Reflections

This is the final fugue in the second book of the Well-Tempered Clavier, the last of all 48 pieces in both books combined. It has a solid, tuneful subject that is singable but for the adventurous leaps in the 4th bar. As Altschuler points out, the structure of the fugue is such that subject and episode alternate reliably, making this fugue easy to follow, the subject itself, loud and clear. Beginning with the second subject entry, the entire fugue follows a basic pattern: single subject entry followed by an episode, alternating in this fashion until the final episode. Within the final episode, a snippet of the subject sounds in apparent stretto across two voices just before the fugue abandons the feint and concludes within next measure. The most prominent countersubject interlocks ingeniously with the 4th bar of the subject: the 8th note leaps. It is interesting that the countersubject also features large leaps that dovetail at double the speed with the leaps in the subject.

The final fugue in book 1, No 24 in B-minor, stands in great contrast to its analog here. The former is long, slow, chromatic, moody, possibly sublime. This fugue is a light, fleet moto perpetuo with an essentially diatonic subject, all of which plays out in about one quarter of the time that it takes the book 1 counterpart. Though in the minor mode, its mood is stern and resolved rather than ponderous or melancholy. All in all, it makes for a good final fugue. A concise, clear, tight, bow on the whole package, a modest master fugue tied expertly into a perfect, final bow.