The finale of Beethoven’s Sonata No. 29, Op. 106, begins with a slow, searching introduction and develops into an extensive three-voice fugue. Its principal figure combines a wide leap, a trill, and running notes. These elements move between the hands and appear alongside several different accompanying lines. Quieter melodic episodes interrupt the dense counterpoint before an increasingly forceful closing section.

Introduction: The Largo opens with quick rising notes, widely spaced chords, and pauses. Short descending figures and held harmonies give the passage a flexible shape. A somewhat quicker section introduces long runs across both hands. A brief Allegro presents more regular imitative writing, but the slow tempo returns. Further arpeggios, descending notes, and fermated trills lead to an accelerating sequence of repeated figures. The main Allegro risoluto emerges from this introduction with three rising trills and a running continuation.

Opening fugue: The running figure passes into the lower part while the upper hand leaves space through rests. Further entries join it, gradually creating three independent lines. One voice may hold a note or trill while another moves in sixteenths and a third provides a slower counter-melody. Chromatic sequences, changing registers, and accents expand the texture. The hands exchange roles frequently, including crossings where a trill or melodic entry must occupy a different register.

Contrasting episodes: A passage marked Scherzando grazioso and slightly more moderate relaxes into a lighter dialogue. Short upper figures are answered by lower runs and longer notes. The stronger tempo returns with a broader version of the theme beneath active upper lines. Repeated chords, wide leaps, and overlapping trills increase the intensity. Another moderate episode leads to a tranquil cantabile passage, where a longer melody is heard above flowing lower notes. This singing line later moves into the lower and inner parts.

Renewed counterpoint: Brisk running patterns resume in both hands, with detached articulation and forceful thematic entries. The material is reshaped, including a version that reverses the direction of the theme’s intervals. Trills alternate with rising arpeggios and descending runs, often while other voices continue independently. After a strong passage of short trills and chords, a quiet section marked sempre dolce e cantabile introduces simpler, connected lines. These overlap and gently grow before the main activity returns.

Final build and close: The later fugue combines sustained lines, repeated low octaves, rapid figures, and trills in increasingly close exchanges. At times the thematic shapes sound together in different voices. A long low trill supports upper melodic fragments and running notes near the end. The music briefly slows to Poco adagio, then Tempo I brings back a descending passage in both hands. Leaping trills and emphatic chords lead to a broad Largamente ending with a final held harmony.

Interesting fact: The printed heading “Fuga a tre voci” identifies the finale’s fugue as a three-voice work, even when its lines are divided between only two hands.