Page:A Dictionary of Music and Musicians vol 1.djvu/579

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FÜRSTENAU.
FUGUE.
567

schichte der königlichen sächsischen musikalischen Capelle' (1849); 'Zur Geschichte des Theaters und der Musik in Dresden,' 2 vols. (1861); and 'Die Fabrication musikalischer Instrumente im Voigtlande' (1876). In 1852 he was appointed Gustos of the royal collections of music, and received the order of Albert of Saxony.

[ F. G. ]

FUGATO. A name given to an irregularly fugued movement, in which the fugue-form is not strictly followed (especially as to strettos and pedal-points), though the structure is fugal and contrapuntal. Fugato passages are often introduced in orchestral music with the happiest effect, as in first and last movements of the Eroica Symphony, in the Allegretto of No. 7, both by Beethoven, and in the first movement of Mendelssohn's Italian Symphony, immediately after the double bar, etc.

[ F. A. G. O. ]

FUGHETTA. A short condensed fugue a miniature fugue correct and complete as to form, but with all its dimensions curtailed. No. 24 of Beethoven's 33 Variations (op. 120) is entitled Fughetta. It is in 2 sections of 10 bars, each repeated.

[ F. A. G. O. ]

FUGUE, or FUGA, from the Latin fugare, to put to flight, because one part after another seems as it were to chase the subject or motive throughout the piece. (So Milton, Par. Lost, xi. 563.) It has been technically defined as 'a regular piece of music, developed from given subjects according to strict contrapuntal rules, involving the various artifices of imitation, canon, and double counterpoint, and constructed according to a certain fixed plan.' The necessary parts of a fugue are (1) Subject (or Dux, or Führer), (2) Answer (or Comes, or Gefahrte), (3) Countersubject, and (4) Stretto; to which may usually be added (5) Codetta (or conduit, or copula), (6) Episode, (7) Pedal, and (8) Coda. The Subject is the theme, or chief melody, on which the whole fugue is based. The Answer is the correlative of the subject. The relation of the answer to the subject, in fact, determines the whole character of the fugue. Speaking roughly, the answer is a transposition of the subject from the key of the tonic to that of the dominant. If the answer can be thus simply transposed without modulating out of the key, which often happens, the fugue is called a 'Real fugue,' and the answer a 'Real answer.' But in most cases the answer has to be modified according to certain rules to avoid modulating out of the key. These modifications are called 'mutations,' and an answer so treated is called a 'tonal answer,' and the fugue is called a 'Tonal[1] fugue.' For instance, if the subject were

{ \time 4/4 \relative c'' { c4 d e d8 c g'2 } }

and the answer were a simple transposition

{ \time 4/4 \relative g' { g4 a b a8 g d'2 } }

it is obvious that we should have left the original key of C altogether, and modulated towards the supertonic; to avoid this the answer would have to be modified thus—

{ \time 4/4 \relative g' { g4 a b a8 g c2 } }

so as to keep in the key of C, and the change of the concluding note is called a Mutation. Thus the dominant answers the tonic, and the tonic answers the dominant. Example—

{ \time 3/4 \relative g' { g4^\markup { \smaller \italic Subject. } c b c c,2 \bar "||" c'4^\markup { \smaller \italic Answer. } g' fis g g,2 \bar "||" } }

A few more examples of mutations will exemplify the principle of tonal answers.

{ \time 2/2 \key f \major \clef bass \relative f { f2^\markup { \smaller { 1. \italic Subject. } } c a'2. g4 f e d2 c1 \bar "||" } }
{ \time 2/2 \key f \major \clef bass \relative c' { c2^\markup { \smaller \italic Answer. } f, d'2. c4 bes a g2 f1 \bar "||" } }


{ \time 2/2 \key e \minor \relative e' { e2^\markup { \smaller { 2. \italic Subject. } } g4 fis8 e b'2 c4 b a g a b g4. fis8 e2 \bar "||" } }
{ \time 2/2 \key e \minor \relative b' { b2^\markup { \smaller \italic Answer. } d4 cis8 b e2 g4 fis e d e fis d4. cis8 b2 \bar "||" } }


{ \time 3/2 \key g \minor \relative d'' { d1^\markup { \smaller { 3. \italic Subject. } } ees2 fis,1 g2 bes a d bes2 g1 \bar "||" } }
{ \time 3/2 \key g \minor \relative g'' { g1^\markup { \smaller \italic Answer. } bes2 cis,1 d2 f e g f d2 \bar "||" } }

Rules for the finding of correct tonal answers may be found in all the treatises on the construction of fugues. Sometimes it is no easy matter to find the proper answer; and there are subjects which will admit of more than one correct answer.

Into these details it is impossible to go in such an article as the present. But the following general rules may be useful: (1) Wherever the subject has the tonic, the answer should have the dominant; and vice versa. (2) Wherever the subject has the 3rd of the tonic, the answer should have the 3rd of the dominant; and vice versa. (3) Wherever the subject has the 6th of the tonic, the answer should have the 6th of the dominant; and vice versa. (4) Wherever the subject has the 4th of the tonic, the answer should have the 4th of the dominant; and vice versa. (5) In the minor mode, if the subject has the interval of a diminished 7th, that interval is unaltered in the answer. (6) If the subject, in either mode, goes from the dominant up to the subdominant in the upper octave, the answer constitutes the interval of an octave; thus—

{ \override Score.TimeSignature #'stencil = ##f \time 3/2 \key g \major \relative g' { g2^\markup { \smaller \italic Subject. } d c' b1. \bar "||" d2^\markup { \smaller \italic Answer. } g, g' fis1. \bar "||" } }
  1. ↑ This is the modern meaning. In the early days of counterpoint a Tonal fugue was one in which the relations of the subject and answer were governed by the old Church modes, in which each Authentic mode had its related Plagal mode. [See Real Fugue.]
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