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Through the analysis of Mozart¡¯s Fugue for two pianos K.426, one could state that Mozart has achieved a simple, yet complex fugal style. Simple, because he does not use many different ideas (most of the piece is based on the theme and a single countersubject), but complex because so much goes on all at once contrapuntally to create interest. In the following discussion, I¡¯ll be looking at the elements of Bach¡¯s fugal style used by Mozart and how they are incorporated into this fugue. This fugue in many ways is very similar to a typical Bach fugue. It follows the typical fugal structure: exposition- episode and subsequent entries- final entry- codetta. In the exposition (bars 1-17) the theme is introduced in the four voices as subject and answer following the usual pattern: tonic-dominant-tonic-dominant. The answers in the dominant are tonal, where the exact transposition of the subject is altered to maintain the tonic-dominant relationship. In this particular case, the drop down between the 2nd and the 3rd note is an interval of 5th (dominant to tonic) in the main subject has changed in the answer to an interval of 4th (tonic to dominant instead of tonic to sub-dominant). A similar example is also apparent in the G minor (WTC II) and C minor (WTC I) fugues by Bach. To end the exposition, an additional entry in the tonic key is restated. The episodes, as always, work as the ¡®linking¡¯ passages.
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