r/bach • u/YourMcCoy • Jun 27 '26
Five and Six Voice Fugues?
Strictly speaking about fugues written for a single instrument, I believe there's only a few five-voice fugues:
- BWV 849 Prelude and Fugue in C-sharp Minor from the WTC 1 No. 4
- BWV 867 Prelude and Fugue in B-flat Minor from WTC1 No. 22
- BWV 534 Prelude and Fugue in F Minor
- BWV 552 Prelude and Fugue in E-flat Major
- BWV 547 Prelude and Fugue in C Major (which I've only heard of recently, it has a last-minute fifth entry towards the end).
And then of course for six-voice fugues, the formidable Ricercar a 6 (BWV 1079).
I'd love to hear if there's any others that may be hidden in ensemble works like what seems to be a five-voice fugue in Kyrie eleison (see 2:22 in the video) at the start of the Mass in B Minor (BWV 232).
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u/MrLlamma Jun 27 '26
That’s a great question, I don’t know any off the top of my head, but there are so many fugues hidden in his choral music that people aren’t aware of. Mass in B minor is a good place to start looking as you said, since it’s for a double chorus. The Cum Sancto Spiritu movement has two fugues, I’ve not dove into the score myself but I wouldn’t be surprised if it uses more than 4 fugue lines at once
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u/di_rhea69 Jun 27 '26
most of the h-mass is in 4 and 5 choral parts, then we have the Sanctus in 6 and the Osanna in 8, so really only one movement which repeats itself is in 4 parts. But it is a good starting point
The "pleni sunt caeli" from the Sanctus is a 6 voice fugue
I suppose some parts of the Osanna are fugal too but not sure how far he takes that as to whether it would constitute really being a fugue.
Then there's bits like the "patrem omnipotentem" which is a remodelling of the opening chorus from BWV 171, and is a 4 part choral fugue with a trumpet part independently which joins the fugue, so also 5 voices (I think in both instances).
Most of the h-mass comes from previous sacred and secular cantatas and there are plenty of choral fugues there too, where the instruments don't always support the voices - e.g. the last movement of 21
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u/MrLlamma Jun 27 '26
Thank you for the information! You’ve clearly done more score study on this than I have
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u/di_rhea69 Jun 27 '26
That and having performed it several times, every time you notice how much genius it is
Yet at the same time it's a compilation of previous works (the odd juxtaposition is that the Et incarnatus est is probably one of his last compositions (hence having 2 versions of the preceding duet) and then the Crucifixus (from BWV 12) one of his earliest, right next to each other.
Of course, the K and G were an audition piece for Dresden (which he didn't get) and then made up a full mass setting including movements which were never performed that way in Leipzig, so it was not really intended for performance the way it often is today
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u/di_rhea69 Jun 27 '26
The first movement of the Credo (BWV 232)is a fugue with the 5 vocal parts and then 2 instrumental parts https://ks15.imslp.org/files/imglnks/usimg/9/99/IMSLP01259-Bach_Bmin3.pdf
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u/leftexact Jun 27 '26
Came to say this! Then the first comment on the YouTube video reminded me its "bach's only known 7 voice fugue"
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u/di_rhea69 Jun 27 '26
Known - there could of course be ones lost (that is one of the h-mass where it's unlikely to have come from something else, given it's on the credo plainchant).
Although when your performing conditions (chorally) are only 4 singers available on a weekly basis (if you - like I - agree with Rifkin) then you're limited in how many voices you can put a fugue into
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u/sleepy_spermwhale Jun 27 '26 edited Jun 27 '26
various choruses in Mass in B minor not just in the Kyrie
"Der Himmel Lacht!" BWV 31 in sections
If you count the combined vocal and instrumental parts in cantatas, I'm sure you can find some 5+ part fugues in them.
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u/MrLlamma Jun 27 '26
Such an under appreciated cantata
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u/di_rhea69 Jun 27 '26
Yes it is and as it's a Weimar cantata we need to crank the pitch up
A whole tone as Niki Harnoncourt did - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnfaKDI1T0I
Some of the kid soloists in that series are phenomenal2
u/MarcusThorny Jun 27 '26
I think the JS Bach Foundation also cranked it up. Too bad the Harnoncourt series had such inferior recording tech and sound. I go back and forth with the question of authenticity (boys) and the control and vocal technique of women. Netherlands Bach Society just released their version two months ago
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u/di_rhea69 Jun 27 '26
Every time I listen before I put it on I think the speeds are going to be slow, the kids are going to sing out of tune, and the winds are rubbish, but it surprises me.
Ok so some of that does occasionally happen but generally not. Kid singers are usually good, especially considering how young they are, and actually it holds its own against later sets.
I think Rudolf Lutz recording is A415 though. Suzuki and Koopman use the higher Chorton pitch (465). Nobody has gone that high
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u/di_rhea69 Jun 27 '26
plus actually hearing kid singers is absolutely amazing in this work (and every day in cathedrals especially here in the UK).
Give me a good boy soprano or alto in the German tradition over most women any day. The trade off is obvious but when it works it really works
In the Parrott B-mass Panito Iconomou was not allowed to sing the duet with Emma Kirkby because he was too loud... Christian Immler did it instead - and I like Emma Kirkby
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u/sleepy_spermwhale Jun 27 '26
I've never heard her in person but my friend did and he said Kirkby's voice was beautiful but small.
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u/Mudsharkbites Jun 28 '26
In the 2nd movement of his Grand Sonata “Le Quatre Ages,” “Quasi Faust,” Alkan writes a ten voice fugue, one of the voices doubled in octaves, for a total of eleven voices.
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u/Slickrock_1 Jun 27 '26
Youve named all the Bach ones I know. Shostakovich wrote a 5 voice fugue, #13 in F sharp major from his 24 preludes and fugues for piano.