Music: An Appreciation, Brief 7th Edition (Kamien)

Chapter 4: The Fugue

Picture of a Fugue

The chart on page 109 of your text graphically represents a four-voice fugue. Using this representation as a starting-point, draw your own four-voice fugue with four different colored pencils; one for each voice. Instead of straight lines for the subject, draw a certain contour, which represents the melodic contour of the subject. Repeat the subject with different colors in the manner of a fugue, and go on from there with countersubjects and episodes. Only use the exact contour of the subject during subject statements. Continue your fugue by drawing each of the four compositional techniques described on page 110 in at least one voice: inversion, retrograde, augmentation, and diminution. Remember to use your subject contour for each of those techniques. Finally, finish your fugue with a stretto. The fugue activity on your Multimedia Companion might help with this project.