Page:Fugue by Ebenezer Prout.djvu/165

Chap. IX.] that it belongs to the middle section of the fugue, and not to the first (§ 293). This first episode is formed from the last bar of the subject, continued sequentially in the bass as far as bar 20, and accompanied by a figure, evidently founded, as regards its rhythm, on the third and fourth bars of the subject, and treated by free imitation between treble and alto. The second half of the episode contains a new sequence in the bass—a modified form of the treble of bar 7—accompanied by the last notes of the subject, given alternately by inverse motion in the treble and direct motion in the alto.

300. The first episode, ending, as we have seen, in G major, leads to an entry of the subject in that key (bar 23). It is accompanied by the countersubject, which enters in the alto at bar 26, and which here for the first time appears below the subject. At bar 29 the answer enters in the alto. That it is to be looked at as an answer here, is shown by the fact that it is a fourth below the preceding entry in the treble. The countersubject is given, as usual, to the voice which last had the subject. The bass accompanies with a free part, the material of which is taken partly from the treble of bars 7 and 8, and partly from the last notes of the subject. These two appearances of subject and answer form the first group of middle entries, which extends from bar 23 to bar 35.

301. The second episode (bars 35 to 41) is made of the same material as the first—mainly the last notes of the subject, but with different combinations from the previous ones, and modulates to B minor. In this key, the next middle entry is made by the bass (bar 41), the countersubject now being in the alto, and the treble supplying a counterpoint mostly made from the last notes of the subject, direct and inverted. It must be noticed that all the middle entries after the first are isolated entries—that is, each one is divided from the following by an episode.

302. The third episode is the shortest of any (bars 47 to 49). It is a transposition a fourth lower (with a slight modification at the end) of bars 18 to 20 of the first episode, and leads to an entry of the subject (alto) in the original key (bars 49 to 55). In a large number of fugues a return to the tonic key is not found till we reach the final section of the fugue but we sometimes, as here, meet with a middle entry in the tonic. We see another instance in the third fugue (C sharp major) of this work. When an entry of the subject in the tonic is not followed by any entry in another key (except possibly the dominant), this tonic entry indicates the beginning of the final section of the fugue; if, as here, another subsequent modulation is made, the tonic entry forms part of the middle section. In the entry now under notice, the countersubject appears for the first and only time in the bass. Though this entry and the preceding (in bar 41) bear to one another the relation of tonic