In this lecture, J. Anthony Allen introduces the fugue as the pinnacle of counterpoint, focusing on its structure, key elements, and compositional tricks, with a primary emphasis on Johann Sebastian Bach’s exemplary works. He explains the fundamental components of a fugue—subject, answer, countersubject, and free counterpoint—using a G‑minor example, and demonstrates how these elements interrelate. Allen also briefly touches on the invention, describing it as a miniature form of the fugue. He highlights advanced techniques such as stretto, showing how composers manipulate the subject for heightened complexity. Throughout, he stresses both analytical listening skills and practical composition strategies, aiming to deepen students’ appreciation and ability to write and analyze fugues.
Chapters
Hey, everyone. Welcome to MUSIC THEORY, PART 14. Holy smokes. We're pretty deep into this thing. So what we're going to be covering in this class is what I consider to be kind of the apex of. Of counterpoint, and that is the fugue. We're going to look at all the different elements in the fugue. There's a lot of different pieces of it. We're going to look at how composers have written them, primarily focusing on Bach as the kind of undisputed champion of the fugue. We're also going to look at inventions a little bit, which is kind of like a few, which actually it's really similar to a fugue. And then we're going to look at some of the tricks that composers have done in fugues to just keep you on your toes. So there's kind of a formula to a fugue, but there's also all these other things that can happen in it. It is in many ways some of the most complex counterpoint we will see in all of music theory in. And in other ways. Well, in addition to that, it's some of the most enjoyable music you can tackle. I love listening to these, and I really think that after this class, if nothing else, you'll be able to listen to this music with a whole new appreciation and a whole deeper understanding of what's happening, not to mention knowing how to write them yourselves and analyze them. So let's dive in and talk about fugues and invention. Okay, so we're in G minor. So our. Let's. We're just going to figure out what are our implied chords from this melody. Okay, So G, D, B, there's our B flat, there's our arpeggio. Right? So we can label this by writing the word countersubject. But also we could write CS for counter subject. And in some cases you have more than one counter subject. So you might call this CS1. I don't think we have more than one counter subject. So. So let's for now just call it cs. Okay, so here we have answer, encounter, subject. Okay, now is when it gets a little trickier. So let's find more. So 17 and a half up through 22. What's happening here? We're getting the answer in the base and we're getting free counterpoint everywhere else for our next trick. That's kind of weird to put it that way. I didn't mean that to come out as like it was a magic trick, but it's kind of a magic trick. I want to talk about stretto and Stretto is a technique that we use. It's something we can do to this subject. Now, in order to demonstrate this, I'm going to switch over to.
