Page:Fugue by Ebenezer Prout.djvu/23

Chap. I.] to this class. If the episodes were chiefly constructed on matter unconnected with the subject or countersubject, the fugue was said to be a The fugue in Handel's overture to 'Samson' is an excellent example of a free fugue.

19. A strict fugue in which the various scientific devices, such as canonic imitation, augmentation, diminution, &c., were largely employed, was formerly known as a, or , that is a fugue with research. Two elaborate fugues, one for three and the other for six voices, in Bach's 'Musikalisches Opfer' are entitled "Ricercare." The name was also sometimes given to fugues without episodes.

20. We occasionally find fugues in which the answer, instead of being, as usual, a transposition of the subject (§ 9), is given by inversion, or by augmentation or diminution. We shall see examples of these as we proceed. Such fugues are called fugues by inversion, augmentation or diminution, as the case may be.

21. A fugue of only small dimensions, and not developed at any great length, is called a —an Italian diminutive, meaning a little fugue. Many specimens of this kind are to be found in Bach's organ arrangements of chorals. A good example will also be seen in Beethoven's 'Thirty-three Variations on a waltz by Diabelli,' op. 120, at the twenty-fourth variation.

22. We very frequently meet with passages written in the fugal style, that is, in which a subject is announced in one part and imitated by the others, but in which the imitation is not at the regular intervals of reply of subject and answer. Such passages are called passages. A whole movement is sometimes written in this way; but more often fugato passages are introduced incidentally. The chorus "Their sound is gone out" in the 'Messiah' is an example of fugato.

23. It must be clearly understood by the student that what has been said in this chapter is to be regarded only as a very general description. There is, probably, hardly any other form of composition in which there is so much room for variation of detail as the fugue. Beyond the fact that all fugues contain an exposition, a middle section, and a final section, there is little or nothing that they necessarily have in common. The one point to realize is, that a fugue should be, so to speak, an organic growth, the materials of which are to be developed mainly from the subject and its accompanying counterpoints. How this is to be effected we shall endeavour to show in the following chapters, in which we shall deal in succession with the various portions of a fugue.