Thematic Return in Late Bach Fugues

This article examines a technique employed in a number of Bach's late keyboard fugues, some of his finest. A subsidiary thematic element—typically (though not always) a countersubject—established at the beginning is then dropped for a large section of the music, only to return near the end. 'Returns' of this sort, over and above returns of the subject itself, are far less strong than 'recapitulations', but they affect the formal dynamic in subtle ways. The most familiar example is in the Fugue in E major from The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 2, where the distinctive countersubject used in the opening exposition, after disappearing in the successive stretto entries of this work, returns at the end with special prominence.