the several voice-parts in various contrapuntal ways, with much freedom of key and usually with the insertion of episodes, often of considerable extent, the whole section culminating in an extended passage on a stationary bass, usually the dominant ('pedal-point' or 'organ-point'); (c) the recapitulation, in which the theme as subject and answer is again presented by all the voices in turn, often in reverse order and usually with a crowding or overlapping of the entries ('stretto'), the whole leading to a climax of intricacy and intensity. The ideal method throughout is to keep to strictly polyphonic devices and to use many varieties of imitation, so as to unfold fully the striking possibilities of the theme.
A 'fugato' is a movement or passage treated with some selection of the above features, often with many omissions, compressions and licenses.
Every important composer of the period, except some of the
opera-writers, was a fugue-writer as a matter of course, and the
number of fugues produced was enormous, especially for the
organ. The best of them have hardly been surpassed since.
Thus the old art of counterpoint began a new life, but chiefly
now in the instrumental rather than the vocal field.
It would be entirely impossible to give any satisfactory résumé of the many
fugue-writers. Of course, Bach overtops all his contemporaries in the organ-fugue,
and his Wohltemperirtes Clavier (1722-44) was a monumental demonstration
of the suitability of the form to the clavichord and hence to the
pianoforte. Both he and Handel wrote majestic fugues for voices also.
140. The Overture, Sonata and Concerto.—Besides the suite
and the fugue, there were several other large composite forms
that manifested an increasing tendency to utilize principles
of development in a different way. These were the overture,
originally a part of dramatic composition, the sonata, originally
a chamber-work for solo instruments, and the concerto, originally
a similar work with orchestral collaboration. All of these
were properly laid out in three or more distinct movements.
While some of these movements or passages in them were in
dance-form and so like extracts from a suite, and some were
polyphonic and so fugues or at least fugal, others were homophonic
or harmonic in ways that demand special notice.
The 'overture' was properly an orchestral form, intended as the introduction
to a dramatic work. Of the two existing plans for it, the French
and the Italian (see sec. 124), the latter had the greater subsequent influence,
since, with the insertion of a minuet as a third movement and
with some modifications of the final movement, it led to the plan of the
modern sonata and symphony. But the inner structure of the first and
second movements often presented points of fresh importance, because
