These new entries of the subject are followed by another Episode (second episode in Green below). I have included this in my fugue example, but in the dominant key: I have used musical ideas from the exposition, including rhythms and short melodic phrases in my 1st espisode.Īfter the Episode in a fugue there is usually another entry (or entries) of the Subject. Here is the 1st episode of my fugue example which comes directly after the exposition: The EpisodesĪn episode is a connecting passage of music in a fugue and is usually made up of a development of the music that has already been heard in the Exposition. Here is the countersubject (highlighted yellow) at the start of my fugue:Īfter the Exposition there comes an Episode. So, the voice/part which has just played the Subject will go on to play the Countersubject whilst the next voice is playing the answer. When all the voices have entered this signals the end of the Exposition CountersubjectĪ Countersubject often appears in the Exposition (and also later in the fugue).Ī countersubject acts like an accompaniment to the Subject and Answer. The Subject is repeated in the entry of the 3rd voice (usually in the tonic, but at a different octave) and is “answered” by the 4th voice (if there is one), again in the dominant key. You can see from my fugue example that the answer (orange notes) has been changed and so it is a tonal answer. However, if it is altered to fit the new key then it is a ”tonal answer”. If it is an exact transposition of the subject then it is called a “real answer”. The 2nd voice plays the “answer” in dominant key (a 5th higher or a 4th lower) – this transposed line in the 2nd voice is called the answer. In the Exposition the subject 1st appears in the tonic key. Have a look/listen to my fugue exposition:įugue Example Exposition Key Changes in the ExpositionĬontrasting keys play a vital role in the composition of a fugue. This whole section of music is called The Exposition. Note: If I was writing a 4th voice/part for my fugue then the 4th voice would enter at this point playing the answer. Here is my subject being played in the 3rd voice (blue shaded notes) an octave higher than it was played by the 1st voice: It is in the tonic key, but often an octave higher or lower than the 1st voice. The 3rd voice then enters playing the subject again. Here is my fugue answer (orange shaded notes): The answer is a transposed version of the subject (usually in the dominant key). The 2nd voice then enters playing the “answer”. Here is the subject I have written for my worked example of a fugue: The subject is played by the 1st voice in the tonic key. The Basic Structure of a Fugue The ExpositionĪ fugue starts with the 1st voice/part playing a melody/phrase called the Subject. We are going to look at the basic structure of a fugue through a worked example. “a fugue in 4 parts”, “a fugue in 3 voices”.Įach part/voices enters in imitation of each other. Usually a composer chooses to describe or define a fugue they have composed according to the number of parts it is written for. A fugue is a contrapuntal composition for a number of separate parts or voices.
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