Fugue XIV in F sharp minor

The subject of a fugue is of primary importance, not only because the entire structure of the work stems from the first entry, but also because the subject contains many details of expression and technique that define the fugue as a whole.  The beauty of fugue XIV is partly due to the balance of emotive and intellectual aspects of Bach’s writing, but equally as important is the existence, and indeed use, of an inventive subject from which the entire fugue is derived. 

The subject’s melodic line snakes its way up to a C sharp, the dominant note, by rising three steps and falling one, before rising again.  After the third repeat of the pattern, the line is almost completely inverted, with a fall of three steps followed by a final effort upwards before returning to the tonic of F sharp.

At a glance one can see that the subject reaches a registral peak in bar 3¹, yet it is harder to see the rhythmic one.  The pattern of ‘three up, one down’ begins with two crotchets and a dotted minim tied to a crotchet (totalling 4 crotchet beats).  When repeated, the note values are diminished by half, beginning with two quavers and two tied crotchets (totalling two beats).  A string of the shortest note values in the entire piece brings the rhythmic drive to a climax at 3¹, where the energy is lost somewhat with the final two notes lasting a minim and a dotted minim respectively in a quasi-inverted style similar to the melodic line.  With the climax at 3¹ falling at roughly two thirds of the way through the subject, one could draw parallels with the internal structure of the subject and the structure of the piece as a whole using ideas of 2:1 proportion, used frequently by Bach and his contemporaries.

 If the structures are so related, the registral peak of the work itself, a B two octaves above middle C in the soprano at bar 28⁶, would correspond to that in 3¹.  Indeed, both apexes fall at around two thirds of the way through their respective structures, though this does not form conclusive proof of such forethought.  The peak at 28⁶ is clear, as the soprano line climbs to the B before descending, using the same pattern as the subject, but there is an equally significant structural pillar halfway through the fugue, in bar 20, where the extended exposition ends with a strong cadence in the dominant key (C sharp minor).  Using the halfway point, a loose sonata principle can be applied; the exposition ends in the dominant key, is developed before returning to the tonic with a recapitulation of ideas heard in the exposition.  Nevertheless, one can draw clear parallels with the peak of the subject and of the fugue as a whole, regardless of the form of the overall structure.

A well constructed fugue effectively combines both rhythmic and melodic contrasts between subject and countersubject, allowing variety in texture as well as a clear relationship between the two ideas.  At a personal level, the subject in fugue XIV can be labelled as ‘aspirational’ (The 48 Preludes and Fugues, D. Ledbetter p.199) with the ‘sighing’ countersubject suggesting sorrow and despair as it descends.   At a more analytical level, both the rhythm and melody of the countersubject can be seen as loose inversions of the subject’s.  Both use a rather constricted range with few leaps, retracing previous steps of the melody in chromatic, scalic motion.  The episodic material in bar 7, and also in bars 11-14, is closely related to the subject, using fragments of ascending scales before falling, as well as broad phrasing within individual lines.  The countersubject’s descending quavers can be heard in the tenor line in the first half of bar 12 as well as the in the bass motion in the second half of the same bar.

The fugal exposition is long, ending in bar 20 with a clear V-I cadence into the dominant key, C sharp minor.  The first subject entry is heard in the tenor voice, directly followed by a real answer in the alto (bar 4).  After a one bar episode, the bass enters with the subject, and interestingly the soprano voice (which enters after a four bar episode) states the subject, not following the expected pattern of Subject/Answer/Subject/Answer.  After the exposition is complete, further middle entries are spread out, with extended periods of free counterpoint.  The subject can be heard in its inverted form in the alto from 20⁵ followed by another statement of the subject in the soprano line in bar 25, which emerges from an arpeggio but quickly becomes clear.  The next two entries are particularly prominent, as the voices have been omitted from the texture for some time.  The tenor, having dropped out in bar 18, re-enters with the subject in bar 29², filling out the lower pitch levels, and the bass, absent from bars 28² to 31¹, enters with an inverted form of the subject.  After extended fragments of the countersubject, the final subject entry is heard in the soprano (bar 37), exactly mirroring the soprano entry which concluded the first half (bar 15). Within this fugue, Bach resisted extensive use of inversion - indeed, inversion of the countersubject can only be found in the first half of bar 22) – as well as the use of stretto.

The expressive subject and countersubject are each beautiful in their own right, yet infinitely more striking when used together.  Similarly, Bach draws stylistic influences from both the past and present in a combination of technical mastery and expression, with features of the stile antico (such as the 6/4 metre and the trill at the end of the subject) beside those of the stile moderno (such as the chromatic melodic lines and the ‘sighing motif of the countersubject’ (Ledbetter p.198)).  Bach effortlessly combines contrasted elements of style, rhythm and melodic writing to achieve this beautifully constructed fugue.