Concerning the notable compositional kind of fugues in Bach’s “Well tempered clavier”

Abstract

The paper focused on fugues from WTC which use the “Russian doll” principle in their composition. The work considers the prerequisites for building such structures and examineds some examples.The most significant among them are the fugues in G major from the WTC I and E major from the WTC II. Each of them has the sequence of subject entrances (in all fugue’s parts) immediately after the exposition according to rules of a strict counterexposition. In both examples a subject is modified: in the first case it presented in inverted form, in the latter one, pressed in stretto. A concept fugue in fugue is in accordance with Bach’s inclination toward super- compositions. And if this concept realized in his cyclic works as growing in breadth, outside, then, in the “Russian doll” fugues, the super-composition grows inward, making the structure internally complicated and far more significant. At last, both of the super-compositions types represent integrated device large and small, unity and stability of the universe.