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Thursday, April 07, 2005

Fugue 11 in F Major, BWV 856

Fugue 11 in F major, BWV 856
This fugue consists of three voices. A bass, a soprano, and a voice that pivots between alto and tenor. The fugue begins with the pick up to the piece in the tenor voice and last for the first three measures. Then, in measure four the motive is repeated in the soprano line. Measure nine if the first time we hear the bass line and it start right away with the motive starting with the pick up in measure 9. After the bass is done we have a couple measure away from the motive and it is then brought back in with the pick up in measure 17 in the soprano. Then played again in the alto in measure 22.
This next really interesting point is that now the motives are never played in one voice at a time. They start over lapping from here to the end. The first case of this starts in measure 26-28 in the bass. Then while the bass is still carrying the motive the alto comes in with it in measure 28 while the bass is finishing up. This effect of overlapping the motive happens again but moving downward in the voices from soprano to bass from measures 37-43. Then again moving upward from bass to soprano in measures 47-53.
In looking at the ending, I believe that the last overlapping was the last time the actually motive is heard in this piece. It just ends on a mixture of little sections.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

you did good, but in a fugue what your calling a "motive" is actually called a subject. just so you know. A fugue is written with a subject and then an answer. :)