DICTIONARY OF MUSIC - El Atril

118 FUGUE FUGUE
The complete statement of subject or answer
by all the voices employed is called the exposi-
tion. The exposition usually consists of subject
and answer entering alternately,^ and one or
more short codette. If tliere is a counter-subject,
it appears in that voice which last had the
subject or answer.^ This fugal exposition is in
itself such a very ilefinite and unmistakable
mode of expression that it ia often introduced
into choral and instrumental works which are
not fugues. Such a torso is called a fugato
passage or merely * fugato. ' Beethoven was
particularly fond of the fugato : goo i examples
are found in the slow movements of his first and
seventh syniiihonies.
Now it is necessary, before the subject, as the
hero of the plot, sets out on its career of adventure,
that its nature and characteristics should
be thoroughly impressed on the attention. Sometimes
the exposition alone suffices for this ; but
sometimes an extra entry of the subject is added
at the end of the exposition before any modulation
takes place : this most frequently happens
in those fugues where the relative positions of
subject and counter-subject have been the same
throughout the various entries of the exposition.
The extra entry then presents the subject in a
new aspect with regard to the counter-subject.
Bach, ' ' Patrem from B Minor Mass
(inner parts omitted).
Couiiter-tinb.
te^g:^j:^^^Frt^g
(Sub. extra entry).
Sometimes this extra entry is not enough by
itself, and the exposition is followed by a whole
series of extra entries, a sort of complement to
the exposition ; this is called the counter-exposition.
In the counter -exposition the answer
usually leads off, followed by the subject ; sometimes
both subject and answer are inverted in
the counter-exposition^ {e.g. Bach. Wohlt. Clav.
No. 15).
Up to now there have been no serious modulations
in the fugue, but when the exposition and
counter-exposition are over, there begins what
is known as the middle section of the fugue.
This consists of a contrapuntal web gradually
leading through some definite scheme of modula-
tions to the final section or climax of the fugue.
This contrapuntal web consists of a series of
episodes (usually founded on the main subject
and counter-subject) interspersed with entries
of the subject in various new situations and
guises. At the time when the rules of fugue
' This is not invariable.
2 Tile counter-subject originally appears aa a coiintflrpoint to the
anawer ; therefore when it accorapaniea the subject it often has to
be mofiifled. This modified form bears the same relation to the
original counter-subject aa the subject bears to the answer, anri might
'
well be called the counter-answer,' but thie term is never used.
J Sometimes ejcposftion and counter-exposition are separated by
aneptaode, e.j?. Wohlt. Clav. No. 11.
were crystallised by Fux, modulations were of
a very mild nature and as a consequence the
later theorists, regardless of musical progress,
have strictly circumscribed the modulations
which a fugue wiiter ' is allowed ' to make. It
need hardly be said that the rules for fugal
modulation are of no more value than any of
the other arbitrary rules of fugue. Not a single
one of the fugues, either in the Wohltemperirtes
Clavier or in the K-unst der Fuge, follows the
scheme of modulation which was afterwards
prescribed by Clierubini.*
The various ways in which the successive
entries of subject, answer, and counter-subject
are made to grow in interest during the middle
section of a fugue have been codified into a
scheme of deoices, which may be summarised as
follows :
(a) The subject and counter-subject may be
themselves altered (i.) by angmentalicm, (ii.) by
diminution, (iii. ) by inversion, (iv. ) by ' cancrizans
' motion.
(a) R. Steattss, ' Also Sprach Zarathustra.'
rf^^^^^^
Part of sub.
^=== "^^ ^
^^fei
^^M"^
^^j ^
F^'^u^::^
r-
^^^ etc.
{b) Bach, ' WoMt. Clav./ No. 33.
Sub. inv. and dim.
,*=
:pEpEfe^^E^^^^g
Sub. by dim,
* Cherubini's rules fnr modul.ttion are as follows : When the
fugue ia in a major key— doniiriaTit. relative minor, sub-dominant,
super-tonic minor, meiiiant minor, dominant. When the fugue is
in a minor key—mediant major, dominant minor, or sub-mediant
major, or sub-domiuant minor, or seventh major.
1