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Brigham Young University

GIFT OF

Don Earl

Qj^C^>

//IT

AUGENER'S EDITION,

No. 9185-

FUGUEBY

EBENEZER PROUT,

B.A., Lond,

Hon. Mas. Doc. Trinity Coll., Dublin and Edinburgh, and Professor of Music in the University of Dublin.

TENTH IMPRESSION

LONDON:

AUGENER

Ltd.

Printed in England

by

AUGENER

Ltd.,

287 Acton Lane. London,

W.

4.

HAROLD 8. LEE LIBRARY BRIGHAfc? YOUNG UNIVERSITY PROVO, UTAH

PREFACETheretheoryisis

probably no branch of musical compositionwidely,

in

which

more

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, notthe greatest masters.

to say systematically violatedis

bytheit

The

reason for this

no doubt

that

standard authorities on the subject,

Fux and Marpurg,and Albrechtsbergermain adopted

treated

from the point of view of the seventeenth century, and that mostof their successors, such as Cherubini(to

name

two of the mosttakinglittle

illustrious),

have

in the

their rules,

or

no account of the reformation, amounting almostof the fugue at the hands ofJ.

to a reconstruction,

S.

Bach.

Somewhat more

liberality of}

tone

will

be found

in the treatises of

Andre, 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,the "

is

too revolutionary

;

he even abolishes

names

" subject'

5

and "answer," using instead the terms

first

imitation/' " second imitation," &c.find a distinguished theorist like

When weBachis

Andre saying

that

not a good model because he allows himself too

exceptions,

and are informedis

that

one of the principal

many German

teachers of counterpointthereis

in

the habit of telling his pupils that

not a single correctly written fugueit is

among

Bach's ' Forty-

Eight," surely

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.

iv

Preface.In writing the present treatise, the author has consultedall

the

standard authorities, but (as ma}' 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 fromtheir practice

has deduced his rules, without paying the

least

regard

to

what might be said on the subject by Marpurg or

Cherubini.

Heand

has started with the axiom, which few will be

bold enough to dispute, thatexistence,that whateveris

Bach's fugues are the finestsystematically,

in

Bach does

and not

merely exceptionally,

the correct thing for the student to do.

HeHe

therefore

first

put into open score and carefully analyzed the

whole of the

forty-eight fugues in the "

Wohltemperirtes Clavier. n

next examined every fugue, vocal and instrumental, to be found

in the fortyschaft,

volumes of Bach's works published by the Bach Gesellall

making notes of

points of importance.

But he did notat least a

confine his attention to Bach.

He

examined probably

thousand fugues, including

all

those by Handel, Mozart, Beet-

hoven, Mendelssohn, and Schumann, besides a largeother writers ofactually

number byfarther his

more

or less eminence, to find out what had beenart.

done by the greatest masters of our

The

researches extended, the deeper

became

his conviction of

the

necessity of placing the laws of fugal constructiondifferent basis

on an altogetherresult

from that hitherto adopted.

The

of his

investigations will be found in the following pages.

In the words

of the

Psalmist,

he may

say,

"I

believed,in this;

thereforewill

have

I

spoken."

A

great deal to be found

book

probably

horrify old-fashioned musicalruleis

conservativesis

but not a single new

propoundedgreat

for

which warrant;

not given from the works

of

the

composers

and

if

he shrank from the logicalauthor

consequences of the

examination of these works, the

would be untrue

to his

own

convictions.is

Theas that

general plan of this volume

to

some extent "he sameadmirable Primer onin

adopted by Mr. James Higgsfar the best treatise

in his

" Fugue," byIt

on the subject

our language.

would be dishonest of the author not to acknowledge the

Preface.assistance he has derived

v

from

this

little

work, which indeed

it

would be impossibleignore.

for

any

later writer

on the same subjectand, though

to

To

Mr. Higgs

we owe

the clearest exposition yet written;

of the important matter of fugal answer

it

will

be

seen that the rules given in this volumerespects from those infesses that track.Itisit

differ in several material

the

" Primer," thefirst

author

frankly

conright

was Mr. Higgs who

put

him on the

on

this

very

subject

fugal

answer

thatIII.

the

great

composers depart most widely from the oldit is

rules.

The new

and,

hoped, very simple rules given in Chapters

and IV. are

enforced by nearly 150 examples, of which more than sixty are

by Bach.

Other composers areall

also freely

drawn upon; but

throughout the volume, inthe final authority.

cases of doubt,

Bach

is

treated as

In order to

assist

the student,

it

has been thought best to

take the different portions of alearn

fugue separately, that hebefore

may

how

to

construct each

part

he proceeds to the

compositionsubject,

of

an entire fugue.Episode,

The

chapters

on Counternotonly

Exposition,illustrations

and

Stretto,

contain

numerous

from the great masters, but specimens oi

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 intendedto

as exercises,

and have no claim

be judged as compositions.

Thewill,it

chapter onis

"

believed,

The Middle and Final Sections of a Fugue" be found new by English readers. Thefirst

author cannot, however, claim the credit of thethat

discoveryis

a fugue

is

written in ternary form.in

That honour

due

to Dr.

H. Riemann,Itis

his analysis of Bach's "

Wohltemperirtesout,

Clavier."that

nevertheless so obvious

when once pointedit,

the

author of course availed himself ofhis

and herewithfor

acknowledges

obligationsit

to

Dr.

Riemann

the

idea,

though he has developedof the original discoverer.

in

a somewhat different way from that

Of^ere.

the later chapters of the volume not

much need be

said

The concluding

chapter, on "

Accompanied Fugue,"

deals

vi

Preface. book we haveit

with a branch of the subject not touched on in any

met with;

but

its

importance in modern music renderedit.

desirable to say a few words about

As belongingtheoretical

to

practical compositionis

rather than tois

mere

study,

fugue

a

subjectit;

which

best

taught b]

examples.

In the present volume

was impossible to give morebutthis will

than a very few complete fugues

be followed as

soon as possible by a companion volume on "Fugal Analysis,"the materials of whichwill'