Page:Fugue by Ebenezer Prout.djvu/12

vi with a branch of the subject not touched on in any book we have met with; but its importance in modern music rendered it desirable to say a few words about it.

As belonging to practical composition rather than to mere theoretical study, fugue is a subject which is best taught by examples. In the present volume it was impossible to give more than a very few complete fugues; but this will be followed as soon as possible by a companion volume on "Fugal Analysis," the materials of which are already in great part collected, which will contain a selection of the finest fugues of the great masters in various styles and forms. These will be all printed in open score (like the two fugues by Bach in sections 298, 308), and fully annotated. It is hoped that they will be found a most valuable aid to the student.

With the subject of fugue, the strictly theoretical part of this series is completed. The remaining volumes will deal with actual composition, and the next to follow (after "Fugal Analysis") will be on "Form."

, December, 1891.