Reflections

This fugue has a peculiar subject. It races upward in sixteenth-note triplets one octave from d to d, then slides slowly downward by quarter notes, chromatically sinking, almost stalling, to the minor third. Scurry up, float down. This is yet another case where a wind up and a run down combine into single gesture, the essential signature of the fugue. An almost shockingly simple and even unlikely contour, what promise does it show for an engaging fugue?

The intrigue is enhanced because the countersubject and additional counter motive (a second subject?) runs neither in triplets nor quarter notes, but straight sixteenth notes. Three different speeds, three different time frames, three different identities interplay in this three-part fugue. At times, it feels as though the two pieces of the subject move too quickly and then too slowly, respectively. It is only the counter material that seems correctly calibrated to the most sensible procession, the countersubject rather than the subject. This is one of many different ways that a fugue can toy with the idea of foreground and background, establishing one apparent pattern only to invert it in some way. Here, the subject is eventually inverted as well. Inside out and upside down. There is something almost humorous about this. It is certainly, marvelously playful.