Ebenezer Prout · section 38 of 50

Fugue 36 · Book II, No. 12 · BWV 881

F Minor (Three Voices).

A beautiful little fugue of very straightforward and simple construction.

Exposition

The subject is in the treble:—

A few notes of codetta separate it from the entry of the answer, which is tonal. There is no countersubject. A codetta of nearly four bars, founded chiefly on bar 7, separates the answer (alto) from the return to the subject (bass).

Middle Section

There are two middle entries (bars 25 and 29), namely the subject and answer in the relative major and its dominant, given respectively to the treble and alto.

Final Section

This is very long, commencing at bar 40, and consequently occupying just over one-half of the fugue, in spite of one entry in the subdominant key (bars 71 to 75), it is not possible here to treat the appearance of that key as indicative of the middle (modulating) section; for it is answered in stretto by the final appearance of the subject in the tonic key (bar 74). The other two entries in the section (bar 40, bass; bar 50, alto) are both in the tonic key.

The episodes are four in number. The first (bars 15 to 24) begins with a sequential prolongation of bar 3 of the subject, after which, at bar 17, a new sequence appears, formed from the beginning of the subject, with a new counterpoint. The second episode (bars 32 to 40) is mostly an inversion of part of the first (bars 18 to 21). In Episode 3 (bars 44 to 50) a sequence made from the last part of the subject appears in the bass, with upper parts suggested by the codetta. In the last and longest episode (bars 54 to 71) a new treatment of the first part of the subject is seen in the bass (bars 56 to 65), after which a modification of Episode 2 is introduced. The coda (bars 78 to 85) is mostly a new variation of Episode 2.

Complete fugue: Bach, Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 2, No. 12, BWV 881. The reference score and piano recording below contain the entire fugue; the smaller engravings above reproduce Prout’s selected examples.