Page:Fugue by Ebenezer Prout.djvu/35

Chap. II.] will generally end on a cadential figure either just before or just after the entrance of the answer. If in doubt we can generally decide the question by seeing how much of the subject is imitated in the answer; this will be more clearly seen in the next chapter. In the case of a close fugue, where the answer enters before the subject is ended, the length of the subject will be decided solely by observing how much is imitated in the subsequently entering voices.

54. The student should now practise the invention of fugue subjects on the lines indicated in this chapter, bearing in mind the chief requirements which may be thus summarized:—(1) clearness of tonality; (2) distinctness of form; (3) moderate length and compass; (4) good striking melody; (5) contrapuntal character. He need not trouble himself much about originality; all the best melodic and harmonic combinations for fugue subjects have been so frequently employed that novelty in the subject itself is now hardly possible. In modern fugues, originality (if it exists at all) is to be looked for in the treatment of the materials rather than in the materials themselves.