# Fugue (Prout)

FUGUE.
BY
EBENEZER PROUT, B.A. Lond.
Professor of Harmony and Composition at the Royal Academy of Music; Author of "Harmony: its Theory and Practice," "Counterpoint: Strict and Free," "Double Counterpoint and Canon," &c.
NEW YORK:
G. SCHIRMER, 35, Union Square.
PREFACE.
There is probably no branch of musical composition in which theory is more widely, one might almost say hopelessly, at variance with practice than in that which forms the subject of the present volume. In Harmony, we are frequently meeting with cases in which the rules of the old text-books need much modification; but with regard to Fugue there are few indeed of the old precepts which are not continually, not to say systematically violated by the greatest masters. The reason for this is no doubt that the standard authorities on the subject, Fux and Marpurg, treated it from the point of view of the seventeenth century, and that most of their successors, such as Cherubini and Albrechtsberger (to name two of the most illustrious), have in the main adopted their rules, taking little or no account of the reformation, amounting almost to a reconstruction, of the fugue at the hands of J. S. Bach. Somewhat more liberality of tone will be found in the treatises of André, Richter, and Lobe; but not one of these, excepting Lobe, has taken Bach's work as the starting point for his investigations. Lobe, on the other hand, is too revolutionary; he even abolishes the names "subject" and "answer," using instead the terms "first imitation," "second imitation," &c.
When we find a distinguished theorist like André saying that Bach is not a good model because he allows himself too many exceptions, and are informed that one of the principal German teachers of counterpoint is in the habit of telling his pupils that there is not a single correctly written fugue among Bach's "Forty-Eight," surely it is high time that an earnest protest were entered against a system of teaching which places in a kind of "Index Expurgatorius" the works of the greatest fugue writer that the world has ever seen.
​In writing the present treatise, the author has consulted all the standard authorities, but (as may be inferred from what has just been said) has followed none. He has proceeded on the same principles which have guided him in all the preceding volumes of this series, and has gone to the works of the great composers themselves, has carefully analyzed and examined them, and from their practice has deduced his rules, without paying the least regard to what might be said on the subject by Marpurg or Cherubini. He has started with the axiom, which few will be bold enough to dispute, that Bach's fugues are the finest in existence, and that whatever Bach does systematically, and not merely exceptionally, is the correct thing for the student to do. He therefore first put into open score and carefully analyzed the whole of the forty-eight fugues in the "Wohltemperirtes Clavier." He next examined every fugue, vocal and instrumental, to be found in the forty volumes of Bach's works published by the Bach Gesellschaft, making notes of all points of importance. But he did not confine his attention to Bach. He examined probably at least a thousand fugues, including all those by Handel, Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, and Schumann, besides a large number by other writers of more or less eminence, to find out what had been actually done by the greatest masters of our art. The farther his researches extended, the deeper became his conviction of the necessity of placing the laws of fugal construction on an altogether different basis from that hitherto adopted. The result of his investigations will be found in the following pages. In the words of the Psalmist, he may say, "I believed, therefore have I spoken." A great deal to be found in this book will probably horrify old-fashioned musical conservatives; but not a single new rule is propounded for which warrant is not given from the works of the great composers; and if he shrank from the logical consequences of the examination of these works, the author would be untrue to his own convictions.
The general plan of this volume is to some extent the same as that adopted by Mr. James Higgs in his admirable Primer on "Fugue," by far the best treatise on the subject in our language. It would be dishonest of the author not to acknowledge the ​assistance he has derived from this little work, which indeed it would be impossible for any later writer on the same subject to ignore. To Mr. Higgs we owe the clearest exposition yet written of the important matter of fugal answer; and, though it will be seen that the rules given in this volume differ in several material respects from those in the "Primer," the author frankly confesses that it was Mr. Higgs who first put him on the right track.
It is on this very subject—fugal answer—that the great composers depart most widely from the old rules. The new and, it is hoped, very simple rules given in Chapters III. and IV. are enforced by nearly 150 examples, of which more than sixty are by Bach. Other composers are also freely drawn upon; but throughout the volume, in all cases of doubt, Bach is treated as the final authority.
In order to assist the student, it has been thought best to take the different portions of a fugue separately, that he may learn how to construct each part before he proceeds to the composition of an entire fugue. The chapters on Countersubject, Exposition, Episode, and Stretto, contain not only numerous illustrations from the great masters, but specimens of each, written expressly for the guidance of the student. While an endeavour has been made to make them musically interesting, it must be remembered that they are merely intended as exercises, and have no claim to be judged as compositions.
The chapter on "The Middle and Final Sections of a Fugue" will, it is believed, be found new by English readers. The author cannot, however, claim the credit of the first discovery that a fugue is written in ternary form. That honour is due to Dr. H. Riemann, in his analysis of Bach's "Wohltemperirtes Clavier." It is nevertheless so obvious when once pointed out, that the author of course availed himself of it, and herewith acknowledges his obligations to Dr. Riemann for the idea, though he has developed it in a somewhat different way from that of the original discoverer.
Of the later chapters of the volume not much need be said here. The concluding chapter, on "Accompanied Fugue," deals ​with a branch of the subject not touched on in any book we have met with; but its importance in modern music rendered it desirable to say a few words about it.
As belonging to practical composition rather than to mere theoretical study, fugue is a subject which is best taught by examples. In the present volume it was impossible to give more than a very few complete fugues; but this will be followed as soon as possible by a companion volume on "Fugal Analysis," the materials of which are already in great part collected, which will contain a selection of the finest fugues of the great masters in various styles and forms. These will be all printed in open score (like the two fugues by Bach in sections 298, 308), and fully annotated. It is hoped that they will be found a most valuable aid to the student.
With the subject of fugue, the strictly theoretical part of this series is completed. The remaining volumes will deal with actual composition, and the next to follow (after "Fugal Analysis") will be on "Form."
London, December, 1891.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
[N.B.—The numbers refer in every instance to the sections, not to the pages.]
This work was published before January 1, 1929, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.
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