Chapter 9 Baroque Instrumental Music

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Chapter 9Baroque Instrumental Music

• Fugue

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Key Terms

• Fugue
• Fugue subject
• Expositions
• Subject entries
• Episodes
• Contrapunctus
• Free and learned fugues

• Fugato
• Fugal devices
• Countersubject
• Stretto
• Augmentation
• Diminution
• Inversion

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Fugue

• The most significant, characteristic new form of
  Baroque music
• Rooted in systematic use of imitative polyphony
• Fugue polyphonic composition built on a single
  principal theme (the subject)
• For two or more instrumental lines (voices)
• Latin fuga running away
• Fugal voices imitatively chase each other

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Fugal Exposition (1)

• First section of a fugue
• All voices (instrumental lines) take turns
  presenting the subject in orderly fashion
• Voices create cumulative effect

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Fugal Exposition (2)

• 1st voice states subject all by itself
• Then 2nd voice states subject as 1st voice
  continues with new material
• Then 3rd voice states subject as 1st 2nd voices
  continue with new material, etc.
• Exposition ends when all voices state subject

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Episodes and Subject Entries (1)

• After the Exposition, subject enters at intervals
  separated by episodes
• These later subject entries
• May occur in any voice
• Often come in different keys

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Episodes and Subject Entries (2)

• Episodes contrast with subject entries
• They may be based on motives from subject
• They often use sequences to modulate
• Final subject entry is stated in tonic key

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Subject Entries vs. Episodes

• Subject entries
• Fixedmust always be recognizable as the subject
• Stableremain in one key throughout each
  statement
• May occur in other keys in middle of fugue

• Episodes
• Freemay explore any motives from subject in any
  order
• Unstablemodulate from from one key to another
• Connect an entry in one key with another in a new
  key

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Fugues, Free and Learned

• Fugue can have multiple meanings
• Can refer to fugue as genre (a fugue)
• Uses exposition, subject entries, episodes
• Can refer to fugue as style or procedure
• Fugue as imitative section in a larger work
• A work in fugal style
• Free fugues
• Works using fugal style or procedures
• Learned fugues
• Full-scale, independent fugues

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Free Fugue

• Often refers to fugal sections in a larger work
  belonging to another genre
• For example, perhaps in a a canzona, French
  overture, or chorus
• Fugal section often called a fugato
• Uses techniques of fugue, not its form
• Shorter than full-scale fugue
• Sometimes just the exposition
• May slip from polyphony (typical fugal texture)
  to homophony and back

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Learned Fugue

• Full-scale, independent fugue
• Fugue as genre
• Uses the features of fugal formexposition,
  subject entries, episodes
• Often written more for study teaching than for
  public performance
• Bachs Well-Tempered Clavier or Art of Fugue
• Shows off composers contrapuntal skill
• Uses sophisticated (learned) fugal devices

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Fugal Devices

• Countersubject
• A melody designed to accompany the subject
  throughout the fugue
• Stretto
• Overlapping entranceswhen a subject entry jumps
  in before the previous one is done
• Augmentation diminution
• Making all note values longer or shorter
• Inversion
• Turning the subject upside down

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Bach, The Art of Fugue

• Written at the end of Bachs life
• Unfinished at the time of his death
• A testament to his astonishing fugal skill
• Collection of twenty canons fugues
• All on the same subject!
• Most use all fugal devices listed above
• Unfinished final fugue is Bachs epitaph
• Theme No. 4 spells B-A-C-H
• In German music B B-flat H B-natural

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Bach, Contrapunctus 4 (1)

• Fugue in four voices
• Voices enter from high to low in exposition

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Bach, Contrapunctus 4 (2)

• Lengthy episodes based on subjects final motive
  a cuckoo figure

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Bach, Contrapunctus 4 (3)

• Later subject entries clustered together
• Almost like secondary expositions
• Voices often enter in different order
• Fugal devices usedstretto near the end
• At times uses expanded version of subject

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Conclusions

• Exposition the most characteristic part
• Easy to follow owing to cumulative nature
• Harder to follow later entries episodes
• Continuous polyphonic flow with subtle contrasts,
  not sharp ones
• Good learned fugues build episodes around motives
  from the subject
• Systematic treatment of subject typical of
  Baroque compositional control
• Fugue the most scientific Baroque genre