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Luke Heter FAMH 452 Dr. Wright November 24, 2015 Bach and the Development of the Fugue Johann Sebastian Bach made his mark during the Baroque period as music history’s preeminent composer of fugues. His fugal works are treasured as compositional gems and studied as prime examples of contrapuntal rules and techniques. Though the emergence of the fugue was before his time, Bach took what his predecessors had done and expanded upon it. This creative expansion led to changes to the genre that may appear subtle without a careful examination but are actually quite significant and must have been revolutionary at the time. After Bach, composers continued to write fugues, but very rarely did they compare to the magnitude of Bach’s work, neither in their importance within their pieces nor in the sheer number of fugues composed. Bach’s fugues are among the most popular in the genre, and are still enjoyed by the musically literate and illiterate alike to this day. J. S. Bach greatly affected the development of the fugue, allowing it to reach its peak as a genre in the Baroque period. A late nineteenth century musicologist, Ebenezer Prout, wrote one of the first modern pieces of literature on fugues. He defines a fugue as “a composition founded upon one subject, announced at first in one part alone, and subsequently imitated by all the other parts in turn, according to certain general principles.”1 However, with the passage of time, this definition has come to be seen by scholars as antiquated and overly simplistic. Alberto Ghislanzoni, a composer and musicologist in the early twentieth century, offered a more in-depth definition, however it is so long and unwieldy that it is impractical to use in real application. Nevertheless, it does offer a broader list of characteristics than Prout’s definition, essentially stating that a 1 Ebenezer Prout, Fugue (London: Augener Ltd., 1891), 1. fugue may have one or more themes which are then imitated in other voices beginning on the same pitch or another diatonic pitch, with possible alterations to rhythm and contour.2 Although Prout’s overall definition of a fugue is viewed as outdated, his work on the subject remains perhaps the most definitive, as he offers sound definitions and descriptions of various aspects of the fugue that are still relevant. Ghislanzoni’s and other more recent discussions tend to operate with Prout’s working definition. According to Prout, a fugue is, in essence, a work that begins with a subject in one voice with an answer in subsequent voices, with the possibility of one or more countersubjects, or secondary themes. All of these are introduced in the exposition, the section in the beginning of the piece, and are then developed through the rest of the piece leading to the conclusion.3 The strictness of imitation between voices is not very definitive; they may begin to vary as early as the exposition or may remain alike longer.4 Oftentimes, especially in examples from the Medieval and early Renaissance periods, the first of which date to the fourteenth century,5 fugal works fall into the category of canon, which operate much like fugues except that the voices never alter the subject, but rather retain strict imitation of the first voice throughout the piece.6 In fact, the earliest uses of the word “fugue” were in reference to canons. From the fourteenth to the sixteenth centuries, the word “fugue” referred not to a genre of piece, but rather to the practice of writing voices in imitation of one another.7 Then, in the middle of the sixteenth century, a distinction was made between fugue and 2 Alfred Mann, The Study of Fugue (New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1958), 7. Prout, Fugue, 3. 4 Mann, The Study of Fugue, 13. 5 Paul Mark Walker, Theories of Fugue from the Age of Josquin to the Age of Bach (New York: Rochester University Press, 2000), 7. 6 Prout, Fugue, 2. 7 Walker, Theories of Fugue from the Age of Josquin to the Age of Bach, 9. 3 2 imitation: the famed music theorist Gioseffo Zarlino defined a fugue as a theme repeated starting on the unison, octave, fourth or fifth from the original subject, and an imitation as beginning a second, third, sixth, or seventh away.8 However, additional scholarly analysis determined that what he truly meant was that the answer in a fugue must imitate the exact intervals of the subject, whereas the answer in an imitation need not adhere as strictly to the intervals of the subject. This definition is much more specific. It also happens that the strict repetition necessary of a fugue is most easily created on the fourth, fifth, or octave using mostly diatonic pitches, explaining why Zarlino states that a fugue starts on these intervals and imitations begin on the others.9 During the sixteenth century, composers like Johannes Buchner began writing the first organ works containing examples of fugue. Buchner wrote a collection of pieces for organ called the Fundamentbuch circa 1525 that were the first organ works to feature examples of fugue. This collection, in some ways a predecessor to Bach’s Well Tempered Clavier, was written as an instructional aid for teaching others to improvise over plainchant. Buchner believed that all subjects must begin with an ascending or descending second, third, fourth, or fifth, and there are examples of each in the Fundamentbuch. These pieces were generally short, composed for three voices and usually restricted to even note lengths. As a general rule, Buchner’s pieces introduce voices a perfect fourth or fifth away from each other (see Example 1). Buchner’s pieces also mark the first instance of multiple imitative voices being played by one player on a single instrument, the organ, rather than multiple singers or players.10 Example 1: from Buchner’s Fundamentbuch11 8 Walker, Theories of Fugue from the Age of Josquin to the Age of Bach, 10. James Haar, “Zarlino’s Definition of Fugue and Imitation,” Journal of the American Musicological Society 24, 2 (Summer 1971): 231. 10 Mann, The Study of Fugue, 13. 11 Mann, The Study of Fugue, 14. 9 3 m.8 Subject and two subsequent entries. The subject begins with a descending perfect fifth and is made of long, even note values. The first answer begins a perfect fourth up from the subject, and the second answer begins a perfect fourth up from the first answer. After Buchner, the genre continued to develop through the remainder of the Renaissance, during which time composers utilized several new and innovative fugal techniques. One such technique was contrary motion, meaning that as one voice ascends, another descends. This became an important practice which composers incorporated into their fugal works as it grew more prevalent during the Renaissance. It necessitated that a fugue’s subject be somewhat more balanced in its ascending and descending motion so that when subsequent voices entered, they would move in the opposite direction of the previous voice.12 In 1597, the English music theorist Thomas Morley wrote Plain and Easy Introduction to Practical Music. In this book, he describes how Italians composers were looser in their fugal imitation than British composers. They altered their imitations in order to create certain harmonies, placing the importance of functional harmony over that of the polyphony created by individual melodic lines.13 For example, rather than strictly adhering to the intervals established in the subject, the answer might contain altered intervals so that, in conjunction with the other voice or voices, it would create a specific cohesive chord. This lent itself to the cohesion of the 12 13 Ibid., 24. Ibid., 30. 4 voices but meant that the answer, if played by itself, would not sound exactly like the subject. This compositional innovation, along with contrary motion, made the fugue more closely resemble what it would eventually become in the Baroque period. During the Baroque, J. S. Bach took the innovations of his predecessors and greatly expanded on them, eventually allowing the fugue to blossom into a well-known and independent genre. Bach wrote some fugues for choir but most for organ and harpsichord14 (although modern players often use the piano instead of the harpsichord). Perhaps the most profound development between the Renaissance and the Baroque is that the fugue became an independent genre. Before Bach, imitative works were either canons with very strict imitation or had elements of fugue but were not “fugues” in the sense that the entire piece was fugal. Bach wrote pieces that were entirely fugal, establishing the fugue as an independent and legitimate musical genre. This, in itself, was the essential innovation in the development of the fugue; without its own place in the Western musical sphere, any further advancement would have been slowed or halted because composers would not have given sufficient attention to further its development. Aside from firmly establishing the genre in the musical sphere, Bach’s fugues have some distinct overarching characteristics that enhanced the genre’s development. Sound examples of his fugal composition techniques are contained in Das Wohltemperierte Klavier or The Well Tempered Clavier (WTC), a collection of twenty four preludes and fugues composed as instructional aids for his students, and Die Kunst der Fuge or The Art of Fugue (AF),15 a collection of fourteen fugues and four canons all based on a single subject. Though some of the A. E. F. Dickinson, Bach’s Fugal Works: With an Account of Fugue Before and After Bach (New York: Pitman Publishing Corporation, 1956), 150. 15 Zoltan Kocsis, “BWV 1080 – Art of the Fugue (Keyboard Reduction),” YouTube video, 1:36:22, posted by “gerubach,” June 22, 2013, accessed October 20, 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgmpBHAwFLk. 14 5 pieces are for three voices, much like the work of Buchner in the Renaissance, Bach wrote many of his pieces for four voices, demonstrating both greater virtuosity on the instrument as well as a more progressive approach to fugal composition. Some of his works continue to follow trends set earlier in history, such as beginning a subject on the tonic (WTC 1,16 2,17 13,18 and AF Contrapunctus I) or the dominant (WTC 1419), as well as subsequent entries of the subject being a fourth or fifth away. In these instances, subsequent entries of the subject remain fairly similar to the original subject with few, if any, minor deviations (see Example 2). Other works, however, such as the later AF contrapuncti, take the subject upon which The Art of Fugue is based and alter it significantly. For example, Contrapunctus XII inverts the theme and adds notes in between the notes of the subject.20 This is certainly quite different from the strict canonical imitation of voices characteristic of the Renaissance that Zarlino described in his text. Likewise, while many of Bach’s fugues restrict themselves to one subject some have multiple subjects or elaborate countersubjects, such as WTC 2 and 4 (see Example 3).21 As an overall trend, Bach employed some of the practices created before him but introduced and expanded upon new techniques that became common to fugal composition. Kimiko Ishizaka, “Well-Tempered Clavier - Prelude and Fugue 1 in C major BWV 846 / Sheet Music Piano Tutorial,” YouTube video, 4:39, posted by “MuseScore Sheet Music,” May 15, 2015, accessed October 20, 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MaDNUru_q1w. 17 Kimiko Ishizaka, “Well-Tempered Clavier - Prelude and Fugue 2 in C minor BWV 847 / Sheet Music Piano Tutorial,” YouTube video, 3:43, posted by “MuseScore Sheet Music,” May 15, 2015, accessed October 20, 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAL16u2eCvw. 18 “Richter plays Bach: WTC1 No. 13 in F sharp major BWV 858,” YouTube video, 3:41, posted by “Pianoplayer002's Classical Scores,” November 19, 2007, accessed October 20, 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJCpUW1Q1yc. 19 “Richter plays Bach: WTC1 No. 14 in f sharp minor BWV 859,” YouTube video, 5:09, posted by “Pianoplayer002's Classical Scores,” July 12, 2008, accessed October 20, 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjAQLU23keI. 20 Kocsis, “BWV 1080 – Art of the Fugue (Keyboard Reduction),” 48:18. 21 Joseph Kerman, The Art of Fugue: Bach Fugues for Keyboard 1715-1750 (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2005), 13 and 24. 16 6 Example 2: WTC Fugue in C Minor22 m.1 m.3 Subject (top) and subsequent entry (bottom) Subsequent entry is a perfect fifth up and is made of almost all the same intervals. Example 3: WTC 4 Fugue in C# Minor23 m.1 m. 10 Primary subject (top) and secondary subject (bottom) Just as Bach reinterpreted the genre of fugue to suit his own creativity, composers after him in the Classical period took what he had done and further adapted it. Despite their “Bach: Prelude and Fugue No.2 c minor, BWV 847,” All Piano Scores, retrieved November 10, 2015. 23 “Bach: Prelude and Fugue No.4 c# minor, BWV 849,” All Piano Scores, retrieved November 10, 2015. 22 7 differences, the lineage between Bach’s fugues and those of the Classical period is somewhat easy to follow. Austrian composer Joseph Haydn became the preeminent composer of fugues in the Classical period.24 Some characteristic and well-known examples are the finales of three of his string quartets in Op. 20 (numbers 2, 5, and 6). Haydn, following the example of Bach, frequently incorporates multiple subjects into his fugues, sometimes up to four distinct ones; this is to ensure that each voice contains a thematic line rather than simple harmonic texture since each voice is assigned to a different player (see Example 4).25 Haydn also inverts subject lines, just as Bach began to do in the latter contrapuncti of The Art of Fugue, but differs in that he notates it on the score to make it very clear where the subject is.26 Example 4: Haydn, Op. 20, No. 2 in C Major, IV. Fuga a 4 Soggetti (Fugue with 4 Subjects)27 24 Leonard G. Ratner, Classic Music: Expression, Form, and Style (London: Collier Macmillan Publishers, 1980), 263. 25 James Grier, “The Reinstatement of Polyphony in Musical Construction: Fugal Finales in Haydn's Op. 20 String Quartets,” The Journal of Musicology 27,1 (Winter 2010): 57. 26 Grier, “The Reinstatement of Polyphony in Musical Construction: Fugal Finales in Haydn's Op. 20 String Quartets,” 58. 27 “Violin Sheet music, String Quartet, Haydn, Joseph,” free-scores.com, accessed November 10, 2015. 8 m. 1 m. 2 m. 8 m. 12 Subjects 1, 2, 3, and 4, all distinct from one another. Despite these similarities, one crucial difference exists between Bach’s fugues and the fugues of the Classical period: while Bach wrote pieces that were entirely fugal in nature, the concept of a fugue as a stand-alone piece essentially died with him. Instead, fugues were written as parts of greater pieces, as they are in Haydn’s Op. 20.28 Thus it could be said that the fugue, as a genre, reached its peak with Bach. His zeitgeist was the only time in history that the fugue gained so much popularity; Bach wrote over 150 of them in his lifetime.29 Although the fugue appears here and there in later time periods, it has never had as much strength as it did during Bach’s time. Bach certainly left a great legacy in fugal composition. One of Bach’s greatest contributions, not only to the specific genre of fugue but to all of music for the remainder of the Common Practice era before composers strayed from tonal 28 29 Ibid., 55. Dickinson, Bach’s Fugal Works: With an Account of Fugue Before and After Bach, 160. 9 harmony in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, was the solidification of the principles of voice leading. Through the polyphonic texture of his fugues, Bach was able to create smooth voice leading that emphasized tonality and functional harmony; through a study of practices he employed in his compositions, many of the Common Practice rules were synthesized. These rules were generally observed by all the great composers, at least through the Classical period, including Haydn in his Op. 20.30 Another significant aspect of Bach’s fugal legacy is the sheer magnitude of some of his fugal works. His Fugue in A Minor is over five minutes long, and, following an A B A’ form, it contains a smaller distinct fugue within it.31 Few great composers, if any, have given this much focus to fugue since Bach, but rather treat it as a light yet driving manner to end a multiplemovement piece.32 Though the genre of fugue is not nearly as popular as it was in Bach’s time, those written today often emulate his style, showing the extent of Bach’s influence. The genre of fugue, then, essentially reached its peak with Bach, and as such, Bach was arguably the preeminent composer of fugue throughout history. His fugues adopted some of the stylistic practices of the canons and fugues of composers before him in the Renaissance, but he took these practices and expanded on them. He produced fugues that require extreme virtuosity from keyboard players in order to manage the polyphony created by three or four intricate and simultaneous melodic lines. He also adopted and further developed the concept of functional harmony. Before Bach, a strict imitation between voices was more common, but Bach’s fugal voices imitate each other in a much more relaxed fashion, placing the importance of harmony Grier, “The Reinstatement of Polyphony in Musical Construction: Fugal Finales in Haydn's Op. 20 String Quartets,” 56. 31 Kerman, The Art of Fugue: Bach Fugues for Keyboard 1715-1750, 115. 32 Grier, “The Reinstatement of Polyphony in Musical Construction: Fugal Finales in Haydn's Op. 20 String Quartets,” 55. 30 10 over that of the individual melodies of the separate voices. Bach also took the concept of “subject” to its most extreme interpretations, manipulating subjects to the point that they do not even resemble their origins without careful analysis. Bach certainly employed various highly musically intelligent and progressive compositional practices in his fugues. In addition, and perhaps more importantly, Bach’s fugues are wonderful to listen to. They have endured throughout the two and a half centuries since his death and remain extremely popular. Several are familiar even to the musically illiterate, such as WTC 1 and the “Little” Fugue in G Minor. Their melodies are very appealing to the ear, and the intricacies of the polyphony are an aural delight. Arguably, since Bach, no composer has mastered the fugue to the extent that he did in a way that so greatly appeals to an audience. Clearly, Bach was a compositional genius that mastered the art of the fugue. Bibliography “Bach: Prelude and Fugue No.2 c minor, BWV 847.” All Piano Scores. Retrieved November 10, 2015. 11 “Bach: Prelude and Fugue No.4 c# minor, BWV 849.” All Piano Scores. Retrieved November 10, 2015 Butt, John ed. The Cambridge Companion to Bach. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997. Dickinson, A. E. F. Bach’s Fugal Works: With an Account of Fugue Before and After Bach. New York: Pitman Publishing Corporation, 1956. Grier, James. “The Reinstatement of Polyphony in Musical Construction: Fugal Finales in Haydn's Op. 20 String Quartets.” The Journal of Musicology 27,1 (Winter 2010): 5583. Haar, James. “Zarlino's Definition of Fugue and Imitation”. Journal of the American Musicological Society 24,2 (Summer 1971): 226-254. Ishizaka, Kimiko. “Well-Tempered Clavier - Prelude and Fugue 1 in C major BWV 846 / Sheet Music Piano Tutorial.” YouTube video, 4:39. Posted by “MuseScore Sheet Music,” May 15, 2015. Accessed October 20, 2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MaDNUru_q1w. Ishizaka, Kimiko. “Well-Tempered Clavier - Prelude and Fugue 2 in C minor BWV 847 / Sheet Music Piano Tutorial.” YouTube video, 3:43. Posted by “MuseScore Sheet Music,” May 15, 2015. Accessed October 20, 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAL16u2eCvw. Kerman, Joseph. The Art of Fugue: Bach Fugues for Keyboard 1715-1750. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2005. Kocsis, Zoltan. “BWV 1080 – Art of the Fugue (Keyboard Reduction).” YouTube video, 1:36:22. Posted by “gerubach,” June 22, 2013. Accessed October 20, 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgmpBHAwFLk. Mann, Alfred. The Study of Fugue. New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1958. Prout, Ebenezer. Fugue. London: Augener Ltd., 1891. Ratner, Leonard G. Classic Music: Expression, Form, and Style. London: Collier Macmillan Publishers, 1980. “Richter plays Bach: WTC1 No. 13 in F sharp major BWV 858.” YouTube video, 3:41. Posted by “Pianoplayer002's Classical Scores,” November 19, 2007. Accessed October 20, 2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJCpUW1Q1yc. 12 “Richter plays Bach: WTC1 No. 14 in f sharp minor BWV 859.” YouTube video, 5:09. Posted by “Pianoplayer002's Classical Scores,” July 12, 2008. Accessed October 20, 2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjAQLU23keI. “Violin Sheet music, String Quartet, Haydn, Joseph.” free-scores.com. Accessed November 10, 2015. Walker, Paul Mark. Theories of Fugue from the Age of Josquin to the Age of Bach. New York: Rochester University Press, 2000. 13