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

lacking to our full enjoyment. 16
Albert Schweitzer’s response (1908) was less inhibited:
[Of the alla breve fugues in general] Their lack of showy effects accounts for these works not being
so popular with players and audiences as the A minor and G minor fugues. But one only has to live
with them to prize them even more highly than those, even if at first sight they have not the same
fascination. They represent the pure sublime, not, as before, the sublime in guise of the pathetic.
The C minor fugue [BWV 546] and the F minor fugue are so tremendously tragic precisely because
they have divested themselves of every shred of passion, and express only great sorrow and deep
longing. 17
Harvey Grace (1922)
The Fugue is not a complete success. The exposition is very impressive, with a kind of sombre
dignity all its own, but the work falls away afterwards, not only in the episodes, but in some of the
treatments of the subject, e.g.: [musical example showing bb.89-91] and even more at the left hand
entry a few bars later. The closing eighteen bars are splendidly sonorous. In spite of its inequalities
this fugue gets hold of one in a curious way. Its best parts are so fine that they more than atone for
the weaknesses. 18
Walter Emery (1948)
This was evidently written at Weimar, hardly later than 1712. The pedal part of the Prelude contains
the low D flat, which was not available at Arnstadt or Mühlhausen, and there are signs of
approaching maturity: in the Prelude, the counterpoint is fairly coherent and concentrated, yet
unmistakably instrumental: in the Fugue, the subject is highly significant, moves slowly, and has no
repeated notes; furthermore, there are five distinct sections, alternately with or without pedal. On the
other hand, bars 51-63 of the Prelude sound irrelevant, and the hint of recapitulation in bars 64-70 is
too vague to be convincing; the five-part writing in the Fugue is largely of the vocal type, and not
16 P. Spitta, Johann Sebastian Bach, tr. C. Bell and J. A. Fuller-Maitland, 3 vols. (New York: Dover,
1951), vol. I, p.592.
17 J. S. Bach, tr. E. Newman, 2 vols. (London: Black, 1923), vol. I, p.274.
18 The organ works of Bach (London: Novello, 1922), p.87.
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