Page:Fugue by Ebenezer Prout.djvu/37

Chap. III.] other instances of this common procedure as we advance; it is always allowed either to lengthen or shorten the first or last note of the answer.

58. As being the easier, we shall first speak of real answers. The rule for knowing when a subject can have a real answer is very simple, and may be thus stated:—Every subject in which there is no modulation to the dominant, either expressed or implied, may have a real answer, excepting, first, when it begins on the tonic and leaps to the dominant either direct or with the third of the scale as an intermediate note; and secondly, when it begins on the dominant. But even in these two cases a real answer is always possible (§§ 101, 105–107).

59. We shall first give examples of real answers in the dominant key to subjects which are in the tonic throughout. We shall in each case give the counterpoint to the answer, which is, as will be seen, the continuation of the music by the voice which has just had the subject; we shall also extend our quotations beyond the end of the answer, as this will help the student in determining the limits of the subject. Our first example illustrates what was said in § 53—that when the subject commences with an accented note, the answer usually enters on the last note of the subject—

That the subject here ends on the F sharp of the fifth bar (the third of the dominant chord—§ 42) is proved by the fact that the next note, G, is not imitated in the answer. In this example the answer is below the subject.