There were two main reasons I chose this particular fugue to study for this exercise. Firstly, it is a fugue I have played in the past, and still do on occasion, and although I was well aware of the 'subject' of the piece, I have never took the time to really analyse it. Secondly, I believe it is pretty much a 'textbook' example of fugue style, so I thought it would be a good choice for my first analysis.
I was able to pick out the subject very easily, and found all of these myself. After some reading of what to expect in a fugue, I also managed to find the answer in the second voice, correctly ascertaining that it was presented in the dominant key, and was a tonal answer, as it was slightly modified.
After making initial good progress on my own, I was unable to find any real examples in the score of contrapuntal devices such as diminution, augmentation, inversion or stretto. I decided to conduct some research in order to confirm my own findings, and to fill in the gaps. It turns out that the reason I was unable to find any of the aforementioned musical devices is because there aren't any in this piece! Even though the course materials specifically asked me to look for these devices, I decided to continue my analysis of this piece rather than change to a different fugue, because I felt the one I had already started provided a good learning point wherein not all fugues will necessarily feature treatment of the subject in those ways. Also, I decided that I could take the opportunity to look at the broader structure of the fugue, which would also help me to learn a lot about the style.
Bach's fugue no.2 in c minor features a subject, two counter-subjects, and four episodes. There are three voices in total, with the subject initially being presented in the alto voice, then reiterated as an answer in the second (soprano) voice at the same time the first counter-subject enters. The answer is a tonal answer rather than a real answer, as slight modification has been applied. A transition section beginning in bar five prepares for the third (bass) voice, which enters the texture in bar seven. Shortly after the entry of the third voice, we hear the second counter-subject in the alto voice. The first episode, in bar nine, contains a modulation to Eb major, and the second episode, in bar 13 modulates back to the tonic key of c minor. The third episode appears at bar 17, and the fourth at bar 22. The piece ends on an octave tonic pedal in the bass.
I have included scanned copies of my annotated scores, showing my rough workings while analysing the piece:
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