[Smt-talk] Bach Quiz

[Olli Väisälä]

Thanks Allyn and Brent, for participating and mentioning these  
interesting cases, but the fifths I mean are still clearer: two  
voices going from a fifth to fifth with no intervening note or  
suspension or anything. As a hint, I might add that one of the two  
voices is the bass.

Comments on Allyn's example:

> The clearest example I know of is from the B-flat Major fugue of  
> Book I, in the last eighth note of measure 41 to the downbeat of  
> meas. 42 in the lower two voices.  There may be others, but that is  
> a very  clear instance.


These are noticeable for sure since there is just a dissonant 7th  
between two 5ths. However, it is not just any kind of 7th since the  
Eb is the governing bass note in this measure which implies that the  
main voice-leading in the lowest part goes form Eb (rather than G) to  
F. By the way, the mutable second countersubject also causes direct  
octaves in contrary motion in m. 37.

Comments on Brent's example:

>
> I'll play. Writing off the top of my head, I'll note that I've  
> always been tickled by mm. 49.3-51.2 in the C#-minor Fugue, Book II.
>
> It's a clear set of parallel 6/3 chords, but the upper two voices  
> are stacked in fifths instead of the normative fourths. In my  
> opinion, the little bit of staggering and chromaticism Bach imparts  
> to the alto do almost nothing to mask the delightful // 5 effect.

I think you perhaps mean mm. 47–48, don't you? In general, it is of  
course a good question whether 7–6 suspensions are enough to remove  
the effect of parallel fifths that occur in such 6/3 chains (with  
outer-voice 10ths). According to the Aldwell&Schachter "bible," they  
are normal (3rd edition, Example 21-16, discussion on page 368,  
Example 21-39: Haydn, Piano Sonata, Hob. XVI/52, I, mm. 58 ff.).  
Nevertheless, it is good question whether Bach tended to cover such  
fifths through some additional embellishment; for another somewhat  
embellished example, see WTC II: B-minor Fugue, mm. 38–39 (and for a  
bit similar octaves, WTC II: G-major Fugue, mm. 67–69). However, The  
Art of Fugue contains a striking totally naked example of comparable  
fifths in an ASCENDING chain of 6/3s, see Contrapunctus 8, mm. 122– 
123 (the passage leading to the A-minor cadence). In this case, the  
5ths are not broken by suspensions but by 7–6 appoggiaturas, which is  
all the more striking since such appoggiaturas are not so common in  
Bach.

I'm looking forward to more suggestions:-)

Olli Väisälä
Sibelius Academy
ovaisala at siba.fi