Significance of the Original Subject and Its Variants in Bach's Die Kunst der Fuge

Author(s): Adel Heinrich

Source: Bach , JULY, 1984, Vol. 15, No. 3 (JULY, 1984), pp. 24-32
Published by: Riemenschneider Bach Institute

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/41640216

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 Significance of the Original Subject and
Its Variants in Bach's Die Kunst der Fuge
By Adel Heinrich
Colby College
Waterville, Maine

From a motivic analysis of Bach's Die Kunst der Fuge , as was done
in this author's dissertation entitled Bach's Die Kunst der Fuge: A Living
Compendium of Fugai Procedures? it can be deduced that Bach illustrates
in his completed fugues2 that the subject has the potential to embody the
style, character,3 texture, and basis for motivic development in the entire
fugue.

The original subject, as is first stated by the alto in Contrapunctus I,

embodies all the basic major, minor, and perfect intervals in both its
normal and inverted orders, permitting a close association between the
motives of the subject and the episodes. The tied note is frequently part
of the structure of combining motives, the length of the tie most frequently
being determined by the time-span required to resolve the first motive
before beginning the momentum of the second motive.4

The metric and rhythmic changes in the presentation of the original

subject produce different characteristics in the overall fugue. The rhythmic
alternation at the end of the subject in Contrapunctus II, as an example,
anticipates the dotted rhythm permeating this fugue.5

Harmonic density is foreshadowed by the chromatic ending of the

original subject in Contrapunctus III.

The voice that initially states the subject, together with the starting
note and order of the subject, further influences the overall structure. Of
particular interest is the scheme of entries for the four simple fugues.
This is the only fugue type that includes four different examples, each of
which begins with a new voice. It seems conceivable that each of the
remaining fugue types could have at least four examples illustrating
changes necessary when the entrance voice is varied. Note, also, that within
the triple-fugue types, Contrapunctus VIII begins each of the three initial
expositions with the alto voice. Varying the entries of voices in each of
these three expositions can lead to many additional examples of the triple
fugue.

Bach further designed the original subject so that it could be stated

in stretto in an infinite number of combinations with itself with normal
note values, in diminution, in augmentation, or even with added notes as
found in the subject of the stretto fugues.6
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 The new subjects presented in the double, triple, and quadruple7
fugues not only contain the original subject in their melodic structure
(circled in examples), but are contrived to combine with the original
subject in varying ways:

1. The lengthy subject of double fugue Contrapunctus IX

is combined with the augmented statement of the original subject
in invertible counterpoint.

2. Double fugue Contrapunctus X as a stetto fugue com-

bines with the stretto fugue subject in invertible counterpoint,8
with both subjects being stated individually in parallel thirds.

3. Not only do the three subjects in the triple fugues in-

clude the main notes of the original subject, but they also com-
bine with each other in invertible counterpoint, in either three -
or four-part fugues.

Bach illustrates that a subject can be expanded by changing the meter

and rhythm, as well as by adding notes between the main beats, as may be
seen in the subjects of the four canons. In Contrapuncti XII, XIII, and XV,
notes are added in varying ways around the original subject, from notes
surrounding main beats to first beats in each measure ( Contrapunctus
XIII), or even by means of syncopated additions ( Contrapunctus XV).
These ideas can also be adapted to intermediate episodes9 for contrast
within a regular fugue.

In proceeding with Bach's concepts presented within the subjects of

his fugai study, one might conclude that most of the subjects could have
been used within one of the other fugue structures or fugue types, with
varying procedural results. The subject of any fugue could be varied when
it appears in later sections of the same fugue, as in mirror fugue Contra-
punctus XVII. Rhythmic emphases, as found in stretto fugue, Contra-
punctus VI, or mirror fugue, Contrapunctus XVI, could have been incor-
porated in any of the simple, double, or triple fugues. Also the four two-
part canons10 could have been expanded into fugai structures.

The fact that no two subjects are exactly the same for all the fugues
in this study points to the conclusion that Bach gave consideration to the
entire work when he first drafted his seemingly simple original subject,
so that each idea presented added to the previous concepts in a cumulative
way.11

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 THE ORIGINAL SUBJECT

CONTRAPUNCTUS I, Simple Fugue

Alto, m. 1

CONTRAPUNCTUS II, Simple Fugue

Bass, m. 1

CONTRAPUNCTUS III, Simple Fugue

Tenor, m. 1

CONTRAPUNCTUS IV, Simple Fugue

Soprano, m. 1

CONTRAPUNCTUS IX, Double Fugue Subject II

CONTRAPUNCTUS XIV, Canon alia Decimo, lower voice

i m. 1

CONTRAPUNCTUS XVII, Mirror Fugue

Bass, m. 1

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 THE SUBJECT OF THE STRETTO FUGUES

CONTRAPUNCTUS V, Stretto Fugue

Alto, m. 1

CONTRAPUNCTUS VI, Stretto Fugue

Soprano, m. 2

Bass, m. 1

CONTRAPUNCTUS VII, Stretto Fugue

Soprano, m. 2

Tenor, m. 1

Bass, m. 5

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 THE SUBJECT OF THE STRETTO FUGUES (continued)

CONTRAPUNCTUS III, Simple Fugue

Soprano, m. 23

CONTRAPUNCTUS X, Double Fugue

Soprano, m. 23

CONTRAPUNCTUS VIII, Triple Fugue

Alto, m. 94 Subject II

CONTRAPUNCTUS XI, Triple Fug

Subject I

Alto, m. 1

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 NEW AND EXTENDED SUBJECTS

CONTRAPUNCTUS IX, Double Fugue, alla Duodecima

Alto, m. 1

CONTRAPUNCTUS X, Double Fugue, alla Decima

Alto, m. 1

CONTRAPUNCTUS VIII, Triple Fugue (a3)

Subject I
Alto, m. 1

Subject II

Alto, m. 39

CONTRAPUNCTUS XI, Triple Fugue (a4)

Subject II
Alto, m. 27

Subject III
Tenor, m. 89

CONTRAPUNCTUS XVI, Mirror Fugue

Alto, m. 1

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 NEW AND EXTENDED SUBJECTS (continued)

CONTRAPUNCTUS XII, Canon alla Ottava

CONTRAPUNCTUS XIII, Canon alla Duodecima

CONTRAPUNCTUS XV, Canon per augmentationem, contrario motu

CONTRAPUNCTUS XVIII, Quadruple Fugue

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 NEW AND EXTENDED SUBJECTS (continued)

NEW SUBJECT, NOT BASED ON THE ORIGINAL FUGUE

SUBJECT, THE B-A-C-H THEME

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 Footnotes

1 University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1976, copyrighted, 381 pp. with appendices

including a complete color-coded score.
2 Bach did not choose to write a textbook or treatise dealing with various aspeas of
fugai construction, as may be found in the Gradus ad Parnas sum, by Johann Fux
(in Monuments of Music and Music Literature in Facsimile, Second Series - Music
Literature XXIV, Vienna, 1725; New York: Broude Brothers, 1966), or in Fried
rich Wilhelm Marpurg's Abhandlung von der Fuge (Wien, 1729).
3 Wolfgang Gräser, in his article entitled Bachs " Kunst der Fuge" ( Bach Jahrbuch
[1924], pp. 1 ff.) draws attention to the varying characters latent in the subject
of this work.
4 The usage of the tie is unique in many of the variants of the original subject, suc
as the new and extended subject in Contrapunctus IX, the subject of mirror fugue
Contrapunctus XVI, and the canon alla duodecima, Contrapunctus XIII. In these
contrapuncti the function of the tie is given special treatment.
The order given in the original edition (1751/1752) of Die Kunst der Fuge
for the first eleven contrapuncti will be followed in the present study. The contra-
puncti numbering for the two mirror fugues and the quadruple fugue will adher
to the order presented by Helmut Walcha in his organ edition (Henry Litolff'
Verlag; New York: C. F. Peters, 1967).
5 The dotted rhythm remains essentially the same throughout this fugue. In Contra-
punctus VI, although the subject of the stretto fugues reflects the rhythmic interes
of this fugue, the episodes and free material are given the most complex rhythmi
figurations steeped in the Baroque practice of notes inégales.
6 Tovey believes the stretto fugues to be the chief interest of Bach in designing this
original subject: "We now come to the fugues for which the theme was designed."
(A Companion to Bach's 'Art of Fugue' by Donald Francis Tovey [London: Ox-
ford University Press, 1931], p. 10.)
7 Gustav Nottebohm (1817-1882) discovered that the first three subjects in thi
fugue could be combined with the original subject of Die Kunst der Fuge.
8 From a motivic anlysis completed by this author in the dissertation cited earlier
it was discovered that no subject or answer is stated completely by itself in Contra-
punctus X. From the initial statement of the new and extended subject in measur
1 by the alto, all subsequent entries of the subject or answer appear in stretto with
the preceding statements.
9 Stretto-fugue, Contrapunctus V includes two such intermediate episodes based on
canonic ideas, which Tovey labels "interstitial episodes" (pp. 10-12).
10 Although Sir Donald Francis Tovey excludes the canons from Die Kunst der Fugey
the following scholars not only consider the canons part of this work, but draw
attention to the possibility of their being two-part fugues: Marcel Bitsch in his
Introduction to his Edition (/. S. Bach, L'art de la Fugue , Paris: Durand et Cie,
1967); Heinrich Rietsch in his "Zur 'Kunst der Fuge' von J. S. Bach" (in Bach
Jahrbuch 1926, pp. 1 ff.); and by Wolfgang Gräser in his "Bachs 'Kunst der
Fuge' " (see Footnote 3) .
11 Articles such as the following attest to the individual and cumulative nature of
each fugue: Current Musicology (Number 19/ 1975), "Bach's 'Art of Fuge': an
Examination of the Sources," pp. 52-53; p. 58. Hans Gal, ed., J. S. Bach, Di
Kunst der Fuge , Preface, Hawkes Pocket Scores, London, New York: Boosey &
Hawkes, Ltd., 1951, p.v. Roy Harris and M. D. Herter Norton, eds., The Art of
the Fugue , New York: G. Schirmer, Inc., 1936, p. xiii.

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