Subjects and Phrase Boundaries in Two Keyboard Fugues by J. S.

Bach
john s. reef

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This article addresses a common situation in music premised on the continual return of thematic
content, in which a thematic statement passes through a cadence and continues into a subsequent
phrase. With analyses of passages from two keyboard fugues by J. S. Bach, I demonstrate that fugue
subjects disposed in this fashion may interact in complex ways with the tonal and durational struc-
tures of their surrounding phrases, assert pronounced “gestural” shapes across phrase boundaries,
and resonate with global aspects of form and rhetoric.

Keywords: Bach, fugue, cadence, phrase, form, rhetoric, gesture, Schenker.

T
he situation in Example 1 is a familiar one in music
premised on the continual return of thematic content.
A cadence in mm. 93–94 of Bach’s Fugue in A
Minor, BWV 944, brings a phrase to its conclusion. However,
a coherent thematic shape—a statement of the fugue’s
subject—passes through the cadence and extends into the
phrase that follows. This sort of overlap is common in
Renaissance and Baroque imitative textures but, notwithstand-
ing its familiarity, it can enliven the junctions of phrases in
complex ways. In this article I focus on compelling examples
from two keyboard fugues by Bach.
Example 2 pictures two ways in which a fugue’s subject and
a cadence may overlap. In Example 2(a) the overlap covers
more than one cadential harmony. I call this a “deep” overlap
between subject and cadence, and this is the situation in
Example 1.1 When a subject enters directly on the terminal
harmony of a cadence, as in Example 2(b) (or perhaps on its
afterbeat), I characterize the overlap as “simple.”
These overlaps would appear to have straightforward effects
in the domain of phrase rhythm, with the rhythmic and
melodic activity of a new subject entry offsetting the end-of-
phrase repose a cadence might otherwise occasion and promot-
ing continuity from phrase to phrase.2 Indeed, bespeaking an
I would like to acknowledge (in addition to the two anonymous reviewers
of this article) Frank Samarotto and Channan Willner for their valuable
advice and their encouragement to pursue this research. This article
derives in part from a presentation I gave at the 2013 Society for Music
Theory Annual Meeting in Charlotte, NC, titled “Subject–Phrase
Interactions in Bach’s Fortspinnungstypus Fugues.”
1 For examples of this arrangement in the music of Gesualdo, see Turci-
Escobar (2009, 159ff.). Erwin Ratz compares some examples from Bach’s
Well-Tempered Clavier to plants, whose roots lie dormant in the ground
on one side of a cadence and which blossom on the other side ([1951]
1973, 87–88).
2 Various definitions of phrase rhythm are available in the modern theoreti-
cal literature, all of which deal with the unfolding or succession of phrases
in time (e.g., Rothstein [1989], Perry [n.d.], Willner [n.d.]). With regard
to the present analyses, pertinent aspects of phrase rhythm include the
pacing of tonal events that give shape to phrases, the continuity or pro-
gression of musical activity between successive phrases, and the
established preference for fugues to proceed in a flowing man-
ner without pauses, Johann Joseph Fux advises counterpoint
students to overlap subject entries with cadences as a matter of
course: in his Gradus ad Parnassum (1725) he recommends
that one “avoid any formal or perfect cadence . . . that cannot
be made to coincide with a thematic entrance.”3 To accom-
pany his recommendation, he gives the two passages cited in
Example 3, in which middle-part subject entries overlap
cadences on C and D, their stepwise ascents according with
the cadential voice leading of the outer parts and adding a
third to the cadential octaves. “[T]he perfect cadence conveys
complete rest,” Fux remarks, but “a thematic entrance [appear-
ing] together with a perfect cadence . . . detracts from the feel-
ing of rest, helps to maintain the continuous flow that should
prevail in such a composition, and indicates that the end has
not yet been reached.” The subject entries in Fux’s examples
overlap their respective cadences deeply, but both deep and
simple overlaps are apparent in the sample fugues that Fux
provides shortly after this discussion: he does not appear to
differentiate between the effects of these two ways in which a
subject entry and a cadence may “coincide.”
Yet there is a distinction to be made, I believe, for when a
thematic statement extends over two phrases, as it does when
it overlaps a cadence deeply, it may interact in complex ways
with the tonal and durational structures of both of its sur-
rounding phrases, perhaps even asserting a pronounced
“gestural” shape across a phrase boundary. Arranged in this
manner, its potential to promote phrase-rhythmic continuity
may be even greater than if it were to overlap a cadence simply.
Deep overlaps of subjects and cadences may also prove conse-
quential in ways that go beyond their immediate contexts.
They may contribute to the definition of a fugue’s formal
layout—its articulation as a series of periods—or they may
claim rhetorical prominence, strategically highlighting key
points in a structured argument built upon thematic premises.
relationships or interactions between phrases and durational units such as
measure groups or hypermeasures.
3 Fux ([1725] 1958, 91–94).

1
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example 1. J. S. Bach, Fugue in A Minor, BWV 944, mm. 92–95

example 2. Deep and simple overlaps between subject and cadence

To support these claims for local and global significance with
reference to Bach’s music, I will analyze examples from the
aforementioned BWV 944 and from the B-Major Fugue in
Book I of The Well-Tempered Clavier (hereinafter “B/I”). But
before turning my attention to these fugues, I will briefly over-
view my approach to phrase structure and the terminology that
I employ, for which purpose I will refer to a different fugue by
Bach, the C-Major Fugue from WTC II.
At a level of phrase structure that relates closely to form,
the fugues I am focusing on proceed in a series of concatenated
musical segments that together connect various tonal
“stations.” I refer to these segments as “periods.”4 Periods
5 Viz., ^1–^7–^1 discant clausulae, ^5–^3 alto clausulae, ^3–^2–^1 tenor clausulae, ^5–
4 Much of my approach to phrase structure is consistent with principles ad-
vocated by Johann Phillip Kirnberger in Die Kunst des reinen Satzes in der
Musik ([1771–79] 1982). He observes that “[a] series of . . . periods, none
typically conclude with full (perfect authentic) cadences sig-
naled by characteristic contrapuntal formulas, or melodic clau-
sulae, although their endings may brook some slight cadential
imperfections.5 As periods unfold, they touch down at times
of which but the last closes in the main key, forms a single composition”
(405–6), and he describes divisions within periods in two chapters, one on
“Harmonic Periods and Cadences” (Vol. 1, Chap. 6) and the other on
“Tempo, Meter, and Rhythm” (Vol. 2, Chap. 4). Whereas the latter
adopts more of a melodic focus, the former considers periods and phrases
as chordal entities, which is more in line with my own analyses. This
chapter also describes ways in which phrases and periods may end more or
less conclusively and compares their degrees of conclusiveness to
punctuation.
^1 bass clausulae, and variants thereof. See Werckmeister ([1702] 2013,
300–301); Walther (1732, 170–71 and Table 9, Figs. 2, 4, and 5). Robert
Gjerdingen (2007, 140) illustrates a contrapuntal combination of these
 subjects and phrase boundaries in two keyboard fugues by j. s. bach
example 3. Cadences and deeply overlapping subjects in Fux,
Gradus ad Parnassum. (a) Cadence on C. (b) Cadence on D
on restful harmonies that mark off smaller segments within
them. These smaller segments I refer to plainly as “phrases.”
Their closure is less complete than the closure of periods and
typically features cadential imperfections involving chord
inversions or rearrangements of upper voices; some phrases
may even arrive on stable resting harmonies without true
cadences. According to a typical eighteenth-century analogy
between music and language, phrases inside a period are like
clauses in a sentence, with some more strongly punctuated (as
if with a colon or semicolon), and some more weakly (as if
with a comma), while periods are like complete sentences
themselves.6 Even if such an analogy is not essential to an un-
derstanding of period composition, it is useful inasmuch as it
underscores the variety of nuances within the phrase-structural
articulations of this repertoire, and so I refer to it as an inter-
pretive guide.7
I regard periods and phrases less as melodic constructions
than as segments that embrace a complete texture of harmony
and voice leading. In this way, coherent melodic shapes may
sometimes conform to phrase structure and sometimes cross
over phrase boundaries. The latter option describes situations
in which subjects overlap cadences deeply. These situations
may involve the full cadences that conclude periods or the
lesser cadences that conclude the phrases within them.
However, a subject that deeply overlaps a full cadence may also
clausulae in a four-part full cadence. However, not all clausulae need to be
present to effect cadential closure.
6 See Ratner (1956, 441).
7 This brief discussion should not be understood in terms of rules, for
(potential) phrase and period endings must be evaluated on a case-by-case
basis and some determinations may be subjective.
3
imply that a period is still ongoing, especially if a better caden-
tial candidate for period closure follows shortly thereafter.
The first period of the C-Major Fugue from WTC II,
reproduced in Example 4, permits a simple demonstration. As
considerations of phrase structure often involve tonal matters,
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the example uses Schenkerian notation to represent the tonal
structure of this passage, both aligned measure-by-measure
with the score in Example 4(a) and in summary in Example
4(b).8 A complete tonal structure is assumed to underlie the
entire fugue, even when only one or two parts actually sound,
so Example 4 posits a coherent bass line (and some inner voi-
ces) below the unsupported soprano and alto parts in the
fugue’s opening measures.9 Punctuation marks offer an inter-
pretation of how conclusively phrases end; for the sake of visi-
bility, a fermata is used in place of a final “period.”
The initial pairing of a leading subject entry, or dux, and its
answer, or comes, falls over two rather inconclusive phrases
whose inornate upper-voice resolutions to ^3 (in C major and
then in G major) suggest a pair of commas. (The second
phrase departs from the C-major harmony on which the first
phrase ends, a normative situation in fugal phrase structure.) A
^1–^7–^1 cadential suspension (or discant clausula) in the soprano
lends more phrase-structural weight to the C-major cadence at
the end of the first phrase (mm. 12–13), yet I regard this ca-
dence, like the preceding commas, as internal to a period: it is
weakened by its bass moving to ^3 instead of ^1 on the down-
beat of m. 13, and the musical content that it punctuates, lim-
ited as it is to dux–comes rhetoric, seems less analogous to a
complete sentence than to a part thereof.10 The effect of this
cadence may be comparable to a semicolon. Thus far, state-
ments of the subject have been congruent with phrase struc-
ture, beginning on eighth-note afterbeats and concluding on
the terminal harmonies of phrases.
After a brief sequential passage (mm. 13–18), a full cadence
in G major culminates on the downbeat of m. 22 and appears
8 Compare William Renwick’s voice-leading analysis of the same passage
(1995a, 191–93). My analysis agrees with his at middleground levels but
diverges in some of its foreground interpretation.
9 Such inferences are founded in part on what William Rothstein calls
“imaginary continuo,” a principle whereby tonal compositions may be un-
derstood as elaborations of hypothetical thoroughbass realizations. All
harmonies are complete in these underlying realizations, even if the actual,
notated music leaves some of them imperfectly realized; and these com-
plete thoroughbass harmonies supply pitches that may be missing from, or
merely implied in, the voice leading of their elaborations (1991, 296–97).
Rothstein writes: “Implied bass tones occur when one or more voices
move in such a way that an inferred bass line becomes necessary to make
sense of their motion. The aural impression in such cases is one of ‘bass-
lessness’: the bass seems to have dropped out temporarily, or—if the pas-
sage occurs at the beginning of a piece—it seems not yet to have entered.
The latter situation occurs at the beginning of most fugues: it is often nec-
essary to infer a bass line to the opening statement of a fugue subject”
(308). He notes as well that “there may often be more than one correct re-
alization of an implied bass line.”
10 To be sure, ^1 may be understood as an implied bass tone in m. 13. Its
sonic absence, nevertheless, lessens the perfection of this cadence.
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example 4. J. S. Bach, Fugue in C Major, WTC II, mm. 1–26. (a) Schenkerian representation and interpretation of phrase endings.
(b) Summary of tonal structure
to conclude a period. However, a subject entry overlaps the G- in contrast, prepares a stable expansion of the new tonic (mm.
major cadence deeply to impose a connection to the next 25–26) along with a subject entry that overlaps simply. These
phrase and coordinate with an immediate deflection of tonal features, as well as an immediate textural shift (the bass drops
motion toward a full cadence in D minor (mm. 24–25).
Example 4(b) shows how contrapuntal sixths slip away from
11 Renwick also remarks on the subject entry that passes through the G-ma-
the G-major cadential downbeat to introduce F\ and C], and jor cadence, writing that it “causes the music to alter its trajectory from V
the asterisks in Example 4(a) indicate how the subject adjusts towards II” (1995a, 192). I am not certain that the subject “causes” the al-
to the deflection by shifting B[ to B\.11 The D-minor cadence, teration so much as “coordinates” with various tonal features that point to
II.
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example 4. [Continued]

out), signal a beginning more than a continuation, and thus Rather than mark the end of a period, then, the G-major
they mark the D-minor cadential downbeat as the conclusion cadence (m. 22) provides a sort of “waystation” that precedes
of the fugue’s first period and the beginning of its second. A
fermata accordingly appears over this downbeat. That the ca-
12 It is a common suggestion in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century fugue
dence should omit a final D5 does not significantly lessen its
theory that a rest should precede a subject entry, although this suggestion
degree of closure: this pitch is clearly implied, and its omission is not consistently followed in the fugues analyzed here. See Walker
allows the soprano’s subject entry to stand out after a rest.12 (2000, 168, 191, 266, 271).
 6 music theory spectrum 41 (2019)
the period’s true conclusion. Example 4(a) symbolizes this for-
mal “demotion” by placing an arrow through a fermata and
suggests that this cadence may be better compared to some-
thing less conclusive, such as a colon. The secondary status of
this cadence accords with the tonal structure summarized in
Example 4(b), in which G major serves as a dividing dominant
inside a larger progression from I to II.
The same basic approach to phrase structure underlies my
analyses of BWV 944 and B/I. I begin each analysis with a
characteristic or unique example of a subject entry that deeply
overlaps a cadence. After exploring the intricacies of the sub-
ject’s interaction with its surrounding phrases and its shaping
of musical activity across a phrase boundary, I demonstrate
how this arrangement has global repercussions in these two
fugues. In my discussion of BWV 944, I focus on its formal
implications, especially its connection to aspects of ritornello
design, while my discussion of B/I identifies a singular overlap
as an element of confutation within a rhetorical scheme that
spans the entire piece.
the a-minor fugue, bwv 944, sequences, and form
In an article titled “Progressive Temporality in Music,”
Edward A. Lippman observes that a type of “momentum is
established in much Baroque music by the motoric regularity
of sequential figuration,” with “the resolving force of har-
monic progression by descending fifths [contributing] a po-
tent additional impulsion.”13 With regard to BWV 944, this
observation is apt: somewhat more than half of its 199 meas-
ures are sequential—many of these progressing by descend-
ing fifths—and as their tonal and durational patterns
replicate, they evoke impressions of unfaltering musical mo-
tion and imply a tendency to continue.14 Fluctuations of se-
quential patterns shape the phrase rhythm of extensive
passages into sweeps of mounting and subsiding energy that
endure from phrase to phrase and persist across cadences.
Subject entries become part of these sweeps by overlapping
deeply with cadences and, as they do so, they promote a
sense of continuous motion across phrase boundaries.15
Their phrase-rhythmic effect also has formal implications.
As in the C-Major Fugue discussed above (Example 4), such
entries coordinate with deferrals of period closure, but in the
present Weimar-period fugue with affinities to the Italian
concerto style, this deferral works hand in hand with a ritor-
nello principle to accommodate the introduction of tonally
13 Lippman (1984, 126).
14 Sequences may be understood as examples of musical “inertia” (Larson
[2012, 96]), although this term does not always effectively convey impres-
sions of effort or determination. In this connection, see Hatten (2012) on
“inertia” vs. “momentum.”
15 Compare Ernst Kurth’s description of fugue in terms of a sustaining cur-
rent in which thematic entries intermittently consolidate and dissolve
([1927] 1990, 62). Although intended to encompass Baroque polyphony
in general, it agrees especially well with the processes I describe in BWV
944.
stable ritornellos upon the conclusions of modulatory epi-
sodes.16 My analysis offers three different “views” of BWV
944: the first isolates the subject at its first entry, for familiar-
ity with its construction is necessary for meaningful analysis
of its placement at the boundaries of phrases; the second
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encompasses the first period of the fugue and includes a pre-
liminary example of a subject deeply overlapping a cadence;
and the third view, of the fugue as a whole, brings the formal
repercussions of such overlaps into focus.
Example 5 presents the first subject entry (dux) in BWV
944 and infers a complete tonal structure beneath its unaccom-
panied soprano-part presentation.17 Durations are assigned to
this implied structure to reveal aspects of tonal rhythm, most
conspicuously the broad durations of a ^5–^6–^5–^4–^ 3 skeleton
beneath surface sixteenth notes. In this first presentation the
subject occupies a discrete six-measure phrase that divides into
groups of approximately two and four measures, the first con-
sisting of a tonic-defining head motive and the second of a se-
quence. I refer to these subdivisions respectively as Vordersatz
and Fortspinnung, acknowledging the subject’s resemblance in
miniature to the Fortspinnungstypus construction that Wilhelm
Fischer first identified in Baroque dance suites and that
Laurence Dreyfus later applied to his analyses of concerto
ritornellos—although here no cadential Epilog is present.18
While the Vodersatz clearly establishes the tonic key of A
minor and bestows distinct and memorable motivic content
upon the subject—especially in its sprightly leaps to E5 and
E4—it also presents elements of voice leading that make it
possible for the subject to overlap cadences deeply, for its ^5–^4–
^3 and ^5–^1 strands fit neatly into cadential formulas. This con-
nection may be observed in Example 1, and it occurs many
more times throughout this fugue. At the first presentation of
the subject (Example 5), of course, the Vordersatz does not
function cadentially; rather, it forms a beginning-of-phrase
tonic expansion, as if to secure a stable starting point for the
16 See Jones (2006, Part 2, Chap. 3 passim). Two other A-minor fugues
from this period, BWV 543 and BWV 894, set subjects similar to that of
BWV 944 and exhibit similar stylistic affinities. Deep overlaps between
subjects and cadences contribute significantly to phrase rhythm in these
fugues, even if the arrangement is less consistently used than in BWV
944.
17 In the Andreas Bach Buch, a ten-measure fantasia accompanies the BWV
944 fugue, although other sources give the fugue alone (Jones [2006,
189]). Usually the fantasia and fugue appear together in print, with the
fugue following immediately upon the half cadence that ends the fantasia.
Nevertheless, I number measures from the beginning of the fugue, rather
than from the beginning of the fantasia.
18 Fischer (1915); Dreyfus (1996). Although Fortspinnungstypus themes may
append a cadential Epilog to their Vordersatz and Fortspinnung (Fischer
[1915, 29]), an Epilog here (descending ^3–^2–^1) would probably end the
subject too conclusively and impede continuity into subsequent passages.
However, compare the fugue from Bach’s C-Minor Toccata, BWV 911,
whose Fortspinnungstypus subject does conclude with a brief cadential
Epilog. The strong closure at the end of the subject and each imitation
gives the fugue a feeling of starting and stopping, in contrast to the exten-
sive sweeps of BWV 944.
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example 5. J. S. Bach, BWV 944, mm. 1–6, first subject entry and underlying tonal structure

Fortspinnung that follows.19 To show that the “I–V65 –I” of the
Vordersatz takes place within a larger span of I and ^5, Example
5 sets the expansion in small type and the underlying A-minor
triad in normal type. (Subsequent examples will continue to
use small-type notes to represent tones that elapse within the
timespans of longer ones, as well as to represent certain inner-
voice tones.)
The sequential Fortspinnung then establishes patterns both
tonal and durational. Its ^6–^5–^4–^3 descent makes a pattern of
parallel tenths with the implied bass, and these tenths project a
pattern of dotted-half-note (i.e., measure-length) durations. To
refer to the durational patterns of the sequences in this fugue, I
adopt Channan Willner’s term “basic pace,” which he defines as
“a steady, largely stepwise movement of the outer voices which
becomes apparent when the ornamental diminutions and the fig-
ural passagework of the foreground are reduced out”;20 beneath
the successive tenths in Example 5, a dotted-half basic pace is
21 I borrow the term “particle” from Paul Mark Walker’s discussion of
19 See Caplin (2004, 81–85) on the difference between “cadential content”
and “cadential function.”
20 Willner (2005, 6). Because I am using basic pace specifically to track the
fluctuations of sequential patterns, I do not indicate its operations within
the initial Vorders€atze in Examples 5 and 8. In these Vorders€atze, a com-
posite of half- and quarter-note durations vies with a layer of dotted halves
indicated. Implied 7–6 suspensions in an inner voice and
descending-fifth root motion (interpolated between the tenths, in
small type) invest the dotted-half tenths with driving, motoric
qualities, apropos of Lippman’s observation cited above. The se-
quence comes to rest without a real cadence on the downbeat of
m. 6 (a “comma”) and concludes the subject, although some of
its energy may seem to spill into a “particle” figure that leads into
the next phrase: note how the final ^3 of its voice leading is dis-
placed from the subject into the ascending arpeggios that
follow.21 All of this confers on the subject a distinct phrase-
rhythmic shape, a launch from a stable “platform” and then a
steady carrying-forward of energy. Example 6 describes this shape
graphically, with successive crests of a “wave” tracing the parallel
tenths of the Fortspinnung and making their dotted-half pace
to characterize the basic pace, and this uneven pacing gives way to the
steady dotted-quarters of the Fortspinnungen that follow.
Johann Beer’s unpublished “Schola phonologica” of the early 1690s, in
which the latter recommends bridging the space between dux and comes
with a “particula” (2000, 256). Richard D. P. Jones refers to the figure I
call a particle in Example 5 as an Epilog, to follow Vordersatz and
Fortspinnung (2006, 184). I disagree with Jones because the figure has a
connective rather than a closural function.
 8 music theory spectrum 41 (2019)
example 6. J. S. Bach, BWV 944, mm. 1–6, phrase-rhythmic
shaping
visible. Elsewhere in the fugue, the sequential construction of the
subject’s Fortspinnung enables the subject to fit into more exten-
sive passages shaped by sequential activity, as will be evident
below.
Example 7 reproduces the fugue’s opening period—or,
perhaps, its opening ritornello—which presents an entire ex-
position and concludes with a marked cadential passage (mm.
27–33, labeled Epilog). A sweep of primarily sequential activity
emanates from a comes statement in mm. 7–12, and continues,
shaped by fluctuations in basic pace, into and through a cadence
in mm. 18–19. When a dux entry deeply overlaps the cadence it
joins this larger sweep, interacting with its phrase-rhythmic
shaping and energizing its passage across the cadence.
The basic-pace fluctuations surrounding the cadence of
mm. 18–19 are made clear in Example 8(a), while Example
8(b) summarizes the tonal structure of this music, showing
how surface harmonies that precede the cadence (including the
minor dominant of the comes in mm. 7–12) attach to an
upper-voice passing motion through tonic harmony.22 Like
the dux discussed above, the comes occupies a six-measure
phrase in which a Vordersatz platform launches a Fortspinnung
sequence. The sequence (now accompanied by the first of sev-
eral countersubjects) reestablishes the dotted-half basic pace of
the earlier dux. However, when the comes concludes on the
downbeat of m. 12, the “natural” tendency for sequences to
continue is realized and sequential activity flows into an ensu-
ing “bridge” phrase.23 The bridge maintains the incipient four-
measure grouping of the comes, but with its sequential tenths
falling at two-measure intervals (the downbeats of mm. 12, 14,
and 16) the prevailing basic pace expands to dotted-whole
durations.24 As harmonies drift away from the tonicized minor
dominant, the deceleration betokens diminished energy from
one phrase into the next.
22 Roman numerals are assigned to the harmonies in this passing motion for
reference purposes only; this labeling should not be understood to contra-
dict the contrapuntal prolongation of a tonic Stufe that is indicated across
mm. 1–18. As Example 8(b) clarifies, the E-minor comes supports a pass-
ing seventh above the tonic; it does not function as a true dominant. My
interpretation of this music is informed in part by Heinrich Schenker’s
analysis of Bach’s Prelude in A Minor, BWV 942 ([1925] 2014).
23 On bridges, see Renwick (1995a, 110).
24 At various times in this fugue, four-measure grouping permits a hyper-
metrical interpretation. However, hypermeter at the four-measure level
should not be construed as an organizational principle behind the entire
work’s durational structure.
The reduction of energy prepares a new buildup, a cadential
acceleration that spans mm. 16–19 and coheres under an
upper-voice descending fifth-progression. The basic pace
accelerates to dotted halves as A minor is retonicized in mm.
16–17. On the downbeat of m. 18, the dux enters in the here-
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tofore inactive bass part. Rather than initiate a new phrase, the
Vordersatz of this dux statement combines with typical caden-
tial formulas in the soprano and alto parts (^3–^2–^1, ^1–^7–^1 re-
spectively) to conclude the bridge phrase on the downbeat of
m. 19. The Vordersatz no longer fashions a tonic-expanding
platform: by engaging with the cadential voice leading in mm.
18–19, it instead becomes part of the ongoing cadential accel-
eration. In m. 18, the dotted-half basic pace accelerates into a
faster “cadential pace,” represented as quarter–half in the
outer-voice counterpoint.25 If these durations would seem a
less perfect acceleration than half–quarter, the imbalance is
compensated by a subtle division of this measure into three
quarters: the resolution of the alto’s 4–3 suspension articulates
the third quarter-note beat of m. 18, and the Vordersatz
emphasizes all three beats with its outline of A3–E4–E3.
By sounding in the bass, the Vordersatz imparts a slight im-
perfection to the cadence, for it places ^3 (C4) on the downbeat
of m. 19 and displaces ^1 (A3) to beat 2. (A3 should neverthe-
less be understood as the “true” bass note of this measure; the
deviation from normative cadential voice leading may be more
visually than aurally apparent.) But the displacement is signifi-
cant within the motivic shape of the Vordersatz as part of a dy-
namic “leap” over the cadential downbeat. When the
Vordersatz enters in m. 18, its preliminary leaps to E4 and
E3, shown with dotted lines on Example 8(a), stand out
from the preceding stepwise figuration and signal a new en-
ergetic element as they pulsate with the quarter-note beat.
On the third beat, the Vordersatz erupts into a large ascend-
ing leap from E3 to D4, with which it figuratively vaults
over the bar line. The tonic displacement thus seems to oc-
cur as a consequence of the leap, as if the leap were power-
ful enough for the Vordersatz to land at some distance on
the other side of its hurdle, not on the downbeat of m. 19
but a beat later (see the curvy line on Example 8[a], below
mm. 18–19).
In this way the subject is not only “swept up” in a cadential
acceleration but also presented as an active participant that takes
control of a phrase-rhythmic intensification and directs it across
a cadential boundary. When it lands, it hits the ground running,
with its sequential Fortspinnung straightaway resuming a
dotted-half basic pace, now with outer-voice 7–6 suspensions
rather than tenths.26 The overall effect is for the sequences on
25 Willner uses the term “cadential pace” to describe situations in which
“basic pace either accelerates or yields the spotlight to faster paces at
cadences” (2005, 96).
26 The phrase containing this Fortspinnung segment may be understood to
begin harmonically with the hypermetrically weak A-minor downbeat of
m. 19, but to begin as a motivic/contrapuntal unit just before the hyper-
metrically strong downbeat of m. 20. The syncopes in this phrase (mm.
20ff.) do not contradict the underlying basic pace.
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example 7. J. S. Bach, BWV 944, mm. 1–36, first period and beginning of second period
10 music theory spectrum 41 (2019)

either side of the cadence to cohere as parts of the same ongoing

sweep, joined without obstruction by the cadence and its deeply
overlapping subject entry. At a more superficial level, quarter-
note activity in mm. 18–19 makes a smooth transition between
the cadential acceleration and the resumption of the dotted-half

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basic pace, for the subject mirrors its rhythmic interlock in m.
18 (A3–E4–E3) with the tonic arpeggiation C4–A3–A4 in m.
19. It is as if the three beats of tonic harmony in m. 19 accom-
modate a dissipation of cadential energy as they reintroduce the
dotted-half basic pace that flows for several measures hence.
The wave diagram in Example 9 shows the overall shape of
the sweep throughout this passage: how its crests and troughs
contract and expand as the basic pace fluctuates, and how it
continues through the cadence in mm. 18–19. (Dotted lines
represent superficial quarter-note activity around the cadence.)
Were the subject entry not to have deeply overlapped the ca-
dence in mm. 18–19, the effect of the same passage would
have been quite different. The hypothetical recomposition in
Example 10 replaces the deep overlap with a simple one, so
that the subject enters directly on the cadential downbeat of
m. 19. This shift disengages the subject from the cadential
voice leading of mm. 18–19 and causes its Vordersatz to ex-
pand tonic for two measures, as it does at the beginning of the
fugue. Although there is still a sense in which the energy of
the cadential acceleration dissipates into the paces of the
Vordersatz, there is no concomitant sense of a sweep continu-
ing through and beyond the cadence. For the most part, the
sweep in this recomposition is arrested by the long expansion of
a stable harmony, as is pictured in Example 11. Furthermore,
the cadence in A minor and the new tonic platform suggest the
conclusion of a period and the beginning of a new one, so that
the dux entry in m. 19 is formally detached from the preceding
expositional material. If events leading into the cadence in
Bach’s original (the acceleration across a descending fifth, the
clearly articulated cadential formulas) also imply the impending
conclusion of a period, then their larger context forces the ca-
dence to be interpreted differently. In light of the deeply over-
lapping subject entry and the sweep that it promotes (as well as
the imperfection that results in m. 19), the cadence may be
regarded, like the G-major cadence in Example 4(a) (mm.
21–22), as a colon: a strong punctuation, but one that prompts
additional clauses before the period actually concludes.
The discussion above has pointed to two possible disposi-
tions of the subject’s Vordersatz: in one, it represents a rela-
example 8. J. S. Bach, BWV 944, mm. 1–21. (a) Measure-by-
tively static tonic expansion; in the other, it participates in
measure reduction, showing fluctuations in basic pace.
(and deeply overlaps) a cadence. These possibilities have for-
(b) Summary of tonal structure
mal repercussions throughout BWV 944. Example 12 gives
my formal interpretation of the fugue. Several factors are taken
into account in this interpretation. First, BWV 944 contains spans of these periods.) Third, various ritornellos either frame
three “expositions,” each of which consists of two or three imi- the entire fugue or follow modulatory episodes to solidify new
tations in tonic or dominant. (Imitations are labeled on the di- key areas.27 Finally, the fugue divides into two large sections
agram according to their starting pitch.) Second, it traverses by means of a strong tonic arrival in m. 138: because these
several keys at the boundaries of successive periods: A minor–
D minor–C major–A minor–G minor–A minor. (Staggered 27 Compare Richard D. P. Jones’s form diagram and accompanying discus-
horizontal lines below the measure numbers represent the sion (2006, 190–91).
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example 9. J. S. Bach, BWV 944, mm. 7–23, basic-pace fluctuations

example 10. J. S. Bach, BWV 944, recomposition of mm. 16–20

example 11. J. S. Bach, BWV 944, mm. 7–23, basic-pace fluctuations of Example 10

larger sections comprise more than one period, they may be
regarded as musical “paragraphs.”28
In the first paragraph (mm. 1–138), there are several instan-
ces in which subjects deeply overlap cadences to ensure formal
continuity within periods. I will focus here on the extensive
“central passage” reproduced in Example 13, to show how
deep overlaps occur in increasingly complex phrase-rhythmic
contexts and interact with aspects of the fugue’s ritornello de-
sign. To argue further for the formal significance of these over-
laps, I will then compare some examples with tonic-expanding
Vorders€atze—specifically, at the tonic articulation of m. 138
and at the beginning of the second exposition (m. 33).
The central passage consists of two sequential, modula-
tory episodes (mm. 59–73 and mm. 81–94) and two tonally
28 In this way, the fugue’s deviation from Kirnberger’s suggestion that each
period should end in a different key (note 4) serves a larger formal end.
On musical paragraphs, see Kirnberger ([1771–79] 1982, 114).
stable ritornellos (in D minor, mm. 72–81; and in C major,
mm. 93–109). As each episode establishes a new key and
comes to a cadence, a deeply overlapping subject entry
directs its sequential sweep into a corresponding key-
confirming ritornello. Each ritornello then sets the subject
in a full three-part texture and concludes with a distinct ca-
dential passage, or Epilog. In light of these emphatic
Epiloge—each producing a cadence in the same key as the
cadence of the preceding episode—the overlaps imply that
the episodes’ cadences have lesser phrase-structural weight.
For these lesser cadences, Example 13 retains the fermata-
arrow symbols used in previous examples for potentially
period-ending full cadences rendered incomplete (and per-
haps comparable to colons).
The first episode in Example 13 (mm. 59–73) flows out of
the second exposition (not shown); Example 14 provides a
reduction of its sequential progression from a tonicized E mi-
nor through A minor and into a cadence and ritornello
 12 music theory spectrum 41 (2019)
example 12. J. S. Bach, BWV 944, form diagram
statement in D minor.29 Fluctuations in basic pace now coor-
dinate with a conspicuous directional change and with
markers of tonal-rhythmic dissonance. In mm. 62–68, the epi-
sode traces an ascending 5–6 sequential pattern whose steadily
rising pitch level, coupled with a broad dotted-whole basic pace,
portrays an effort against musical “gravity.” “Reaching-over” fig-
ures in mm. 63, 65, and 67 accentuate this sense of effort, as
the sequence appears to “pull itself” upwards. Rhythmic dis-
placements further intensify the ascent: as the upper system in
Example 14 shows, A3 and C5 in m. 62 are delayed from their
locations in the underlying structure, while F3 in m. 63 is antici-
pated, an octave higher, in the previous measure.30 (The same
29 Example 14 suggests that D minor is prolonged through mm. 68–73,
prior to its structural arrival in m. 73. Measures 68–73 thus assume a tonal
shape that Roger Kamien (2006) calls a “quasi-auxiliary cadence.”
30 On the lower system of Example 14, I have applied rhythmic normaliza-
tion to the displacements shown in the upper system. As Willner notes,
“[t]he even progress of the basic pace emerges when the time spans of the
essential voice leading strands are restored to their original, longer or
shorter durations through the procedure that has become known as nor-
malization” (2005, 6). See Rothstein (1990) on normalization.
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displacements characterize mm. 64–68.) Altogether, the prog-
ress of the sequence appears arduous.
The episode reaches an apex at m. 69 and then plunges
downward by fourths at a faster dotted-quarter pace (G minor
in m. 69, D minor in m. 70, A major in m. 71), as if yielding to
the gravity it previously resisted. Tonal-rhythmic tension con-
comitantly subsides, with each descending-fourth chord sound-
ing squarely on a downbeat. Interpolated descending fifths,
shown parenthetically, energize the descent into a D-minor ca-
dential progression in mm. 72–73, which continues the acceler-
ation and incorporates a deeply overlapping subject entry, the
beginning of the D-minor ritornello. As the episode’s sequences
sweep into the Fortspinnung that follows the cadence, period
closure is deferred until the end of the ritornello in m. 81.
Example 15(a) begins at the conclusion of the D-minor ri-
tornello and traces the progress of the ensuing episode into a
ritornello in C major (m. 93).31 Measures 81–88 of the
31 Example 15(a) interprets D minor as subordinate to a larger motion to III
(C major). The latter harmony is locally targeted with an auxiliary cadence
in mm. 93–94.
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13
subjects and phrase boundaries in two keyboard fugues by j. s. bach

example 13. J. S. Bach, BWV 944, mm. 59–109

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music theory spectrum 41 (2019)

example 13. [Continued]

14
 subjects and phrase boundaries in two keyboard fugues by j. s. bach 15

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example 13. [Continued]

example 14. J. S. Bach, BWV 944, mm. 59–74, voice-leading reduction

episode accelerate from a dotted-whole to a dotted-half basic
pace, and in mm. 87–88, the shorter durations of a cadential
pace accompany what seems at first to be an imperfect authen-
tic cadence in D minor. However, immediate repetition of this
apparent cadence down a step belies its cadential function and
extends the ongoing sequential activity, complicating the pro-
gression of paces in the process.
The repetition articulates mm. 87–88 and 89–90 as parallel
two-measure groups, each characterized by an arrival point on
its second measure (the D3/F5 and C3/E5 tenths in mm. 88
and 90). This end-accented grouping continues into the C-
major cadence in mm. 93–94, the real cadence with which the
episode ends. Example 15(b) represents the essential tonal
content of these two-measure groups and reveals that a slower
pace, consisting mainly of dotted-whole durations, emerges
beneath the basic and cadential paces of this music. This new
pace invests the episode with a sense of deceleration, a slacken-
ing of its sweep that lasts until the ensuing ritornello. Whereas
 16 music theory spectrum 41 (2019)
example 15. J. S. Bach, BWV 944, mm. 81–95. (a) Voice-leading reduction. (b) Further reduction of mm. 87–94
the subject entries that overlapped cadences deeply in Examples
8 and 14 followed upon pronounced cadential accelerations, the
subject entry in m. 93 initiates a post-cadential acceleration
with its leap across the C-major cadence, restoring a dotted-
half basic pace to the episode’s sweep as it proceeds into the ri-
tornello. The entire period then concludes with an Epilog in
mm. 102–9, a C-major restatement of the Epilog from the first
period/ritornello (Example 7, mm. 27–33).32
In the foregoing examples, deep overlaps between subjects
and cadences link successive phrases to consolidate formal
units. The thematic renewal of ritornellos is thus situated in-
side the resultant long periods. In a way, this works against
an overt formal sectionalization of ritornellos and episodes
and supports a sense of continuous flow that transcends such
a differentiation. At the same time, the placement of these
overlaps amid more complex phrase-rhythmic activity (the di-
rectional change and displacements in Example 14; the
regrouping in Example 15) serves a developmental tendency
and maintains excitement. The systematic deployment of
deep overlaps toward formal ends becomes clearer when these
examples are compared with alternative varieties of subject–
phrase interaction in BWV 944. At only four points do
32 Note that the cadence at the end of the C-major ritornello incorporates
part of the subject’s Vordersatz in the bass, as if mimicking a deeply over-
lapping subject entry. Absent the remainder of the subject, and coming to
rest on a strong C: ^1 on the downbeat of m. 109, the partial Vordersatz
does not deprive the cadence of finality at all.
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subject entries assume other arrangements: at the beginning
of the fugue, at the beginning of the second exposition/period
in m. 33, at the tonic articulation in m. 138, and at the end.
The first and last of these can be addressed with minimal
commentary. In its opening measures (Example 7, mm. 1–
12), the fugue introduces the thematic premise of its later dis-
course in a crystal-clear phrase-rhythmic context: dux and
comes correspond to two discrete phrases and neither entry
overlaps a phrase ending. And at the end of the fugue an ex-
panded entry of the subject (Example 12, mm. 177–96) func-
tions not as a formal link but as a rhetorical display of
extravagance, briefly arresting the progress of the final period
before charging into a cadence. The other two instances,
however, contrast sharply with the deep overlaps in this fugue
by marking large-scale formal boundaries.
Example 16 reproduces the passage surrounding the tonic
articulation in m. 138. Measures 130–38 repeat, in heightened
fashion, the accelerative bridge of mm. 12–19 (Example 8).
The bass feigns a subject entry in m. 136 with just part of a
Vordersatz. It also pretends to overlap a cadence deeply, for the
culmination of a full cadence on the downbeat of m. 137 is
promised. However, such a cadence is not realized and the alto
feigns a second subject entry on the same downbeat, hinting at
stretto. Were the alto’s partial Vordersatz to continue into a
full subject entry, it would deeply overlap the imperfect au-
thentic cadence in mm. 137–38. But on the downbeat of m.
138 the soprano—having kept silent for several measures—
enters with the subject directly above the terminal cadential
 subjects and phrase boundaries in two keyboard fugues by j. s. bach
example 16. J. S. Bach, BWV 944, mm. 130–41
harmony (a simple overlap): it interrupts the alto’s Vordersatz
and obliterates any sense of cadential repose as it does so. This
entry marks a point of disjunction for several reasons: its initial
A4 is unrelated to the cadential voice leading in the lower
parts; it coincides with a rhythmic reduction in the bass and
alto; and, perhaps most significantly, its Vordersatz initiates a
two-measure tonic expansion that halts the sweep of this pas-
sage. In the hypothetical Example 10, a similar two-measure
span might have been heard as an unsatisfactory impediment
to sequential activity and as a premature formal break, but at
this point in the fugue it appropriately marks a large-scale for-
mal event: a type of recapitulation in which the subject returns
in the tonic approximately two-thirds of the way through the
piece after having traversed various other keys. Phrase-
rhythmic signals of beginning, not continuation, accompany
the tonic articulation: the two-measure tonic expansion forms
a stable platform to launch the second paragraph of this fugue,
which largely abandons fugal procedures for virtuosic display
(perhaps a “reward” for reclaiming the tonic dux).33
Finally, the beginning of the second exposition (and second
period) appears in Example 7, directly upon the conclusion of
the first period in m. 33. The reduction in texture and close
imitation between two seemingly equal parts in mm. 33–34
33 The downbeat of m. 138 points to a curious issue in the delineation of
periods. If the second of two paragraphs begins at this point, then it fol-
lows that a period begins here as well (as shown in Example 12). This
means that the preceding period—unlike the other periods in BWV
944—ends without a full cadence. Michael Talbot observes that this situa-
tion does arise, however, in early-eighteenth-century concerto movements:
“A period may be prematurely terminated by the irruption of a new peri-
od” (1971, 11).
17
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suggest an episode for two soloists in a double concerto, as
would typically follow an opening ritornello. The close imita-
tion also places the Vordersatz of the subject into a three-
measure tonic expansion (mm. 33–35). Such a lengthy tonic
expansion gives stability to the beginning of a new formal unit;
however, its three-measure duration suggests less “square”
dimensions than the two- and four-measure groups that arise
frequently in this fugue (e.g., the two-measure group after m.
138 in Example 16; the four-measure groups illustrated in
Example 8[a]). In addition, the extended durational space of
the Vordersatz accommodates a twofold echo of the ^7 ^1 voice
leading of the preceding cadence, so that the second exposition
seems to absorb the impact of the cadence tonally before it
gets started. Measure 33 appropriately marks a softer begin-
ning (or re-beginning) than the section break at m. 138.
These last examples demonstrate that the formal effects of
subject–phrase interactions are significant in this fugue, impli-
cating both formal links and formal boundaries. Although the
subject entries that deeply overlap cadences are conspicuous in
their immediate tonal and durational contexts, they are also
part of a coordinated formal design in which boundaries are
made clear and ritornello elements are brought into accord
with a succession of periods moving through various keys.
the b-major fugue from THE WELL-TEMPERED CLAVIER,
book i, gesture, and rhetoric
One thread in the foregoing analysis was the interpretation of
a musical figure, the subject’s Vordersatz, as a physical, agential
motion: its determined leap over a cadential downbeat and its
landing on the other side. Indeed, many of Bach’s fugue subjects
 18 music theory spectrum 41 (2019)
example 17. “ Gestural” interpretations of fugue subjects by Bach. (a) F/II. (b) A/II. (c) B/I
invite interpretation in terms of physical motion, and physical
analogues may be as revealing of their particular qualities (and
of their similarities to other subjects) as considerations of topic
and affect or of voice leading.34 I will use the term “gesture” to
refer to melodic shapes with pronounced physical analogues,
notwithstanding possible divergences from the use of this term
outside of musical contexts (in which it may refer to a more cir-
cumscribed field of expressive motions) as well as from the wide
range of gestural possibilities (and the musical parameters they
involve) in Robert Hatten’s theory of musical gesture as
“significant energetic shaping of sound through time.”35
Example 17 offers three sample subjects from the WTC.
Apart from considerations of voice leading (wherein each sub-
ject ultimately descends through a third, but not necessarily
through the same scale degrees) or of topic (wherein F/II
stands out from the others as a dance36), each involves a play
of distinct ascending and descending gestures. The example
34 See Kunze (1969) on topic and affect; Renwick (1995a) on voice leading.
35 Hatten (2004, 95). On the appropriateness of the term “gesture,” see
Larson (2006, 61): “To describe a bit of melody as a ‘gesture’ is to concep-
tualize music in terms of physical motion.”
36 Meredith Little and Natalie Jenne ([1991] 2001, 256–65) note the resem-
blance of this fugue to a giga.
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infers bass lines below the subjects in order to give an idea of
their underlying tonal structures. Interpretive contour lines
above the subjects illustrate their apparent gestural shapes.
Interpreting musical shapes as analogs of physical motion
presupposes a hypothetical physical environment, for which it
is helpful to imagine various musical “forces” at play, such as
the metaphorical tendencies that Steve Larson theorizes in his
work on musical motion. I referred above to a type of “gravity”
in my discussion of one of the episodes in BWV 944
(Example 14); “melodic gravity,” which Larson defines as “the
tendency of notes above a reference platform to descend,”
appears also to condition the leap and subsequent fall in the
Vordersatz of the BWV 944 subject.37 Two other melodic
forces in Larson’s work are “magnetism” (the tendency for un-
stable pitches to “move” to nearby stable pitches) and “inertia”
(the tendency for patterns to continue, as in some of the
sequences from BWV 944).
The subject of F/II (Example 17[a]) begins with deter-
mined, even aggressive thrusts that together ascend from F4 to
37 Larson (2012, 328). Larson explicitly relates his forces to musical
“gestures,” borrowing the concept of gesture from Hatten (145), just as
Hatten acknowledges Larson’s theory of forces in his exposition of gesture
theory (2004, 115–17).
 subjects and phrase boundaries in two keyboard fugues by j. s. bach
F5. The first thrust covers a fifth, from F4 up to C5, and is fol-
lowed by a rest. But the subject’s motion appears to be affected
by gravity: as if the subject has been pulled back down during
the rest, the second thrust begins lower than the endpoint of
the first. It surpasses the first thrust, reaching D5. After an-
other rest and implied fall, the subject shoots through E5 to
culminate its ascent on F5. (In terms of Larson’s theory, the
stable F5 also attracts the E5 leading tone magnetically.) From
this high point, the subject dives to the ultimate goal of its
voice leading, A4 (with a brief bounce back up around C5).
But a degree of inertia is apparent: rather than stop on A4 the
subject continues to descend beyond its goal, to F4.
The A/II subject (Example 17[b]) also combines an as-
cending stage with a descending stage, but in contrast to the
dynamic thrusts of the previous subject it ascends by little
hops. With its first five sixteenth notes, it situates itself upon a
stable A3 while expressing an inclination to ascend. Then,
with reaching-over figures, it hops up to B3, C]4, and D4. A
more extravagant reaching-over targets E4 as the goal of the
subject’s ascent (contravening the “magnetic” tendency for D
to resolve down to C]), but it simultaneously initiates a
descending stage, as if the subject somehow falls through the
stable E4 to settle on C]4 below.
Both of these subjects gesturally negotiate successive as-
cending and descending stages, but they do so in different
ways. Still another negotiation characterizes the subject of B/I
(Example 17[c]). Its ascent from B3 to D]4 over its first ten
notes describes a concentrated exertion against gravity that
comprises two separate impulses. The lower-neighbor decora-
tion of its initial B3 implies a gathering of energy in prepara-
tion for a first push, but this push only reaches C]4. To
transcend this intermediate pitch, the subject gets a running
start from a lower point, F]3, and advances stepwise to D]4.38
But it overshoots its mark, ascending to E4 (another instance
of inertia), after which it compensates its hard-won ascent
with a leisurely glide down to B3.
This gestural interpretation will be one component of my
analysis of B/I. In contrast to the numerous examples from
BWV 944, a single example of a subject deeply overlapping a
cadence distinguishes the present fugue, and it involves a more
tentative cadence than earlier examples, one whose grammati-
cal weight is like a comma. This subject entry participates in—
and perhaps motivates—a voice-leading event that affects the
articulation of phrasing in the second period of this fugue.
Furthermore, its gestural foregrounding emphasizes its posi-
tion in a work-encompassing rhetorical scheme, in which it
enacts a confutation of tonal and thematic oppositions to the
fugue’s initial propositions.
Example 18 reproduces the second period of B/I, which
introduces the inverso form of the fugue’s subject. (The first
38 Sieglind Bruhn describes the first part of the subject similarly: “The initial
ascent, launched from the key-note, breaks off with a crotchet on the first
strong beat, only to start afresh from the lower F] and climb even higher
up” (1993, 4:189).
19
period treats only the recto form, as illustrated in Example
17[c].) The second period begins in F] major and concludes
on the downbeat of m. 26 with a full cadence in C] minor.
Imperfect authentic cadences articulate its constituent phrases
on the downbeat of m. 20 and on beat 3 of m. 22, the latter
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overlapped deeply by a subject entry.
After an inverted dux in the soprano leads the first phrase
of this period from F] major to B major,39 the second phrase
(Example 18, m. 20) replies with an inverted comes in the alto
and promises complementary tonal motion and a full cadence
in F] major. Example 19 represents the tonal structure of the
second phrase (as well as the third) and compares it with a hy-
pothetical version that realizes this promise. Like the actual
version in Example 19(a), the hypothetical version in Example
19(b) begins by placing the inverted comes below the ascending
soprano line D]5–E]5–F]5 and supporting that line with paral-
lel thirds. This setting suggests a variation of the common ca-
dential formula schematized in Example 19(c), which the
hypothetical version follows by transforming B: I into II65 of F]
major and closing in the latter key.40 Although this cadential
formula makes a plausible conclusion to the second phrase of
this period, it is not what Bach wrote. As illustrated in
Example 19(a), a recto entry in the second half of m. 21 coor-
dinates with a type of inganno voice leading in which the so-
prano replaces E]5 with E\5 and thus evades an F]-major
cadence.41 The recto subject reactivates a bass register that has
been briefly silent, and its conspicuous outline of B2–C]3–F]2–
B2 (with the second B2 in a metrically strong position) points
to a B-major tonic. Its first B2 supports G]m65 , but instead of
functioning as II of F] major as in Example 19(b–c), this
chord acts as the submediant of B major. Accordingly, the
progression of the subject pulls the dissonant F]5 of this chord
down to E\5, a diatonic pitch in B major, rather than to E]5,
the leading tone of F] major. The latter pitch resolves, as the
chordal seventh of B: V7, to D]5, so that the second phrase of
the period ends not with a full cadence in F] major but with
an imperfect authentic cadence in B major.
If the cadential B2 on beat 3 of m. 22 appears to transect
the recto subject near its midpoint, the subject nevertheless
forms a continuous shape across the cadential divide. One sig-
nal of this continuity is the subject’s gestural profile. In its
original presentation, the subject began with an ascending ef-
fort (against gravity) that consisted of two impulses, and it
concluded with a counterbalancing relaxation (with gravity).
39 The inversion is not complete, for the dux ends with D]5, not F]5.
40 This is essentially the same formula that Fux employs in Example 3(b).
Also compare Rothstein (2006, 266, Example 15).
41 On inganno, see Renwick (1995b, 50–51): “Inganno is simply Italian for
deception; however, what is at issue here is not the deceptive cadence V–
VI, but rather the deception based on the down-turning of the leading
note to become the flatted seventh of the following chord.” Walther iden-
tifies this voice leading as a species of evaded cadence (1732, 125 and
Table V, Fig. 3); Fux refers to it in his discussion of deceptive cadences
([1725] 1958, 91). See also Neuwirth (2015, 121–22) and Rings (2011,
157).
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example 18. J. S. Bach, Fugue in B Major, WTC I (“ B/I”), mm. 18–26

example 19. J. S. Bach, B/I, mm. 20–26. (a) Voice-leading reduction. (b) Recomposition of mm. 20–22. (c) Cadential formula in F] major
 subjects and phrase boundaries in two keyboard fugues by j. s. bach
The inverso subject relinquishes this shape (in Example 18,
mm. 18–20, its tendency is to fall from F]5 to D]5 with no
comparable sense of determined ascent) but the recto restores
the original balance. Its ascent is no longer inscribed tonally
(see Example 17[c], in which B–C]–D] composes out a third),
but its two ascending impulses still cohere as components of a
single effort: the initial push from B2 does not go far, only to
C]3, and it motivates the ascending run from F]2 that carries
the subject through the cadential B2 and on to higher pitches
(Example 19[a], mm. 21–22). From its first notes, then, this
subject entry is invested in its motion against gravity, and it ul-
timately prevails through the cadence. As the subject descends
leisurely from E3 at the end of m. 22, the upper parts accede
to its exertion in parallel 63 chords.
The gestural implications of the subject lend a motivated,
even forceful, quality to the evasion of an F]-major cadence
and suggest a deliberate redirection of the tonal course of the
period. An event of this apparent significance provokes ques-
tions as to its meaning: one possible answer lies in an over-
arching rhetorical scheme.
I will move onto rhetoric presently, but before I do so I
should briefly address the possibility of an alternative interpre-
tation of the second period of B/I in which the second phrase
concludes cadentially on the third beat of m. 23, a measure
later than in my interpretation. This alternative, which has the
advantage of subject and phrase endings coinciding, reduces
the phrase-structural import of the events in m. 22: perhaps
they represent a mid-phrase V–I resolution without cadential
implications, or perhaps their potential to conclude a phrase is
denied by the subject entry that deeply overlaps them. For a
variety of reasons, I regard m. 22, beat 3 as a more satisfactory
point of phrase-structural punctuation than m. 23, beat 3.42
To be sure, both locations are marked by resolutions to tonic
harmony, but the former receives greater tonal emphasis from
the articulation of a root-position II–V–I progression; the lat-
ter involves a less emphatic contrapuntal tonic prolongation
(Example 19[a]). Furthermore, the latter resolution occurs in
the midst of a quasi-sequential progression of suspensions and
reaching-over figures (Example 18), which detracts from its
closural qualities. Finally, a cadential interpretation of m. 22 is
rhetorically supported by the way that this measure refers to an
evaded cadence from earlier in the fugue and suggests a second
attempt at a proper resolution (discussed further below).
Locating a cadence on beat 3 of m. 22 does raise the question
of how the tonic prolongation that follows the cadence (m. 22,
beat 3–m. 23, beat 3) should be understood. It might be
regarded as a post-cadential suffix or as a linking passage be-
fore a new phrase begins on IV in m. 24 (in which case the
right-hand “ribbon” in Example 2[a] could be relabeled ac-
cordingly). Or it might be understood as the beginning of the
42 It is not unusual that a phrase should conclude on the third beat of a mea-
sure, especially as this fugue is in a “compound” meter, with each no-
tated measure representing two equivalent measures of 24 (see Grave
[1985]).
21
next phrase itself, a reverberation of tonic harmony that devel-
ops into new musical activity.
Describing fugues and fugal techniques in rhetorical terms
is a longstanding tradition. In eighteenth-century Germany,
understandings of fugal works were guided by rhetorical dispo-
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sitio structures, as Gregory G. Butler relates in his “Fugue and
Rhetoric” article.43 Among the organized elements of an argu-
ment, a “[refutation of] objections to the principle thesis,” or
confutatio, is especially pertinent to the present discussion.
Translated into music, confutatio may involve the “[resolution
of] opposition to the thema [subject].”44 When a subject entry
deeply overlaps the cadence in m. 22 of B/I (Example 18) it
undertakes such a refutation or resolution on two interactive
levels, one tonal and one thematic. I will address aspects of the
fugue’s rhetoric briefly, for which reference to the form dia-
gram and tonal structure summary in Example 20 may be
helpful.
The first of the three periods in B/I contains an initial ex-
position of the recto subject—the proposition to be “argued” in
the course of the fugue. In typical expositions of nonmodulat-
ing fugue subjects, the first dux statement establishes and pro-
longs tonic and the first comes statement introduces an element
of tonal opposition, namely the dominant. When attached to
thematic imitation, this tonal opposition takes on rhetorical
meaning. Butler summarizes the way Johann Mattheson
accounts for this opposition in his treatise Der vollkommene
Capellmeister (1739):
The opposition between dux and comes in the initial exposi-
tion is tonal in nature, arising from the close horizontal jux-
taposition of statements of the thema in sharply contrasting
keys, usually tonic and dominant. In fact, the comes often
concludes with a pitch which is not an element of the tonic
chord because of the particular melodic configuration of the
thema. Moreover, unless the thema is modulatory, the comes
at its conclusion normally has strongly established the dom-
inant key. In both cases, there is a need to return to the
tonic for the subsequent entry of the dux in that key, both
on the purely practical compositional level, to effect smooth
harmonic progression, and also very importantly on the
dialectical-rhetorical level, to resolve the opposition which
in this case consists of the powerful tonal tension generated
between dux and comes.45
The four-part exposition of B/I deviates somewhat from
this typical induction of tonal opposition, for its two pairings
of dux and comes demonstrate first an avoidance and then an
acknowledgment of an oppositional dominant. Example 21(a)
shows the initial pairing, which rejects a possible modulation
to the dominant as the counterpoint to the comes turns the
leading tone of F] major down to E\. This downturn (com-
mon, as William Renwick notes, in answers to subjects based
on ^3–^2–^1 voice leading46) gives the conclusion of the comes a
43 Butler (1977, 68ff.).
44 Ibid., 85.
45 Ibid., 76.
46 Renwick (1995a, 38–39).
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example 20. J. S. Bach, B/I, mm. 1–34, form aligned with tonal structure

plagal cast while also anticipating the inganno in the fugue’s
second period (described above). It is not until the second
pairing of dux and comes that a true tonic–dominant opposition
comes about, when a “tenorizing” cadence in F] major (that is,
a cadence with a ^ 3–^
2–^ 1 tenor clausula in the bass) applies a
“colon” to the midpoint of the first period, as is shown in
Example 21(b). With some license, one might imagine the ex-
position asking whether its chosen proposition is doomed to
an essentially static existence, as in the first pairing, or whether
it can withstand the tonal “test” of the dominant.
A case for the latter option is proposed with the next dux
(mm. 11–13). It enters over subdominant harmony (m. 11,
beat 3) and appears to be directed toward an imperfect authen-
tic cadence that resolves V to I. Were this cadence to have
concluded without complication, it might have appeared as the
“comma” in the upper system of Example 21(c). However, in
lieu of cadential ^
7–^ 1 voice leading, in m. 13 the alto part sus-
^ 48 On inversion as a type of opposition, see Butler (1977, 85, 87).
pends 7 and leads it down to ^6 to evade a proper tonic ca-
dence, as is shown in the lower system.47 Consequently, this
47 The elision of ^7–^1 and the resulting ^7–^6 are prefigured in the prelude to
this fugue. On the prelude, see Beach (1997, 325).
attempt to resolve a tonal opposition with a dux entry is not
entirely successful. Hints of submediant harmony inflect the
tonic, and then another comes statement reinscribes the opposi-
tion with the full cadence in F] major shown in Example
21(d).
Departing from this key, the second period (Example 18,
m. 18) introduces an element of thematic opposition, the
inverso subject.48 If the inverso is melodically less satisfying
than the recto and invites refutation on thematic grounds alone
(its first several notes, especially the leap from E5 to B5, sound
somewhat directionless against the prevailing harmonic mo-
tion), it also threatens to become stuck on an irrefutable domi-
nant, as its imitation promises to follow the cadence in
Example 21(d) with another full cadence in F] major
(Example 19[b], m. 22).49 The recto subject is therefore
49 Both Siglind Bruhn and David Schulenberg evaluate the inverso subject in
this fugue negatively, the former characterizing it as “less cogent and self-
confident than the original” (1993, 4:196), and the latter deeming it an
unattractive melody, for “the downward leap of a fifth in the original ver-
sion . . . sounds awkward when inverted” (1992, 194). Schulenberg
 subjects and phrase boundaries in two keyboard fugues by j. s. bach 23

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example 21. J. S. Bach, B/I, rhetorical cadential events. (a) Initial dux/comes pair, mm. 1–5. (b) End of the second dux/comes pair,
mm. 8–9. (c) Evasion of tonic cadence, mm. 11–13 (hypothetical version above, actual version below). (d) Full cadence in the dominant,
mm. 16–18. (e) Final cadence, mm. 29–34

enlisted to ground inganno voice leading in the soprano (the
downturn of E] having been forecast already in the initial dux/
speculates that this awkwardness may account for “why the inversion is
dropped after just two entries.”
comes pair) and force a resolution to tonic (Example 19[a]). By
restating the soprano of the earlier evaded cadence (Example
21[c]), the present resolution comes across as a correction of a
previous misstep—a successful thematic resolution of tonal
 24 music theory spectrum 41 (2019)
example 21. [Continued]
opposition, made possible by the confutation of the second
period’s thematic opposition.
The recto subject entry in mm. 21–23 stands out as the only
one in this fugue to overlap a cadence deeply; its pivotal rhe-
torical role is thereby marked, while its gesturing through the
cadence accentuates its purposeful qualities and guides the
fugue to rhetorical events that follow confutatio. A comes entry
in m. 24 (Example 18) confirms the priority of the recto orien-
tation (confirmatio)50 and, by cadencing on II, allows the fugue to
pursue a worked-out tonal plan after so much emphasis on
tonic and dominant. In the last period, dux and comes return
in the tonic for the brief recapitulation (conclusio) shown in
Example 21(e).51 Like the original dux/comes pair, they re-
main in the tonic key, but rather than eschew the tonal oppo-
sition of the dominant and return to the initial stasis, they
heighten tonal tension with a dominant pedal point in mm.
31–32, as if to affirm an answer to the question posed at the
outset. And at the final cadence, a ^5–^4–^3 “cover” looks back
to the rhetorically significant cadences in mm. 13 and 22,
again as a token of conclusion.
***
The examples from Bach’s keyboard fugues discussed above
resemble numerous other passages from a variety of genres.
The second movement of the trio sonata from Bach’s Musical
Offering, BWV 1079, offers some striking instances, such as in
50 Confirmatio, “a type of repetition of the thema ‘after the preceding objec-
tions and doubts have been refuted’” (Butler [1977, 94], quoting
Mattheson).
51 Conclusio, “the final section of the rhetorical dispositio scheme . . . to which
both Mattheson and [Johann Nikolaus] Forkel refer as ‘the ending or
close of the piece,’ and for both it involves repetition. Mattheson sees this
as a type of ritornello, while Forkel refers to it as ‘the ultimate, strongest
repetition of such phrases as constitute, as it were, a consequence of the
preceding proofs, refutations, dissections and confirmations’” (ibid., 97,
quoting Mattheson and Forkel, respectively). On pedal points in the con-
clusio, see ibid., 97–98.
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mm. 67–68, when the violin and basso continuo make a ca-
dence that the flute overlaps deeply with a ritornello statement,
and in mm. 160–61, when another deep overlap prefaces the
flute’s statement of the Thema Regium. And a passage in the
first movement of Bach’s Violin Concerto in A Minor, BWV
1041, recalls some of the examples from BWV 944 discussed
above, with the ripieno strings together initiating a ritornello
statement whose Vordersatz participates in the C-major ca-
dence of mm. 55–56 and whose remainder continues (ex-
panded) into a subsequent period.52 These instances
demonstrate one of the ways in which fugue and ritornello
techniques are alike and, furthermore, serve as a reminder that
analysis should not be conducted in a generic vacuum.
In a way, when a subject and a cadence overlap deeply, they
represent a conflict between different aspects of structure.
They bring to mind Eric McKee’s characterization of a ritor-
nello statement in the “Gavotte en rondeau” from Bach’s E-
Major Violin Partita, BWV 1006, as a conflict between inner
form (tonal structure) and outer form (phrase structure).53
McKee refers specifically to Carl Schachter’s analysis of this
piece and cites Schachter’s reduction of the fourth ritornello
entry, reproduced in Example 22.54 An episode has just
reached a cadence in F] minor (m. 64), whereupon an E-
52 The formal role of this ritornello is not identical, however, to the subjects
that link modulatory episodes to key-confirming ritornellos in BWV 944.
In BWV 944, linked episodes and ritornellos are best regarded as compo-
nents of longer periods, an interpretation strengthened by the tonal redun-
dancy of the ritornellos. The ritornello disposed across the cadence in
mm. 55–56 of BWV 1041, movement 1, also follows upon a modulatory
episode (A minor to C major, mm. 26–56), but rather than confirm a new
key it modulates (C major to E minor, mm. 56–85). As parallel modula-
tory passages, the episode and the ritornello are probably best regarded as
consecutive periods, notwithstanding the softening of the boundary be-
tween them.
53 McKee (1996, 51–52).
54 Schachter (1987, 18, Example 7).
 subjects and phrase boundaries in two keyboard fugues by j. s. bach
example 22. J. S. Bach, Partita in E Major for Solo Violin,
BWV 1006, “ Gavotte en rondeau,” from Schachter (1987)
major ritornello begins over an EM63 . As Schachter’s reduc-
tion demonstrates, EM63 is a passing harmony between II and
II6 of E major, and actual resolution to an E-major tonic
does not occur until the ritornello is well underway (m. 68).
Like the subjects in my examples, the beginning of this ritor-
nello statement is caught in a process of harmonic resolution.
However, there is an important difference between my exam-
ples and Schachter’s, for the ritornello in Schachter’s example
begins after, not during, a cadence. The cadential arrival of
F] minor ends a phrase, and immediately thereafter the EM63
and the ritornello initiate a new phrase: tonal structure and
phrase structure are in conflict, but the phrase structure itself
accords with thematic matters. In contrast, it would be diffi-
cult to hear a new phrase beginning with the subject entry in
m. 18 of BWV 944 (Example 8[a]), so strong are the phrase-
ending signals of mm. 18–19.
It may therefore be preferable to regard this type of over-
lap as a conflict between thematic and phrase structures, or
between the grouping implications of a single melodic part
and the grouping implications of a complete harmonic tex-
ture. Yet in most cases the differing implications are not
troubling. In Example 1, for instance, it is easy to hear both
the closure of a phrase, as V resolves to I, and a coherent me-
lodic idea that runs athwart the resolution. Rather than as in-
tractable conflict, then, such instances might be understood
as a sort of tension that mounts as a phrase comes to its conclu-
sion and releases afterwards, or as a type of “accommodation,” in
which the collective import of harmony and voice leading that
produces a cadence nevertheless allows for the expression of an
individual agent.
With regard to fugal procedures, my analyses suggest that
there is much to be gleaned from studying the relationship be-
tween imitation and phrase structure, and that the terms of
this relationship may be complex. I focused on a particular
type of relationship, finding that subjects that deeply overlap
cadences may engage with tonal and durational structures in a
variety of ways, and that by directing musical activity beyond
the boundaries of phrases, they may further imply gestural
qualities. At the same time, their effects can resonate across
the entirety of a composition. They may have formal
25
significance, especially when employed in so systematic a fash-
ion as in BWV 944; and an isolated occurrence, as in B/I, may
stand out as a conspicuous event in a progression of ideas, the
understanding of which may appeal to rhetoric.
Deeply overlapping subjects and cadences would appear to
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be a commonplace, and a longstanding technique in the age in
which Bach composed. And while subjects like that of BWV
944 seem so well suited to such overlaps that the arrangement
need not be regarded as remarkable in itself, certain instances
do reveal compositional ingenuity, as the selected examples
from Bach’s keyboard fugues demonstrate.
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DOI: 10.1093/mts/mty029