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

If its general type is old, however, the subject of the E minor fugue shows the
same galant tendencies as the previous one, the same internal repetition and prominent
long appoggiaturas (it can be seen in the bass of Ex.1.9). Any retarding effect these
characteristics might have had is counteracted, though, by the activity of the counter-
subjects. Whilst those in the E flat fugue were content to discreetly reinforce the
outline of the subject, here there is considerable friction between them. The
accompanying parts tend to favour suspensions and other rhythmically independent
forms of dissonance, and often emphasise the second quaver of each dotted-crotchet
group. Together these facts generate a nervous, ‘spiky’ kind of energy. In these
respects this fugue is a close relation to J. S. Bach’s G sharp minor fugue from the
second part of the WTC, beside which it is worthy to stand. Because they are so
similar, a comparison between these two fugues gives an illuminating glimpse at the
difference between father and son. For all its local dissonance and jagged lines, the
older fugue conveys a greater awareness of long-term goals (it is, after all, a longer
piece); the movement of the parts is smoother and more predictable, and subject-
entries more clearly recognisable. Friedemann’s motivic economy tends to obscure the
distinction between entries and episodes; passages such as bars 23-28 and 43-50, for
example, sound as if they quote the subject, but do not. Despite the fact that it is in a
less eccentric key than his father’s piece, Friedemann’s is slightly more difficult (or
awkward) to play. This is a consequence, and perhaps also a cause of what I have
described as its nervous, unpredictable energy. The repeated cadences (often but not
always necessitated by the subject) intensify rather than diminish this fugue’s
momentum, at times achieving an almost Scarlattian persistence (notably at bb.35-38).
The strength with which this cadence, just under half way through the movement, is
established suggests that some faint binary pattern may have been in the back of W. F.
Bach’s mind. A recollection of sonata habits? Perhaps, although there are many
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