Page:Fugue by Ebenezer Prout.djvu/144

126 The first half of this passage shows us the subject treated by diminution, and imitated mostly at half a bar's distance. In the second half, the subject is both diminished and inverted, the first note being varied, and in this form it is used as a counterpoint against the subject in its original shape.

277. We said above (§ 252) that one voice was allowed to discontinue the subject in a stretto when the next voice entered with it. It is, however, sometimes possible for each voice to continue the subject to the end, so that the stretto is a canon at short distances of time for all the voices. A close stretto of this kind was called by the old theorists a stretto maestrale—that is, a "masterly stretto." The following is a fine example—