Contrapunctus VI – Jeffrey C. Hall

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Introduction
“Über dieser Fuge…”
Structure of The Art of Fugue
The “unfinished” fugue
About the realization
How to listen to The Art of Fugue
About the narratives

The Art of Fugue

Simple Fugues
Contrapunctus I
Contrapunctus II
Contrapunctus III
Contrapunctus IV

Canon alla Ottava

Stretto Fugues
Contrapunctus V
Contrapunctus VI
Contrapunctus VII

Canon alla Decima

Double and Triple Fugues
Contrapunctus VIII
Contrapunctus IX
Contrapunctus X
Contrapunctus XI

Canon alla Duodecima

Mirror Fugues
Contrapunctus XII + inversus
Contrapunctus XIII + inversus

Canon per Augmentationem

Quadruple Fugue
Contrapunctus XIV

Because all the planets of our solar system orbit in roughly the same plane, we occasionally see Mercury and Venus cross the disk of the Sun. Here, tiny Mercury appears as a diminutive circle against the immense disk of the Sun. These “transits” of Mercury across the solar disk happen regularly, about every seven years. Image credit: Transition Region And Coronal Explorer (NASA).

In Contrapunctus II, AOF’s second “simple” fugue, Bach introduced stately dotted rhythms into his subject; here he does the same in the second of the stretto fugues, using the dotted proclivity of the stretto subject throughout this fugue in Stylo Francese.

However, now there’s an additional twist. At the start, you’ll hear the subject from Contrapunctus V in the bass. (Although, as you can see below, it’s inverted from its first entry in Contrapunctus V which, since that entry was itself inverted from the main AOF subject, recovers the regular form of that subject. Get it? Got it! Good.)

However, almost right away you will hear a diminished copy of the subject enter in the soprano:

So now, Bach is upping the ante from mere stretto, to stretto with diminution. Throughout, the subject weaves around its diminished copies in a stately promenade.

Can we up the ante even further? Why, yes! Yes we can. Onward to Contrapunctus VII!