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Chapter Twenty
The Fugue
The Basics of Fugue

A.

1. The final voice to enter completes its statement of the subject in m. 7.

Bach creates no structural division at this point, suggesting that he viewed
the fugue as a process and not as a fixed mold into which to pour his
counterpoint. The first structural division occurs with the half cadence in
m. 9, which might better be regarded as the end of the exposition for this
reason. The order of entries is B T A S.
2. The answer is real.
3. Although the same counterpoint accompanies the subject at every appear-
ance in the exposition and serves as the basis for the ensuing episode, its
lack of appearance thereafter suggests that it not be regarded as a
countersubject.
4. After the exposition, the next entry group occurs between m. 9 and m.12.
5. Stretto occurs at m. 9 and m.17.
6. The first episode of the fugue begins at m.12 and ends at m. 16 with a
PAC.
7. The primary developmental technique employed in this episode is sequen-
tial imitation.
8. The excerpt ends in the key of f#.
9. A third entry group appears in mm.16-21. This entry group contains
entries at: mm. 16 (A), 17 (S), 19 (B), and 20 (T).
10. Measures 19-20 are a transposed inverted counterpoint of mm. 16-17, B
for A, T for S, A for B, and S for T.

B.
1. Subject: m.1; Answer: m. 3; Link: mm. 5-6; Subject: m. 7
Exposition ends m. 9.
Countersubject accompanies subject at each appearance.
2. Subject appears in mm. 11-12 (S), mm. 15-16 (A), mm. 20-21 (S), mm.
26-28 (B), and mm. 29-31 (S). The final entry, occurring over a tonic
pedal point, can be regarded as the coda.
3. Cadential effect is undermined by rhythmic features in every case but the
last—m. 29 (PAC). What seems to be a cadence in the final measure is
really part of the extension to the previous cadence. Weak internal ca-
dences can be discerned in m. 13 (Eb), m. 17 (g), m. 22 (c) and m. 28 (c).
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4. Tonal plan:

c Eb (m. 10) [c (m. 15)] g (m. 16) c (m. 19)

5. Contrapuntal techniques found in episodes include sequence (e.g. mm. 9-
11 and 17-19, all voices), invertible counterpoint (compare mm. 5-6 with
mm. 17-18 and compare mm. 17-18 with mm. 19-20), and fragmentation
of the motive throughout.