Prelude and Fugue

Prelude
 A prelude is a short piece of music, the form of which may vary from
piece to piece. The prelude may be thought of as a preface.

 it may have served as an introduction to succeeding movements of

a work that were usually longer and more complex, it may also
have been a stand-alone piece of work during the Romantic era.

 It generally features a small number of rhythmic and melodic motifs

that recur through the piece. Stylistically, the prelude is improvisatory
in nature. The prelude also may refer to an overture, particularly to
those seen in an opera or an oratorio.
Fugue
 In music, a fugue (/fjuːɡ/ fewg) is a contrapuntal compositional
technique in two or more voices, built on a subject (a musical
theme) that is introduced at the beginning in imitation (repetition at
different pitches) and which recurs frequently in the course of the
composition.
 It is not to be confused with a fuguing tune, which is a style of song
popularized by and mostly limited to early American (i.e. shape
note or "Sacred Harp") music and West Gallery music. A fugue
usually has three main sections: an exposition, a development and
a final entry that contains the return of the subject in the fugue's
tonic key. Some fugues have a recapitulation.
Fugue

 All fugues contain an Exposition (S and TA or RA), a Middle Section,

and a Final Section (return of S). Any other devices may or may not
be used. These three main sections make the fugue appear ternary
in form, but since there is very little thematic contrast in the middle
section and since the opening section may end with either an
authentic or half cadence, we cannot generalize the fugue as
having a standard form. The fugue is an imitative, contrapuntal
process or style.
Fugue
 One cornerstone of baroque music is the fugue, which can be
written for a group of instruments or voices, or for a single instrument
like an organ or harpsichord.
 A fugue is a polyphonic composition based on one main theme,
called a subject.
 Throughout a fugue, different melodic lines, called voices, imitate
the subject.
 The top melodic line—whether sung or played—is the soprano
voice, and the bottom is the bass.
 The texture of a fugue usually includes three, four, or five voices.
 Thought the subject remains fairly constant throughout , it takes on
new meanings when shifted to different keys or combined with
different melodic and rhythmic ideas.
Fugue
 The form fugue is extremely flexible; in fact, the only constant
feature of fugues is how they begin—the subject is almost always
presented in a single, unaccompanied voice.
 By thus highlighting the subject, the composer tells us what to
remember and listen for.
 In getting to know a fugue, try to follow its subject through the
different levels of texture. After its first presentation, the subject is
imitated in turn by all the remaining voices.
The opening of a fugue in four voices may be represented as follows:
Soprano Subject.......................................................................................etc.
Alto Subject.........................................................................etc.
Tenor Subject..........................................................etc.
Bass Subject............................................etc.
Fugue
 After a voice has presented the subject, it is free to go its own way
with different melodic material.
 The opening of a fugue differs from that of a round in another way:
in a round, each voice presents the melody on the same tones.
 If the melody begins with the tone C-D-E, each voice will begin with
these same tones, whether at a higher or a lower register.
 But in the opening of a fugue, the subject is presented in two
different scales.
 The first time, it is based on the notes of the tonic scale.
 But when the second voice presents the subject, it is in dominant
scale—five scale steps higher than the tonic—and it is then called
the answer.
Fugue
 In many fugues, the subject in one voice is constantly accompanied
in another voice by a different melodic idea called a
countersubject.
 A constant companion, the countersubject always appears with the
subject, sometimes below it, sometimes above it.
 Between presentation of the subject, there are often transitional
sections called episodes, which offer either new material or
fragments of the subject or countersubject.
 Episodes do not present the subject in its entirety.
 They lend variety to the fugue and make reappearances of the
subject sound fresh.
Fugue
 Musical procedures commonly appear in fugues.
 One is stretto, in which a subject is imitated before it is completed;
one voice tries to catch the other.
 Another common procedure is pedal point (or organ point), in
which a single tone, usually in the bass, is help while the other voice
produce a series of changing harmonies against it.

A fugue subject can be varied in four principle ways:

1. It can be turned upside down, a procedure known as inversion. If
the subject move upward by leap, the inversion will move
downward the distance; if the subject move downward by step,
the inversion will move upward by step. In inversion, each interval in
the subject is reversed in direction.
Fugue
2. The subject may be presented retrograde, that is, by beginning
with the last note of the subject and proceeding backward to the
first.
3. The subject may be presented in augmentation, in which the
original time values are lengthened.
4. The subject may appear in diminution, which shortened time values.
 Fugues usually convey a single mood and a sense of continuous
flow.
 They may be written as independent works or as single movement
within larger compositions.
 Very often an independent fugue is introduced by a short piece
called a prelude.
Answer in Fugue

 The 2nd entry of the main theme (subject) of a fugue a 5th higher (or
lower) than the 1st is called the Answer.
 If subject and answer are identical it is a Real Answer
 If the intervals are changed in the answer it is a Tonal Answer
General format of Fugue
General format of Fugue

 Subjects (tonic key) and Answers (dominant key) that occur after
the last statement in the exposition create an expanded exposition.
If all voices of the fugue restate the subject or answer, this section is
called a "counter exposition" (or "re-exposition")
General format of Fugue
General format of Fugue
 Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach (31 March 1685 – 28 July 1750)
- was a German composer and musician of the Baroque period. He is known for
instrumental compositions such as the Brandenburg Concertos and the Goldberg
Variations, and vocal music such as the St Matthew Passion and the Mass in B minor.
Since the 19th-century Bach Revival he has been generally regarded as one of the
greatest composers of all time.

- To a large extent, Bach's musical style fits in the conventions of his day, which is the
final stage of the baroque style.

- The specifics of his style lie with characteristics such as his skill in contrapuntal
invention and motivic control and his talent for writing tightly woven music of
powerful sonority.