Page:Fugue by Ebenezer Prout.djvu/107

Chap. VI.] Notice first that though in § 194 we gave the subject to the treble in the same key, we should have somewhat cramped ourselves in four parts by beginning so low when there were three other voices to come underneath it. The number of the parts in which a fugue is to be written should be taken into account in selecting the voice and pitch of the subject.

205. The student will by this time know enough of harmony and counterpoint to need no help in examining the above exposition. We will only remark that as the countersubject appears in both positions, the additional entry is here unnecessary; and that while our three-part exposition ended in the key of the tonic (not counting the redundant entry), this one ends in the key of the dominant (§ 202).

206. We sometimes meet with irregular expositions of fugues, in which the subject appears twice in succession before the answer is heard at all. The following is an example.

To save space we have given this passage in "short score." Here, as the subject is repeated, the two voices of the same pair follow each other; the alto and bass enter with the answer. Notice, in passing, that we have here another example of an answer in the subdominant (§71). A fugue beginning in this way is sometimes described as an "Octave Fugue" to distinguish it from the ordinary fugue, in which the second entry is at a distance of a fourth or fifth from the first. In the familiar chorus, "Fallen is the foe," in Handel's 'Judas,' will be seen a fugue in which all the four entries are in the octave.

207. In some fugues the exposition is followed, either immediately or after the first episode (which will be described in our next chapter), by what is called a Counter-exposition. This is