Page:Fugue by Ebenezer Prout.djvu/158

140 very unusual, and we have purposely given it as an extreme instance. More frequently the exposition will be comparatively short, and the middle section will contain at least two or three entries, or groups of entries, of the subject. We will take the 21 st fugue of the 'Wohltemperirtes Clavier' as a fair average specimen of the relative lengths of the three sections. The opening bars of this fugue were quoted in § 173.

296. If the student will take his copy of the fugue, and number each bar for reference, he will find the following analysis of its form perfectly easy to follow.

First Section (Bars 1 to 17)—Exposition, including an additional entry in the treble (§ 187).

Middle Section (Bars 17 to 41)—This section contains four distinct features:—(a) First episode (bars 17 to 22); a sequential extension of the last part of the subject, modulating to G minor; (b) First group of middle entries (bars 22 to 30), viz.: subject (alto) in G minor; answer (bass) in C minor, both entries being accompanied by the two countersubjects; (c) Second episode (bars 30 to 35); a modification of the first, in the first bars of which we see a free inversion of bars 19, 20, the change in the quaver figure of a fifth to a third, causing the double counterpoint to be partly in the octave and partly in the thirteenth; (d) Second group of middle entries (bars 35–41). This commences with a fragmentary entry of the answer in the alto, followed by a complete entry of the subject in E flat.

Final Section (Bars 41 to 48)—Return of subject (alto) in the tonic key, the first notes being altered to connect better with the key of E flat (bars 41 to 45); coda (bars 45 to 48).

297. The analysis of another fugue from the same work will assist us in understanding the construction of the middle section. We select No. 34 in E minor. This fugue, of which we quoted the subject and countersubject in § 168, has a real answer. In such a case, it is impossible to distinguish between subject and answer, excepting by observing the distance of entry. If a second entry is a fifth above or fourth below the first, we know that the first was the subject and the second the answer; if the second were the fourth above or fifth below the first, then the first would be the answer and the second the subject. But with single entries, or entries at other distances, there is no means of distinguishing; we therefore shall always speak of the theme as the subject in doubtful cases. If the answer be tonal, as in the fugue last analyzed, the difference in its form shows at once which it is; though even in this case we often find a real instead of a tonal answer in the later sections of a tonal fugue.

298. The fugue in E minor is so instructive that we give it in full, writing it in open score. We most strongly recommend to the student the putting fugues into score; he will get a far deeper