Page 111 - ESSENTIAL LISTENING TO MUSIC

(see Listening Cue), one of the nearly one hundred that he wrote for that instru- ment, while working as a court organist for the duke of Weimar. This fugue has four voices—we’ll call them soprano, alto, tenor, and bass—and it begins with a statement of the subject in the soprano (Example 6.1).
LiSTeN TO . . . Example 6.1 online.
Example 6.1 > statjement of fugue subject
bb 4 œ œ. œ œœ œ œ œœ œ œ œœœ œ œœ œœ œœ œ œœœœnœ
& 4 œ œ œ#œ œ œœ œ œ œ œœœ œ œ œ
As fugue subjects go, this is rather a long one, but it is typical of the way Baroque composers liked to “spin out” their melodies. Indeed, melody in late Baroque music is governed by the principle of progressive expansion; an initial idea is set forth and then continually spun out over an ever-lengthening line. Here the melody sounds very solid in tonality bec♭ause the subject clearly emphasizes the notes of the tonic triad in G minor (G, B , D), not only in the first measure but on the strong beats of the following measures as well. Notice, also, how the subject conveys a sense of gathering momentum, like a train pulling out of the station. It starts moderately with quarter notes and then seems to gain speed as eighth notes and finally sixteenth notes are introduced. This feeling of acceleration is typical of fugue subjects and Baroque rhythmic development generally: Once a rhythmic pattern takes hold, it chugs along energetically, con- tinually driving the music forward.
Our soprano has led the way, setting forth the subject. Now the alto, tenor, and bass take their turn. In a fugue the voices need not appear in any particular order; here Bach simply decided to have them enter in succession from top to bottom. Once all voices are in, the exposition is over, and the alternation of episodes and subject statements begins (Figure 6.4). Thereafter, tracking aurally what follows is like playing the musical equivalent of “Where’s Waldo?” Is the subject in? Can you hear it? If so, where is it? In which voice is it sounding?
Finally, fugues often make use of a device particularly well suited to the organ—the pedal point. A pedal point is a pitch, usually in the bass, that is sustained (or repeated) while harmonies change around it. Such a sustaining tone in the bass derives its name, of course, from the fact that on the organ the note is sounded by a
foot holding down a key on the pedal keyboard. In his G minor fugue, Bach prominently inserts a pedal point toward the middle of the piece. Your online Listening Exercise asks you to identify where this occurs—where a bass note holds for a very long time.
œ œ#œ œœœ
Figure 6.4
Fugue (1925) by Josef Albers. Albers’s design suggests the “constructivist” or “Lego-like” quality of the fugue, one full of reciprocal relationships and interchangeable parts. The black-and-white units seem to allude to subject and episode, respectively. Notice that if you turn the image upside down, the impact it has on you really doesn’t change—as a visual image it still makes sense.
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The Art Archive/Kunstmuseum Basel/Gianni Dagli Orti
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