Topic: Bach Fugue n 15 in G Major BWV 860 Pianoteq
Dear Friends
After meeting one of the most brilliant and joyful prelude of the collection. Today we see the relative fugue which retains all its cheerful and brilliant character.
The Fugue (à 3) carries on a truly jesting game witha somewhat long and prolix theme, which, first of all, rolls upward in merry circular movement from the fundamental note to the third degree, and then, with wanton leaps from the under-fourth and under-leading-note, extends beyond the fifth.
The countersubject opposed to it first runs down to the third of the dominant, then, so long as the Comes which is only a transposition of the Dux in the fifth moves in a circle, proceeds leisurely in quavers, but afterwards rolls upward in lively fashion to the octave.
Three free measures inserted between the second and third entries of the theme introduce a fresh motive, which afterwards attains to considerable importance (movement by degrees with a note always sounding betwixt and between)
Nearly the whole of the material which serves for the working out of this fugue has now been shown (all the motives are combined in all sorts of ways, and also treated in inversion).
In the exposition the theme appears in the three voices (soprano, alto, bass), during which, it naturally occurs in the dominant key (Comes), but concludes in the principal one, to which the transition to the second development
adheres. This also remains in the principal key: here we have the theme in inversion accompanied by the countersubject in inversion, worked out in the following order: — alto (Dux [beginning on d]), soprano (Comes (beginning on a), bass (Dux), and, indeed, without any connecting bars thrown in. Thus the first section forming the basis comes to a close.
The second (modulating) section begins with an episode of six measures, which, passing through A-minor, modulates to E-minor (parallel): in its second half it has only two voices (the alto ceases). The next development is incomplete; the theme first occurs in the soprano in the key of E-minor, and is only accompanied in its second half by the counter-subject; then follows the inversion (likewise in E-minor, but from g) accompanied by the countersubject in the soprano, whereupon comes a fresh episode
effecting modulation to B-minor (parallel of the dominant key).
Happy listening and Greetings from Italy
My actual setting is:
Played on Yamaha P125 piano stage Video Recording Samsung Galaxy A54.
VST: Hamburg Steinway D Pianoteq Stage 8.4.0