the
new fugato from its surroundings, allowing for an intensely poetic moment of stasis,
before he reveals its identity as a countersubject.
The Grosse Fuge, op.133 goes further in this direction, falling into several
‘movements’, with strongly contrasting metres. Quite apart from any difficulties of
style, its vast size, coming at the end of a long quartet, made it difficult to accept in its
intended position—Beethoven was prevailed upon to write another finale (the last
movement he was to complete), and the Grosse Fuge was sequestered to an opus
number by itself. The temptation to categorise its sections according to the normal
Classical sonata scheme is almost irresistible, but equally futile. After the various
harrumphs and false starts which now seem to be necessary for Beethoven to get a
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