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The close integration between keyboard figuration and big chords in bb.16-20 is also uncommon. Furthermore, the tonality fixes itself resolutely on D minor throughout, without the slightest detour even to the nearest of related keys. Traditionally, the chordal passages in such a Praeludium (descended from Frescobaldi’s toccate durezza e ligature) were opportunities for the composer to display his harmonic imagination, and some extraordinary dissonances and harmonic shifts often resulted. Here, the harmonic imagination of this composer extends as far as the diminished seventh, and no further. 39 A consequence of this, of the genre’s expectation of a high level of rhetorical dissonance, and of the extreme tonal stasis, is that the sonority of the dominant minor ninth in D minor itself acquires an almost thematic significance, recurring as it does in bb.2, 10, 19, and 21-27. If the first section raises doubts about Bach’s authorship, the fugue only 39 Ibid., 333, 334. 54
einforces them. Its texture is impossibly lax and casual for an authentic work of J. S. Bach. One might argue that Bach’s early fugues are much less strict in this respect than later examples (a standard and plausible defence for many doubtful works), and this is true up to a point; but such details as the subdominant answer (the tonal scheme of the whole movement is skewed in that direction), the extended sequential codettas during the exposition, the simple minded tonic-dominant passagework in bb.73-82, 40 and the unaccompanied pedal entry in b.109 41 are highly uncharacteristic of J. S. Bach’s music of any period. Comparison with the fugue in D major BWV 532, in many ways quite a similar work, bears this out. A greater textural, harmonic and tonal sophistication is present throughout; however primitive the accompanying counterpoint becomes, it is never reduced to simply following the subject around in thirds and sixths (cf BWV 565 bb.32-34, and just about every other entry) 42 or hovering redundantly on the same note (bb.52-53; doubly redundant because this note is also present in the subject). The subject of BWV 565 is itself uncharacteristic of Bach, in that it lacks the sense of completion and character most of his subjects possess—it sounds like the sort of figuration that might occur during the course of a movement, but lacks a clear thematic profile. There are subjects that seesaw in this violinistic manner (BVW 543 in A minor, BWV 548 in E minor), but never simply between the dominant and a stepwise line of quavers. As this would suggest, the entries are uncharacteristically static harmonically. Significantly, the episodes sound more convincingly like J. S. Bach than any of the entries, especially bb.49-51, 54-57, 95-102 and 111-114, where harmonic interest is much higher. The closing section (b.127 onwards) also sounds a lot more like early Bach, showing much greater harmonic inventiveness than the opening (the progression between bb.132 and 133 is especially effective and original). Only the concluding chords, so effective on a big 40 Ibid., 333. 41 Ibid., 333. 42 Ibid., 334. 55
Page 1 and 2:
WRESTLING WITH THE GERMAN DEVIL: FI
Page 3 and 4: ABSTRACT ‘After’ can be taken b
Page 5 and 6: ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS There are many peo
Page 7 and 8: INTRODUCTION ‘Every hearer enjoys
Page 9 and 10: esponse was: ‘the fugue is no lon
Page 11 and 12: instrumental fugues of Joseph Haydn
Page 13 and 14: world of their own. The study concl
Page 15 and 16: facts and the ‘soft technology’
Page 17 and 18: DEFINING FUGUE But what are they? W
Page 19 and 20: elow). For how many voices or parts
Page 21 and 22: indeed a complete counter-expositio
Page 23 and 24: on two pitches throughout, tonic an
Page 25 and 26: already become the historicising na
Page 27 and 28: Catholic tradition, but Albrechtsbe
Page 29 and 30: the texture as a whole coincides in
Page 31 and 32: kind experimentalism of Samuel Wesl
Page 33 and 34: The clearest sign of things to come
Page 35 and 36: Perhaps a clue can be found in the
Page 37 and 38: CHAPTER 1 THE CIRCLE OF J. S. BACH
Page 39 and 40: FINE DISTINCTIONS (1): MISATTRIBUTE
Page 41 and 42: sounding object, nothing has change
Page 43 and 44: Mendelssohn, Schumann, Spitta, Wido
Page 45 and 46: pieces are known from a single copy
Page 47 and 48: very good; and the ends of both mov
Page 49 and 50: ever, could have written it?’ 23
Page 51 and 52: incorrectly prepared suspended four
Page 53: has a number of doubtful features.
Page 57 and 58: of thinking over long spans.’ 44
Page 59 and 60: W. F. Bach and Krebs have always en
Page 61 and 62: the equitable distribution of his e
Page 63 and 64: slender volumes, including many pie
Page 65 and 66: In style (there is no particular th
Page 67 and 68: and it is the least comfortable bit
Page 69 and 70: voices inverted, and serve the purp
Page 71 and 72: each line in a polyphonic texture a
Page 73 and 74: If its general type is old, however
Page 75 and 76: thematic material. The subject coul
Page 77 and 78: Karl Geiringer makes an almost emba
Page 79 and 80: prolix F minor fugue, the expressiv
Page 81 and 82: Kittel, and Krebs himself. 76 Inevi
Page 83 and 84: [that] a keyboard composer can and
Page 85: Ex.1.12b shows the start of a fugue
Page 88: Egypt) did not prevent him from bei
Page 92 and 93: The very slow harmonic rhythm, howe
Page 94 and 95: If not inimitably characteristic, t
Page 96 and 97: As we saw in the first part of this
Page 98 and 99: subject is also expansive; it too c
Page 100 and 101: to expand and elaborate the surface
Page 102 and 103: The significance of this sort of st
Page 104 and 105:
By the time the halfway point is re
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‘originality’—of historical p
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to follow in his father’s footste
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CHAPTER 2 J. S. BACH IN LONDON: CON
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of the mark. 4 Handel’s influence
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that would perpetuate his oratorios
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—also remained strongly Handelian
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118
Page 120 and 121:
in the Overture to Alcina (1735). A
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Root-movement is quite unpredictabl
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124
Page 126 and 127:
Superficially they have much in com
Page 128 and 129:
situations; but his influence outla
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130
Page 132 and 133:
ounded too closely by early Methodi
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At first the real focus of attentio
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surprisingly grammatical, confirmin
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138
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the subject (where again he seems n
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in Bath) recommended that Charles
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have, to a head-injury sustained in
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146
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The ending is rather curious: he re
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hectic week, he could choose betwee
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152
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even have had an informal agreement
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Unlike Handel, however, there no tu
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Throughout the nineteenth century t
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Here, however (especially once the
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162
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published separately over the next
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166
Page 168 and 169:
Likewise does the fugue subject of
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A little more Bach can be seen, per
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attitudes were representative, or e
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consciously parodying his Methodist
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his nature to be exclusive about an
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elieve) in German, the compleatly w
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no other way one could hear operas,
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a stretto treatment (at one minim
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have had a rich Treat in chewing th
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admirable Musick might be played in
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At this point one might have expect
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This is soon accompanied by quaver
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The C minor entry in b.50 destabili
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WESLEY’S LAST YEARS During this p
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Wilhelm Friedemann (see chapter 1).
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describes it well: ‘The concertan
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with sixteen-part orchestra’ (Car
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would be of interest to a budding c
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wrestling with the problem of integ
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Clearly, Haydn is letting fugal thi
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By contrast, the fugue which closes
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unknown in any other Haydn fugue (a
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around b.54, homophonic quaver figu
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very little to it, which is of cour
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When Haydn wrote string quartets, t
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place, socially and musically; and
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of the minuet, both here and in man
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The distinction that Kirkendale dre
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variety of keys as well: not just I
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detail. As far as the tastes of Pri
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constructed in an entirely new mann
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Note the extent to which Haydn’s
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A clear example of this can be seen
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Haydn would write only one more fug
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At any rate, the effect of later ei
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appears not wholly to satisfy Kirke
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Junker and others were neither part
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sentimental’ (c.1814?), Haydn’s
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intensity of the debate? This is ho
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is an almost perfect instrument for
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CHAPTER 4 MOZART, FINISHED AND UNFI
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as such—at times even creating th
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thought and practice until very rec
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sonata movement sets up certain exp
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organ music: from the death of J. S
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(to us) the direct influence of J.
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and back without a sign that anythi
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is not necessarily at variance with
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conclusion is not perfectly in acco
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there can be no doubt that Mozart,
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to enclose your letter to me?’ 35
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The Dean was in a state of great ex
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‘passive’ voices; Ex.4.5 shows
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274
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276
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against itself, augmented and inver
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Andante also found favour, but part
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enewed application to this task. Wh
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for a child of twelve. The subject
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These masses mark the two poles of
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After this exposition the cadential
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is a much less dramatic tale, of ca
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happened, on October 26 1783 at Ben
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the voices. There is a single expos
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ascending, descending (or both), st
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298
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(apart from particella for wind and
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up to Mozart’s standard, the melo
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weight than Süssmayr’s say-so. B
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crisis [Lebenskrise] from which, in
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all, please few with counterpoint a
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of much that was excellent’. 3 In
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continually surpass his own creativ
Page 314 and 315:
This ethical approach to music, so
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Like Mozart, Beethoven was a great
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There are a few reasonably complete
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It is, in part, a question of autho
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voice ‘Parthie’, an oboe concer
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although it is in a different key;
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which had such a similar subject (E
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328
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his early life is there a single re
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‘Metaphorically, Beethoven was al
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On the other hand, whilst there is
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of a sort that has if anything tend
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To thus posit ‘lateness’ about
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historical development; 61 all thes
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These critics were not necessarily
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could anyone have expected that Bee
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hear it more often. Well, once more
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development came the flood of ‘mu
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Sometimes, it is just noise, in the
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At times, so eccentric are his text
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eighteenth century; and however muc
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Carpani; from the time he entered E
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His opp.1bis, 5, and 6, however, (p
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360
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nineteenth century—the style of H
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364
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movement. There is no danger of irr
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time, whereas the glory of many a B
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On the other hand, the tonal range
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It is with some surprise that we he
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A canon at the fourth below, ‘we
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Clementi. In this respect the issue
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turns out to be none other than our
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None of these, in any case, remotel
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traditional form.’ 125 Weber expr
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Arioso into the rest of the movemen
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eturned by b.248. On the other hand
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grise, it nevertheless exerts consi
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century fugal writing more satisfac
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CONCLUSION ‘Like most other disci
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from Fux to Haydn to Bruckner was n
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were written for the organ. 7 While
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prelude/fugue pair. Perhaps rather
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practice is less concerned with the
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Baroque, but did so subtly, without
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periodicity and its fluctuating ton
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eauty with ‘an excess of art.’
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(op.35/1) is a model of textural co
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410
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inhospitable to fugue.’ 30 To the
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W. F. Bach, Fugue in F minor BRA 88
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Exx.2.11-13 S. Wesley, ‘4 Fugues
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Chapter 4 Mozart, finished and unfi
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ed. Joseph Joachim and Andreas Mose
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BIBLIOGRAPHY [anon.] ‘The organ r
Page 424 and 425:
Beethoven, Ludwig van, The letters
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Brown, Clive, ‘Perspectives on Be
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______ Beethoven (Oxford: Oxford Un
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zu Köln 1998, 315-321. ______ and
Page 432 and 433:
Fisk, Josiah, ‘Classical music an
Page 434 and 435:
______ ‘The “Grosse Fuge”: an
Page 436 and 437:
1967). Horowitz, Joseph, ‘Mozart
Page 438 and 439:
______ Fugue and fugato in Rococo a
Page 440 and 441:
und ihrer frühen Rezeption’, Arc
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(1991). MacArdle, Donald W., ‘Bee
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contrappunto sopra il canto fermo (
Page 446 and 447:
Nicolosi, Robert, T. S. Eliot and m
Page 448 and 449:
______ Double counterpoint and cano
Page 450 and 451:
Routh, Francis, Early English organ
Page 452 and 453:
Schwarz, John I. jr, ‘Samuel and
Page 454 and 455:
______ ‘Beethoven’s ninth symph
Page 456 and 457:
Record, 90 (1960), 163-74. ______
Page 458 and 459:
and Baroque’, Church, stage, and
Page 460 and 461:
Winter, Robert S., ‘Of realizatio
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