Reflections

The subject of this fugue clearly separates into two parts. The first part jumps upward and carefully pauses on the 5th note of the scale. The second part scurries back downward in an energetic rush of release. As a complete gesture, it feels like taking a breath, holding it, then letting it out with a sigh. The two-part structure of the subject directly determines the nature of the entire fugue.

Where the C major fugue in Book 1 focuses almost entirely on the subject, this fugue seems to emphasize the inverse: subject-free passages known as episodes. Where the former is entirely devoid of episodes, the later is dominated by them. Like many fugues, the episodic material is taken directly from the beginning or the "head" of the subject, precisely the first part ending with the pause on the 5th. The music seems to be playing a game by starting the subject but interrupting its progress by the apparent entrance of a new subject in a different voice. This happens again and again in a series of imitations (technically known as a canonic sequence), almost as if the voices were competing for the privilege of the completing the subject. From this perspective, even the episodes are "about" the subject. The eventual arrival of the complete subject brings great release: finally, a victory.

The second half of the subject provides a wonderful setting for this game. It initiates a long and continuous string of quick notes that bleed from subject into counterpoint and onward into the nearly unchecked forward momentum of the music. It gives this fugue that wonderful quality of emphatic perpetual motion that is characteristic of Bach's and much music of the Baroque era in general. All music is by its very nature continuous motion, but not all music emphasizes or even promotes this feeling so dramatically. It is as if each voice enters with an initial windup, a pause, and then a release, a letting go into autonomous and steadfast motion, defying the gravity that must eventually pull all voices into silence. These perpetual lines flow like ribbons against each other joining the two parts of the subject in simultaneity.

Like the C major fugue in Book 1, this fugue is essentially free of counter material other than the fragmentation of the subject itself. Once again, Bach begins The Well-Tempered Clavier with a marvelous fugue constructed from seemingly minimal materials. Bach's fugues are prised among other things by the artistic quality of the subjects themselves. This fugue highlights the insight that fugues don't "have" subjects; subjects generate fugues.