Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

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SUBJECT
SUBJECT 733
slowly, to give weight to the regularly-developed
Subject, as in 'Sing ye to the Lord,' the
'Hallelujah Chorus,' the last chorus in the
'Utrecht Te Deum,' the second in the 'Jubilate,'
the second Chandos Anthem, Let God ' arise,
the last chorus in ' Esther,' and other places too
numerous to mention.'
The use of the long-drawn Canto fermo is fast
becoming a lost art ;
yet the effect with which
Mendelssohn has introduced Wir ' glauben all'
an einen Gott,' in combination with the primary
Subject of But ' our God abideth in Heaven,' in
'
St. Paul,' has not often been surpassed. Mozart
also has left us a magnificent instance, in the
last finale of 'Die Zauberflbte,' where he has
enveloped the Chorale, ' Ach Gott vom Himmel
sieh darein,' in an incomparable network of instrumental
counterpoint ; and Meyerbeer has
introduced two clever and highly effective imitations
of the real thing in 'Les Huguenots,' at
the 'Litanies' and the 'Conjuration.'
v. The similarity of the Cariti fermi, and
even of the true Subjects, used by great composei-s,
and handed on from generation to
generation, has given rise to much ingenious
speculation. 1. A remarkable instance of this
is a passage of slow notes, rising from the tonic
to the subdominant, and then descending towards
the note from whence it started. This
passage is constantly found in old ecclesiastical
melodies ; among others, in that of the hymn
'
Aetema Christi munera. ' Zarlino used it as
a theme for his examples in counterpoint. In
Morley's Plaine and easie Introduction, Philomathes
gives it to Polymathes, as a Point
— familiar enough, and easie to bee maintained
i.e. developed ; while the Master ' ' calls it
'
' a most common Point,' which
'
though it were
giucn to all the Musicians of the world, they
might compose vpon it, and not one of their
Compositions bee like vnto that of another.'
Byrd used it in NoN nobis ' ' ; Palestriua, in
the first Agnus Dei ' ' of his Missa ' brevis '
;
Bach, in the ' Gratias agimus ' and
'
Dona ' of
his Mass in B minor ; Handel, in ' Sing ye to
the Lord,' the 'Hallelujah Chorus,' the last
Chorus in the Utrecht Te Deum,' the Chamber
'
Duet, ' !
Tacete, ohime ' and many other places ;
Steffani, in his Duet, ' Tengo per infallibile '
Perti, in a Fuga a 8,
'
Ut nos possimus' ;
Mendelssohn, in 'Not only unto him,' from
'
St. Paul ' ; and Beethoven, irt the Trio of the
Ninth Symphony. The tnith is, the passage is
simply a fragment of the scale, which is as much
the common property of musicians, whether
fuguists or composers of the later schools, as
the alphabet is the common property of poets.
;
2. Another Subject, scarcely less universal
in its application, embraces a more extended
portion of the scale. Bach uses this in the
Handel, in the
' Hail-
'
Christmas
'
Oratorio
1 A learnert modem critic finds fault with Burner for calling the
CofMo fumw in Sing ye to the Lord a Counter-subject. t fa,"s
into the same error himself in describing the Utrecht Jubilate.
;
stone Chorus ' ; in a remarkable Concerto for
two Orchestras, of which the only known
copy is the original Autograph at Buckingham
Palace ; in ' Worthy is the Lamb '
; in ' When
his loud voice,' and in many other places.
Mozart used it, in a form all but identical with
Handel's, and also in the inverted form, in the
Jupiter Symphony. Beethoven used it in his
first symphony ; in his pianoforte sonata,
op. 31, No. 1 ; and in the inverted form, in
his symphony in C minor ; Schumann, in his
string quartet, No. 1, and his PF. quartet,
op. 47 ; and Brahms, in the finale to his
symphony in C minor.
3. These examples deal only with the scale.
But there are certain progressions which are as
much common property as the scale itself ;
just
as there are certain combinations of letters
which are as much common property as the
alphabet. First among these stand the leaps of
fifths or fourtlis, with which countless Subjects
begin ; and scarcely less common are the
sequences of ascending fourths, and descending
fifths, which we so frequently find associated
with them ; as in Bach's fugue in E|>—No. 31
of the 48 ' ' ; Mozart's overture to 'Die Zauberflote,'
and a hundred other cases.
4. Closely allied to these sequences of fourths
and fifths is a form in which a descending third
is followed by an ascending fourth. This was
used for a Canon by Turini in the 17th
century ; in Handel's second hautboy concerto
and third organ fugue ; Morley's canzonet,
'
Cruel, you pull away too soon ' ; Purcell's
'
Full fathom five ; and numerous other cases,
'
including a subject given to Mendelssohn for
improvisation at Eome, Nov. 23, 1830.
5. A Subject, characterised by the prominent
use of a diminished seventh, and familiar as
that of 'And with His stripes,' is also a very
common one. Handel himself constantly used
it as a theme for improvisation ; and other composers
have used it also—notably Mozart, in the
Kyrie of the ' Eequiem '
; see (a).
(o)^l^Ei m
6. The Intonation and Eeciting-Note of the
second Gregorian Tone—used either with or
without the first note of the Mediation—^may
also be found in an infinity of Subjects, both
ancient and modem, including that of Bach's
Fugue in E, No. 33, and the Finale of the
Jupiter Symphony ; see (6).
The number of Subjects thus traceable from
one composer to another is so great that it
would be impossible to give even a list of them.
The treatment may be original, though the
Subject has been used a thousand times ; and