Page:Fugue by Ebenezer Prout.djvu/85

Chap. IV.]

The only remarks required by these examples are that (b) has an independent orchestral accompaniment, the harmony clearly proving—what does not appear from the quotation itself—that the subject ends in C minor, and the answer in F major; and that (h) may possibly be considered an extreme instance of the disregard of semitones spoken of in §§ 144, 145.

156. We have now arrived at the end of a very long and difficult task—that of explaining the principles of fugal answer. The rules here given differ widely in some respects from those generally laid down; but not one new rule has been advanced which we have not justified by the example of the greatest composers. We shall now, by way of summary, endeavour to put the general principles into the fewest possible words.

I. The answer to a subject which is in the key of the tonic should be as a rule in the key of the dominant; but if dominant harmony is prominent in the subject, the answer may occasionally be in the subdominant.

II. A real answer is possible for any subject which begins and ends in the key of the tonic without modulating to the dominant; but if the subject begins with a leap between tonic and dominant or commences on the dominant, a tonal answer is mostly preferable.

III. If the subject modulate between the keys of the tonic and dominant, the answer should make the converse modulations between dominant and tonic.

IV. A modulation should always be made as early as possible. In a modulation from tonic to dominant consider the