I wouldn’t write something like this again for anything in the world.
Anton Bruckner
When Beethoven died in 1827, he left behind him two monumental examples of the art of fugue. First, the finale of the Hammerklavier sonata op. 106 (1818), a three-theme colossal fugue and, secondly, the Grosse fugue op. 133 (1826), which was intended to be a finale for a string quartet (!!) but lately published as a single work. Both pieces are perfect examples of how Beethoven recycled a strict musical form to match the aesthetics of the 19th century. Following Mozart ‘finale’ of the Jupiter symphony (1788), Beethoven established the path to romantic fugal treatment, far away from baroque constrictions which only J. S. Bach was capable to convert into sensitive and passionate music.
With his works, Beethoven fixed the fugue problem: how to arrange a quite baroque form into the sensitive world of the romantic era. He succeeded in baroquize several composers of the next generation instead of romanticize the fugue.
The romantic generations give good examples of this sequence Bach-Mozart-Beethoven in his treatment of the fugue. Brahms famous ‘pedal fugue’ in his German Requiem (1868) is a good example of it. The 19th-century composers concerned with craft and composing tools beyond virtuosity and salon-music faced the problem of how to use the fugue in his musical context. We must recall the glorious fugue of the end of the 1rst act of Wagner’s Meistersinger (1862), which is probably the most powerful operatic moment in the whole 19th century, paradoxically achieved with quite old-fashioned music procedure. However, the finale of Bruckner’s 5th symphony (1876) is a glorious example of the fugue not only as a technical exercise but as an integration in the symphonic landscape and a misreading of Mozart’s Jupiter ‘finale’ and Beethoven’s works. As J. Horton pointed out in his essay about this work published in The Bruckner journal, Bruckner solved the problem Beethoven lay on the table using a Mozartian procedure (Horton, TBJ, vol15ii, p. 17).
In his work, Bruckner synthesized fugue and sonata-form involving both classical structures in a single movement. The work has three fugue-sections using the fugal first-theme group for the exposition and the second for and the third for the development and recapitulation of the sonata. In short, the piece had three fugues in one, the last of them is a consistent ending group and a coda. This gigantic movement is probably the best example of Bruckner’s master of fugal treatment of a certain material. His success is not only a mix fugue and sonata but combining a sonata with a double fugue allowing a merge of the material of the first two fugues in the third one. In fact, the beginning of the third figure marks the point where the two first themes appear in vertical. The result: a double fugue and, at the same time and convertible fugue in which the subjects are invertible. Here, the themes and also the first and easiest combination in the third fugue:
The Bruckner mastery in this monumental piece is absolutely astonishing, and probably one of the most (if not the most) complex symphony movement of all-times. It implies a lengthy list of fugal and contrapuntal procedures and techniques in the highest degree of refinement, and it reaches the climax of the post-Beethovenian finale in the late 19th century symphonic music. The development of this ‘sonata-fugue’ is incredibly related to the tonal plan of the whole work, and also with the music of the chorale appeared in the fugue, everything rooted on Bruckner’s nature as an organist. The coherence achieved here is brilliant and effective.
In sum, Bruckner condensed the old and the new, assuming that the only path to symphonic language (an issue solved by Wagner with the drama) is reconsidering the role of counterpoint in substitution of the voice in the non-words drama.
Here you have a 45 minutes analysis of this movement in R. Atkinson Youtube channel. It is very instructive and visual.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IuiQFwjcPVQ
Prof. Jordi Clapes, musicologist and MA.
