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

finale off the ground (and which in this case serve to present the most important
material) the fugue proper begins, Allegro, in b.26. This, if you like, is the ‘first
movement’, and sure enough it is followed by a slow movement, ‘Meno mosso e
moderato’ (b.159). There even follows something that might be said to serve the
function of a scherzo, a tripping 6/8 movement (b.233)—but then things get
complicated. Another, quite different 6/8 ‘movement’ follows, much more gritty and
sinewy; or is it part of the same ‘movement’? The ‘slow movement’ reappears in an
abbreviated form, then our 6/8 ‘scherzo’ again. The fugue ends much as it began, with
the same thematic fragments and fortissimo unison, the coda a distant recollection of
the first fugue. In op.106, the tonality was constantly shifting and modulating, at least
until the later part of the movement. Here, the keys are arranged in ‘plateaux’ that
correspond with the major structural divisions. Thus, the first fugue lies mostly in and
around B flat, the two sections ‘Meno mosso e moderato’ are in G flat and A flat, the
first 6/8 section in B flat while the second is in A flat, the coda of course in B flat; the
prevalence of stepwise tonal motion is curious.
The actual subject (Ex.5.23) has something of a nebulous existence. It serves
in a variety of rhythmic shapes as a cantus firmus for the different sections, and tends
thus to be overshadowed by the other, more strongly profiled thematic material. Only
in the B flat 6/8 passages does it come to the fore, in a rhythmicised variant. During
the first fugue its presence is often nearly inaudible. A sort of thematic éminence
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