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

Beethoven’s student-fugues (pp.321-31, 388-90) to indicate which decade of the
century they belong to. In some cases (Krebs, W. F. Bach, Stanley, Albrechtsberger)
this is the result of a conservative temperament or milieu, more comfortable thinking
in fugal terms than keeping up with the latest developments. In others (Mozart,
Clementi, Beethoven) composers have deliberately sequestered themselves from the
present, choosing temporarily to limit their compositional resources. The contrast
between their fugal style and their other works is often striking indeed.
Attempts to leaven fugal movements with a little galant suavity could take one
of two forms: either using a more cantabile, tuneful subject; or giving the fugal texture
a ‘holiday’ from time to time by interspersing homophonic episodes. Several
examples of the former can be seen in W. F. Bach’s VIII Fugen, notably those in C, E
minor, and E flat (pp.64-74). When J. S. Bach wanted to write a progressive-sounding
fugue, this was his own practice: a number of his subjects could be said to verge on the
galant (WTC I in C sharp, for example, or WTC II in B flat). He knew, however, just
how far it was possible to go in this direction, while W. F. Bach’s subjects
occasionally seem less than ideally fitted for the fugal treatment they receive. The
Telemann fugue quoted on p.30 (Ex.0.4) exemplifies the opposite approach: its subject
is conservative enough, but the episodes are prettily irrelevant.
Neither of these compromises seem to have appealed to Haydn, Mozart,
Clementi, or Beethoven. Their subjects for the most part take their cue from the
sternest examples of Fux or Bach, 15 and their fugues are consistently worked
throughout—almost as if part of the attraction of fugue was its very distance from
their usual style. On the other hand, Clementi, Wesley, and Beethoven sought also to
expand the musical possibilities of fugue from within, so to speak. Clementi’s fugue
in C major (Gradus no.13; p.370) exploited a tonal range well beyond that of the
15 The Classical-sounding chromatic passing notes in the subject of Haydn’s op.20/2 fugue are an
exception in this respect.
401