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

of thinking over long spans.’ 44
BWV 565 by contrast is an example of almost the opposite—in spite of its
innumerable contrapuntal deficiencies, it is propelled by an unstoppable sense of
formal purpose. 45 Bars 73-91, although quite un-Bachian in their simplicity of means,
show a masterly control of pacing. Beginning with an absolute minimum of musical
content, tension increases as the bass-line ascends. Deflected by the sudden descent in
b.83, intensity begins to build in earnest in b.85 with the introduction of
demisemiquavers and the addition of other voices in a kind of scalar descent.
Although contrapuntally redundant (the G is already present in the subject) the trilled
dominant pedal contributes nicely to this build-up, as does the immediate repetition of
this passage with the subject in another voice and the trill transferred to the upper
voice. A descending sequential passage brings us down from this peak of excitement.
Consider, further, the unaccompanied pedal entry in b.109 we mentioned
above. A flat contradiction of the basic ethos of fugal construction, it is, in its context,
strikingly effective. The upper voices do not inexplicably evaporate leaving us to
wonder what has happened to the texture, for this passage is well prepared by the
repeated imperfect cadences of bb.105-109. The pedal solo itself combines the
climactic effect of both an ordinary pedal entry and of the traditional florid pedal solo
that occurs in so many north German Praeludia (cf BuxWV 142 and 146, BWV 543,
or Vincent Lübeck’s Praeludium in E). It is then itself capped as the rest of the voices
enter and continue the fugue.
In short, while remaining a distinctly suspect fugue, BWV 565 manages to be a
thoroughly exciting piece of music. Nevertheless—however exciting it may—be the
looseness of its fugal construction makes it nearly impossible to reconcile with what
44 Humphreys, ‘BWV 534’, p.177.
45 In this respect it prefigures an aspect of Mendelssohn’s fugal style, which was always ready to
sacrifice the integrity of his voices for a clear sense of formal and textural direction (although his
counterpoint was never quite as minimalist as that of BWV 565.)
57