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732 SUBJECT SUBJECT
Subject, on the other hand, presents so many
varieties of form and expression, that it cannot
be too carefully considered. In the hands of
the great masters it presents an epitome of the
entire Fugue, into which nothing is admissible
which is not in some way suggested by it ; and,
in order that it may serve this comprehensive
purpose, it must needs be very carefully constructed.
The Subjects employed by the great
fuguists are always found to be cajjable of
suggesting a logical Answer, and one or more
good Counter-subjects ; ^ of being conveniently
and neatly broken into fragments, for purposes
of collateral discussion ; of intertwining their
various members among the involutions of an
ingenious Stretto ; and of lending themselves
to a hundred other devices, which are so intimately
connected with the conduct of the Fugue
itself, that the necessary qualities of the Subject
will be better understood by reference to our
general article on Tonal Fugue (vol. ii. p. 122
et seq.), than by separate description here.
IV. We have shown how the fathers of composition
treated the Canto fermo ; how their
immediate successors enveloped it in a network
of ingenious points of imitation ; how, by fusing
the points of imitation, and the Oanto fermo
, which suggested them, into a homogeneous
theme, the polyphonic composers gave birth
to that important factor in composition which
we call a Subject ; and how that Subject was
treated by the great fuguists Of the 18th century.
We have now to see how these fuguists revived
the OarUofermo, and employed it simultaneously
with the newer Subject. Not that there was ever
a period when it fell into absolute desuetude ;
but it was once so little used, that the term,
revived, may be very fairly applied to the treatment
it experienced from Handel and Bach, and
their great contemporaries.
And now we must be very careful to remember
clearly the process by which the Subject
grew out of the Canto fermo. The German
composer of the 18th century learned the
melody of the chorale in his cradle, and used
it constantly : treating Kommt Menschenkinder,
riihmt, und preist,' and 'Nun ruhen
'
alle Wiilder, ' as Palestrina treated ' Ecce Sacerdos
magnus,' and L'Homme arm^. ' ' Sometimes he
converted the traditional melody into a regular
Subject, as in the Osanna ' ' of the last-named
mass. Sometimes he retained the long notes,
enriching them with a florid counterpoint, as
in the
'
Kyrie.' In the first instance, there was
no doubt about the nomenclature ; the term
Subject was applied to the choral melody as a
matter of course. In the other case there was
a clioice. When the melody of the chorale was
made to pass through the regular process of
Fugal Exposition, and a new contrapuntal
melody contrasted with it in shorter notes, the
former was called the Subject, and the latter
1 See COUHTKE-SOBJECT.
the Counter -subject. When the counterpoint
furnished the exposition, and the chorale was
occasionally heard against it, in'long sustained
notes, the first was called the Subject, and the
second the Ccmto fermo, Seb. Bach has left us
innumerable examples of both methods of treatment,
in his Choral -Vorspiele,' Kirchen-
' '
Cantaten,' and other works. Perhaps the
grandest example is the opening movement of
the Credo ' ' of the Mass in B minor, in which
ummi
' '
the plain -song intonation, Credo
Deum,' is developed into a regular Fugue by
the voices, while an uninterrupted counterpoint
of crotchets is played by the instrumental bass.
In neither of these cases would it be easy to
misajiply the words Subject, Counter-subject,
or Canto fermo ; but the correct terminology
is not alw£|.ys so clearly apparent. In the year
1747 Bach was invited to Potsdam by Frederick
the Great, who gave him a Subject for the
purpose of testing his powers of improvisation.
We may be sure that the great fuguist did full
justice to this at the moment ; but, not contented
with extemporising upon it, he paid the
royal amateur the compliment of working it up
at home in a series of movements which he
afterwards presented to King Frederick, under
the title of Musikalisches Opfer.' In working
'
this out he calls the theme, in one place, ' II
Soggetto Reale ; '
and. In another, Thema ' regium.'
It is quite clear that in these cases he
attached the same signification to the terms
Thema and Soggetto, and applied both to the
principal Subject, treating the violin and flute
passages in the sonata, and the florid motive in
the canon, as Counter-subjects. But in another
work, founded on a theme by Legrenzi, he
applies the term Thema ' ' to the principal
motive, and Subjeetum ' ' to the subordinate
one. 2 We must suppose, therefore, that the two
terms were in Bach's time, to a certain extent,
interchangeable.
Handel, though he did occasionally use the
Canto fermo as Bach used it, produced his best
efiects in quite a different way. In the Funeral
'
Anthem ' he
'
treats the Chorale, Herr Jesu
Christ,' first as a Canto fermo and then, in
shorter notes, as a regularly - worked Subject.
'
As from the power of sacred lays ' is founded
upon a chorale, sung in plain counterpoint by
all the voices ; it therefore stands as the Subject
of the movement, while the Counter-subject is
entirely confined to the instrumental accompaniment.
In God, who from the suckling's
'
mouth,' in the ' Foun41ing Anthem, ' the melody
of Aus ' tiefer Noth ' is treated as an orthodox
Canto fermo. But this was not Handel's usual
practice. His CanUfermi are more frequently
confined to a few notes only of Plain-song, sung
2 'Thema Legrenzlanum pedaliter elaboiatum cum subjecto.'
The original MS. of this work has diaappeared. Messrs. Peters, of
Leipzig, have publiahed it in Cahier 4 of their edition of the Organ
Worlts. on the authority of a copy by Andreas Bach ; [and it is given,
but without the title quoted, in the B.-G. edition, xxxviii. p, 94],