Fuge in C Minor- Bach
How Bach has composed his Fugue in C Minor, BWV 847.
Chelsea Hicks
Johann Sebastian Bach’s was born on the 21st of March 1685 and died in 1750. He was a German composer, during the Baroque period. His Fugue in C minor was written in the middle years of his life, 1722. A fugue is a contrapuntal composition, where a subject is developed. It has 3 main parts an Exposition, Middle section and the Final Section.
The exposition is where the subject/theme of the piece is first announced, and is then answered by other voices. In Bach’s Fugue in C minor it is written for three parts, the Soprano, alto and bass. It is the alto who first states the subject in bar 1. The subject is the theme of which the fugue is established. This subject finishes on the first beat of bar 3. After this subject is stated the alto starts with a counter subject (accompanies the subject), while the soprano voice answers the subject with the answer (transposition of the subject). This answer is tonal, because the intervals are not exactly the same and it is in the dominant key of G minor. Between where the final voice, the bass enters with the subject and where the answer finished is a small 2 bar codetta, where both the soprano voice is based on the subject in sequence and the alto voice is based on the counter subject in sequence. Jus before the bass enters there is a false entry in the alto voice. When the Bass enters with the subject at bar 7 in it’s original form and both of the other parts continue with countersubject material. At the first down beat of bar 9 the exposition finishes.
The middle section is where subject is developed it is also where episode 1 starts. An episode is a connecting passage, developed from previous material. Episode 1 starts off with the soprano and alto voice in stretto, where one voice comes in before the other has finished, and the bass is accompanying them with scalar passages based on the countersubject material. Bar 11 is the first middle section
Chelsea Hicks
Johann Sebastian Bach’s was born on the 21st of March 1685 and died in 1750. He was a German composer, during the Baroque period. His Fugue in C minor was written in the middle years of his life, 1722. A fugue is a contrapuntal composition, where a subject is developed. It has 3 main parts an Exposition, Middle section and the Final Section.
The exposition is where the subject/theme of the piece is first announced, and is then answered by other voices. In Bach’s Fugue in C minor it is written for three parts, the Soprano, alto and bass. It is the alto who first states the subject in bar 1. The subject is the theme of which the fugue is established. This subject finishes on the first beat of bar 3. After this subject is stated the alto starts with a counter subject (accompanies the subject), while the soprano voice answers the subject with the answer (transposition of the subject). This answer is tonal, because the intervals are not exactly the same and it is in the dominant key of G minor. Between where the final voice, the bass enters with the subject and where the answer finished is a small 2 bar codetta, where both the soprano voice is based on the subject in sequence and the alto voice is based on the counter subject in sequence. Jus before the bass enters there is a false entry in the alto voice. When the Bass enters with the subject at bar 7 in it’s original form and both of the other parts continue with countersubject material. At the first down beat of bar 9 the exposition finishes.
The middle section is where subject is developed it is also where episode 1 starts. An episode is a connecting passage, developed from previous material. Episode 1 starts off with the soprano and alto voice in stretto, where one voice comes in before the other has finished, and the bass is accompanying them with scalar passages based on the countersubject material. Bar 11 is the first middle section