Page:Fugue by Ebenezer Prout.djvu/188

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170
Fugue.
[Chap. IX.

entry of the voices being now reversed, and the bass leading. The pedal is continued over a passage of free imitation founded on the treble of bar 35; and at bar 58 is a coda, with a final entry of the subject in tenths for treble and tenor, imitated by alto and bass in tenths in the following bar.

348. From the full analysis of the way in which we have written these three fugues, the student will probably learn as much as is possible to teach in a book as to fugal construction. More can be learned by analysis than in any other way. For this reason we shall follow this book by a companion volume on Fugal Analysis, which will contain a collection of some of the finest fugues ever written put into score and fully annotated. There is not room in this volume for a sufficient number of examples to illustrate the matter thoroughly. But mere analysis will not of itself suffice: the student must practise for himself, writing each separate part of a fugue (exposition, episode, stretto, &c.) till he has acquired fluency. Nothing but natural aptitude, aided by a great deal of study and hard work, will ever make a good fugue writer.