Bach’s fugue in d-minor has three voices and generally provides a sad, dramatic but also calm character. I chose this piece because I was about to learn it for a piano-exam a few years ago, until I changed my mind and picked another one, but I always enjoyed listening to it. The picture below shows a score of the piece, provided by the Petrucci Music library.
Within the first few bars one can see the first (and only) theme being played in the first voice, the theme comes to an end when the second voice starts playing. Which means, that the coming variations of the theme are all linked to this very first one :
The following list shows how often and where, and in which way the theme is being played within one voice. It has to be mentioned, that the second (middle) voice sometimes jumps from one notation system to another one, one can keep the this voice apart from the other by looking at the tail of the notes.
| Page | Bars | Voice | Form of variation |
|
1 |
1-2 |
1 |
Original (starting on D) |
|
3-4 |
2 |
Real answer (starting on A) | |
|
6-7 |
3 |
Original (D) | |
|
8-9 |
1 |
Starting on maj.2 (E) | |
|
13-14 |
1 |
Answer, slightly changed intervals (A) | |
|
14-15 |
2 |
Inversion, on maj.2 (E) | |
|
17-18 |
3 |
Real answer (A) | |
|
18-19 |
2 |
Answer, slightly changed intervals (A) | |
|
2 |
21-22 |
3 |
Answer, slightly changed intervals (A) |
|
22-23 |
1 |
Inversion, on maj.2 (E) | |
|
27-28 |
1 |
Inversion (A) | |
|
28-29 |
2 |
Original (D) | |
|
29-30 |
3 |
Inversion (A) | |
|
34-35 |
3 |
Slight variation of original (D) | |
|
39-40 |
3 |
Original (D) | |
|
40-41 |
2 |
Original (D) |
In this piece Bach often uses false entrances for the theme as well as many stetti. (A stetto occurs, when one theme starts in a new voice before another entrance of the theme has come to an end ). Parts counterpoint that is being used in the first voice, when the second voice makes an entrance with the theme, is being used throughout the whole piece.
In some of those false entrances, as well as the episodes (parts without a theme) one can find diminished or augmented parts of the theme. The counterpoint itself is linked to the theme as well: The first half(bar 3, voice 1) is basically the inverted diminished version of the first part of the theme, whereas the second half (bar 4/5, voice 1) is a processed version of the second part.
The most unusual part about this piece is its ending. Even though the amount of voices should stay the same in a fugue, Bach doubled the three voices in the last two bars and leads the voices (with a basso continuo on d, which is often used at the end of fugues) towards a D-major chord. This “cheery” sounding chord at the end of the minor piece has a positively surprising effect.
I found it rather fascinating to analyse this piece, especially interesting was, how often Bach makes use of the first theme. There are hardly any parts (including the episodes) where one can’t hear at least one version of either the theme or the counterpoint (which are, as mentioned above, linked as well)
Dianas Learning Log 