Fugue (Prout)/Chapter 13
CHAPTER XIII.
ACCOMPANIED FUGUES.
435. We not seldom find in fugues written for voices with instrumental accompaniment, that the instrumental parts are, to a greater or less extent, independent of the voice parts, by which latter the fugue is carried on. We are not now speaking of the doubling of voices in the octave above by violins, or other instruments, because mere doubling adds no new parts to the harmony, but of those cases in which either the harmony suggested by the voices is filled up by the instruments, or the latter have independent figures of counterpoint. Such fugues may be described as Accompanied Fugues.
436. In Bach's vocal works, especially in the great Church Cantatas, which deserve to be far better known than they are, we frequently find the first exposition of a fugue accompanied by the basses and organ, the latter filling up the harmony, as in the opening choruses of the cantatas, "Es ist dir gesagt," and "Sehet welch 'eine Liebe" (Nos. 45 and 64 of the Bach Society's edition). Sometimes, as in one or two of the motetts for a double choir, the exposition of a fugue by one choir is accompanied by full harmony for the other.
Here the harmonic outline implied in the fugue subject is filled up by the chords of the second choir.
437. Our next illustration is part of the exposition of a fugue from one of Bach's cantatas.
It is difficult to condense Bach's very polyphonic orchestra on two staves without sacrificing clearness. At the sixth and seventh bars of our example, where the parts on the lower staff appear to cross, it must be remembered that the bass is still really the lowest part, because it is doubled in the lower octave by the double basses and the pedals of the organ. The figured bass is in Bach's own score, though we have in one or two details modernized his notation, as, for instance, where he writes ♭7 instead of ♮7, according to the custom of his day. The passages in which there is nothing but a figured bass were accompanied on the organ. The independent accompaniment of the orchestra, with the contrasted tones of the strings and oboes, is continued through the greater part of the fugue.
438. The following passages from Cherubini's first mass, which is for three voices only, show how thin harmony in the voice parts can be filled up.
The accompaniment here is for the full orchestra; we give it in the condensed form in which it appears in the published vocal score.
439. A little further on, in the stretto of the same fugue, we find a different kind of independent orchestral accompaniment. As only a few instruments are employed, we quote the passage from the full score.
It will be seen that the string parts here are partly a free variation of the voice parts, and partly a filling up of the harmony by new and independent figures of accompaniment.
440. In Haydn's masses we find some excellent examples of florid accompaniments for the violins, generally as variations of the voice parts. As an especially good illustration of this method of accompanying a fugue, we quote the opening of the "Et vitam" of his first mass. We give only the voice parts with the accompaniment of the violins and the basses; the other instruments double the voices, except in a few unimportant notes.
It looks at first sight as if this were a double fugue; that it is not so in reality is shown by the fact that the second subject, announced at first in the tenor, is only occasionally introduced in the remainder of the fugue, and does not even accompany all the entries in the exposition.
441. At other times we find an orchestral counterpoint which is quite independent of the voice parts.
The subject and answer of this fugue were quoted in § 64, when we remarked on the rarity of the first voice being silent during the answer. We have selected this extract to explain what we said before, and also because it is a very good illustration of an independent accompaniment to a fugue; but considered merely as a fugal exposition the counterpoint of the voices is pitiably weak.
442. Our next example is much better.
443. Among modern composers, Mendelssohn has been conspicuously successful in his treatment of the accompanied fugue. It is needless to quote examples, which would only be further illustrations of the points shown in passages already given; but we may refer students to the fugue on the words, "Behold now total darkness covereth the nations," in the chorus, "Rise up, arise!" of 'St. Paul,' and the final chorus of the 42nd Psalm, as excellent specimens of this class of composition.
444. We have several times referred to Mozart's wonderful mastery of every scientific device. Our final example will give one more illustration of this.
This passage deserves close examination. It will be seen that in the voice parts we find not only a regular fugal exposition, but an almost strict canon, 4 in 1, in the fourth and octave below, the slight deviations being those necessitated by the tonal answer. At the same time the violin parts, for the sake of which the extract is quoted, have a different canon, 2 in 1, also very nearly strict, and these close imitations are carried on in as easy and natural a manner as possible. The passage is worthy of old Bach himself.
445. It will be seen that this chapter consists almost entirely of examples. It is only in this way that assistance can be given to the student; for in every branch of practical composition the invention of the melodies and the counterpoints must be left to the composer himself. By seeing what others have done before him, the student will be stimulated to go and do likewise. A few general inferences may, however, be drawn from the examples we have given.
446. First and foremost is the necessity of clearness, on which we have already so often insisted, the importance of which increases as we add to the number of parts. As an illustration of this, look at the passage by Bach in § 437, and note how the orchestral accompaniments are written in such a way as never to obscure the progression of the voice parts by which the fugue is carried on. The same thing will be observed in the fugue by Haydn quoted in § 440.
447. If the accompaniment to a fugue is anything more than a mere filling up of the harmony—that is, if it has independent features of its own, as in the examples to §§ 441, 442, 444, it is very desirable that it should be well contrasted with the subject and counterpoint of the fugue itself.
448. It is seldom advisable to have more than one, or at most two, free instrumental parts in the accompaniment to a fugue, because not only is the difficulty of composing much increased, but each added part renders it less easy to preserve clearness. It is quite true that we often find more than two free parts added in Bach's vocal fugues; but it must not be forgotten that it seems to have been about as easy to Bach to write in ten or twelve real parts as it is to the average composer to write in four. The student will do well not to overtax his strength by attempting feats too difficult for him. Unless he can write florid counterpoint fluently in at least five or six parts, he had better not try to compose an accompanied fugue at all.
449. Beyond these general hints, it is not possible for us to go. The farther we advance in this series of theoretical works, the more we are compelled to leave the student to his own resources. In our earlier volumes on Harmony and Counterpoint, it was possible, at all events in most cases, to give very definite rules as to what to do, and what not to do. These subjects bear the same relation to composition that grammar does to poetry. The old Latin proverb, Poeta nascitur, non fit, applies equally to music. Just as a man may have a thorough knowledge of the grammar of a language, and yet not have an idea of poetry in his head, a musician may have perfectly mastered Harmony and Counterpoint, and yet be no composer. Anyone who, like the author, has ever acted as an examiner for musical degrees at one of our universities, will need no further proof of the correctness of this statement than the recollection of some of the candidates' exercises that have passed through his hands—quite correct, perhaps grammatically, but as dry as the bones in Ezekiel's vision, and without the faintest spark of musical life. As soon as the teacher approaches the higher branches of composition, his relations to his pupil become to some extent modified. From a pedagogue, whose word is "You must," or "You must not," he now becomes an adviser who can only generally indicate the direction which the student's work should take, by setting before him the best models, and showing him how to imitate them. It must not be forgotten that every great composer has begun by being an imitator. Even Bach was no exception to this; his earlier works were modelled after those of Froberger, Pachelbel, Buxtehude, and others of his predecessors. In order that the student may have a sufficiency of good models to guide him, we shall, as we have already incidentally mentioned, follow this volume by a companion work on 'Fugal Analysis,' which will contain a selection of the finest fugues by the great composers, in various styles, put into score and fully analyzed. From an examination of these, the student who has mastered the present volume will probably learn all that is possible to be learned from books.
450. One word in conclusion. Many of the rules laid down in this volume differ materially from those given in most other treatises on fugue. The reason of this is that this work, like all the others of the series, is founded, not upon any other theoretical works whatever, but solely upon the practice of the great masters themselves. Not one rule is given which is not enforced by the example of distinguished composers. Where theory and the practice of Bach, Handel, or Mozart come into collision, theory must give way; and the student who writes fugues according to the directions given in this book may at all events comfort himself that if he is wrong, he is in exceedingly good company.
THE END.
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