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

when we realise that it is merely part of a symmetrical harmonic/melodic structure: a
tune, in short. Nevertheless, it has to be conceded that this material lacks the strong
character necessary for a sonata movement; while the counterpoint is insufficiently
compelling for a successful fugue. The piece is rather like a compilation of less
distinctive (sequential and developmental) passages that might occur in the transitional
portions of either genre. Such virtues as this fugue has (and it does have some) are
rather diluted over its 202-bar length. Listening to it or playing it through is an
experience typical of many later eighteenth-century fugues: interest flickers at a low
level from moment to moment, without ever quite disappearing. 73
In addition to the VIII Fugen, three other manualiter fugues have been
attributed to W. F. Bach in Traugott Fedtke’s edition of the Orgelwerke. The first, in
B flat, turns out to be a transcription of the overture to Handel’s oratorio Esther. Even
if this were not known to be the case, it would stand apart from the other fugues by
virtue of its independent bass and extended figural episodes. Another long fugue in F
(F.33) is generally described as a youthful exercise. It is thoroughly in earnest, but has
little else to recommend it. In a sense it is almost too ‘earnest’: the three voices are
almost continuously in action, the pervading chromatic counter-subject defeats itself
through its omnipresence, and there are neither compelling ideas nor a compelling
formal design.
On the other hand, the C minor fugue (F.32) which follows seems to me worthy
of much more than Geiringer’s cool dismissal: ‘not quite on the same level as these
clever and inspired compositions’ (the VIII Fugen) and ‘formalistic in its polyphonic
treatment’, 74 being perhaps the most successful clavier fugue he ever wrote. It is long
—111 bars, moving mostly in semiquavers. But unlike the juvenile fugue in F, or the
73 It is worth noting, however, that this is the one fugue of W. F. Bach’s that Mozart chose to transcribe
for string trio (K.404a/6). He may have chosen it as the one furthest away from his normal style—
the nature of the most of the other fugues in K.404a would tend to support this.
74 Geiringer, Bach family, p.320.
78