We have seen in the last chapter some typical examples of folk-songs, which have served to give us an impression of folk-music in general, since it always conforms, in all essentials, to the type they illustrate. Folk-music is generally simple and unsophisticated in expression; it is generally cast in short and obvious forms; and it generally consists of a single melody, either sung alone or accompanied, on some primitive instrument, by a few of the commonest chords.
The prominence given to a single melody by music of this type, however, makes it unsuitable for groups of different voices, such as a vocal quartet or a chorus; and therefore when musicians began to pay attention to music intended for church use they had to work out a different style, in which several parts, sung by the various voices, could be strongly individualized. This led to what is called the "polyphonic," or "many-voiced" style. Another reason why the ecclesiastical style always remained unlike the secular was that the learned church musicians disdained any use of those methods which grew up in connection with folk-songs and dances, considering them profane or vulgar. Had they been willing to study them, they might have added much vitality to church music; but they maintained an attitude of aloofness and of contempt for the popular music.
The peculiarity of the polyphonic style is that that portion of the music which accompanies the chief melody is no longer a series of chords as in folk-music, but a tissue of secondary melodies, like the chief one, and hardly less important. (This arises, as we have just suggested, from the necessity of giving each of the four voices or groups of voices,—soprano, alto, tenor, and bass,—something individual and interesting to do.) The difference between the two styles is apparent even to the eye, on the printed page. A folk-song, or any other piece in "homophonic" or "one-voiced" style, has the characteristic appearance of a line of notes on top (the melody), with groups of other notes hanging down from it here and there, like clothes from a clothes line (the accompaniment). A Bach fugue, in print, presents the appearance of four (or more) interlacing lines of notes. (See Figure IX.)
(a) Beginning of "Polly Oliver."
While the dawn on the mountain was mist-y and grey,
(b) Passage from Bach Fugue in G-minor
"Well-Tempered Clavichord," Book I.
FIGURE IX. DIFFERENCE BETWEEN "HOMOPHONIC" AND "POLYPHONIC" STYLE.
Historically speaking, the first great culmination of the polyphonic style is found in the ecclesiastical choruses of Palestrina (1528-1594); but it was not until somewhat later that this style was applied to instrumental music. In the inventions, canons, preludes, toccatas, and fugues of Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), we get the first great examples of polyphony as applied, not to merely ecclesiastical music, but to music which by its secular character and its variety of emotional expression is universal in scope.
Such is the ingenuity and the perfection of detail in Bach's works in the polyphonic style that a life-time might be spent in studying them. They have that delicacy of inner adjustment more usually found in the works of nature than in those of man; their melodies grow out of their motive germs as plants put forth leaves and flowers; their separate voices fit into one another like the crystals in a bit of quartz; and the whole fabric of the music stands on its elemental harmonies as solidly as the mountains on their granite bases. We can hope to see as little of this august country of Bach's mind by analyzing a few pieces as a man may see of the hills and moors in a day's excursion—but, nevertheless, a beginning must be made.
The essential features of this music may be seen in even so simple a piece as the Invention in F-major, number 7, in the two-voiced inventions, though it is written for only two voices and is but thirty-four measures long.
Bach: Two-voice Invention No. VIII., in F-Major.
The subject or theme of this invention is a melody of two measures' length, first given out by the soprano, and consists of two motives or characteristic figures, one in eighth-notes, staccato, making a series of leaps, thus:
and one a graceful descending run in sixteenth-notes, thus
Notice how charmingly the staccato and the legato are contrasted in these motives.
The entire invention is made out of this subject by means of those methods of varied repetition discussed in Chapter I., especially "imitation" and "transposition." For example, the lower voice, which we will call the bass, "imitates," almost exactly, through the first eleven measures, what the soprano says a measure before it. On the other hand, in measure 12 the bass starts the ball a-rolling by giving the subject (this time in the key of C), and the soprano takes its turn at imitating. Then, from measure 29 to the end, it is again the soprano which leads and the bass which imitates. The student should trace out these imitations in detail, admiring the skill with which they are made always harmonious.
There are many instances of transposition also, most of them carried out so systematically that they form what musicians call "sequences."
A sequence is a series of transpositions of a motive, shifting it in pitch either upward or downward, and carried out systematically through several repetitions. Examples: measures 4, 5, and 6, transposition of the motive in soprano, three repetitions; measures 21, 22, 23, transposition of motives of both voices, three repetitions; measures 24, 25, transposition of motives of both voices, two repetitions. The second of these sequences is shown in Figure X.
It will be noted what a strong sense of regular, orderly progress these sequences impart to the melodies.
It is interesting to see that the same general scheme of keys is embodied in this invention that we have observed in folk-songs: i. e., the modulation to the "dominant" in the middle (measure 12), and the return at the end to the original key. This divides the piece into two unequal halves, the first making an excursion away from the home key, the second returning home—much as the King of France, with twenty thousand men, marched up the hill and then marched down again. Such a two-part structure is observable in thousands of short pieces, and is called by musicians "binary form."
FIGURE X. "Sequence" from Bach's Invention in F-Major.
The difference in texture between this piece and any folk-song or dance will best be appreciated by playing over the bass part alone, when it will be seen that, far from being mere "filling" or accompaniment, it is a delightful melody in itself, almost as interesting as its more prominent companion. Indeed, in the whole invention there are only two tones (the C and the A in the final chord) which are not melodically necessary. Such is the splendid economy and clearness of Bach's musical thinking.
Before going further, the reader should examine for himself several typical inventions, as, for example, No. I, in C-major; No. II, in C-minor; No. X, in G-major, and No. XIII, in A-minor, in this set by Bach, noting in each case: (1) the individuality of the motives used, (2) the imitations from voice to voice, (3) the sequences, (4) the modulations, (5) the polyphonic character, as evidenced by the self-sufficiency and melodic interest of the bass, and (6) the structural division of the entire invention into more or less distinct sections.
The same general method of composing that is exemplified in the inventions we see applied on a larger scale in the fugues of Bach.
The definition of a fugue given by some wag—"a piece of music in which one voice after another comes in, and one listener after another goes out"—is true only when the listeners are uneducated. For a trained ear there is no keener pleasure than following the windings of a well written fugue. It is, at the same time, true that a fugue presents especial difficulties to the ear, because of its intricately interwoven melodies. In a folk-song there is not only but one melody, with nothing to distract the attention from it, but it is composed in definite phrases of equal length, like the lines in poetry, with a pause at the end of each, in which the mind of the listener can take breath, so to speak, and rest a moment before renewing attention. Not so in the fugue, where the bits of tune occur all through the whole range of the music, are of varying lengths and character, and overlap in such a way that there are few if any moments of complete rest for the attention. Perhaps this is the chief reason why fugues have the reputation of being "dry."
As is suggested by the derivation of the word "fugue," from the Latin "fuga," a flight, the characteristic peculiarity of the form is the entrance, one after another, of the several voices, which thus seem to pursue or chase one another, to go through a sort of musical game of "tag," in which first one and then another is "It." First one voice begins with the "subject" of the fugue, in the "tonic" key (key in which the piece is written). Next enters a second voice, "imitating" the first, but presenting the subject not in the "tonic," but in the "dominant" key. Then a third, once more in the tonic, and finally the fourth, again in the dominant. After these entrances all four voices proceed to play with the subject, transposing it in all sorts of ingenious ways, and straying off at times into episodes, generally in "sequence" form, but finally coming back, towards the end of the fugue, with renewed energy to the subject itself. All this may be seen in such an example as the Fugue in C-minor in Bach's "Well-Tempered Clavichord."
Bach: Fugue No. 2, C-minor, in three voices. "Well-Tempered Clavichord." Book 1. [7]
Like all the fugues in Bach's "Well-Tempered Clavichord," this fugue is preceded by a prelude, in free style, like a series of embroideries on chords, intended to prepare the nearer for the more active musical enjoyment of the fugue to come. Parry, in the "Oxford History of Music," says of the Prelude of Bach and Handel: "It might be a simple series of harmonies such as a player might extemporize before beginning the Suite or the Fugue, [such is the case in the present prelude]; or, its theme might be treated in a continuous consistently homogeneous movement unrestricted as to length, but never losing sight of the subject" ... etc.
A fugal subject is usually longer and more pretentious than an invention subject, and more nearly approaches what we should call a complete melody. It may contain several motives. Moreover, while the second voice is "answering" the subject, the first voice continues with further melody, and if this is of definite, individual character it may easily assume almost as great importance as the subject itself, in which case we may give it the name of "counter-subject." In Figure XI the subject and counter-subject of this fugue are shown. The long brackets show subject and counter-subject; the short brackets show the three chief motives, marked a, b, and c. The simplicity of the melodic material is noticeable. Motive a, which, with its three repetitions, forms most of the subject, consists of five tones, in a charming and unforgettable rhythm of two shorts and three longs. Motive b is simply a descending scale, in equal short notes. Motive c is four equal long notes. Play the subject and counter-subject through separately, several times, and get them well "by heart" before going farther.
This fugue is a wonderful example of what a master-composer can make out of simple materials; the whole piece is built from these three motives. Our analysis may conveniently be made in tabular form, the student being expected to trace out the development for himself, measure by measure.
FIGURE XI. SUBJECT AND COUNTER-SUBJECT OF BACH'S FUGUE IN C-MINOR
(WELL-TEMPERED CLAVICHORD)
TABLE OF THEMATIC TREATMENT OF FUGUE IN C-MINOR
| Measures. | |
| 1-2 | Subject in Alto. |
| 3-4 | Subject "answered" in Soprano ("imitation"), counter-subject in Alto. |
| 5-6 | Episode 1: Motive a prominent in Soprano. |
| 7-8 | Subject in Bass, counter-subject in Soprano, fragments of motive c in Alto. |
| 9-10 | Episode 2: Motive a tossed between Soprano and Alto, motive b in Bass. |
| 11-12 | Subject, in key of E-flat major, in Soprano, counter-subject in Bass. |
| 13-14 | Episode 3: Motive b in Soprano, motive c in other two voices. |
| 15-16 | Subject in Alto, counter-subject in Soprano, motive c in Bass. |
| 17-19 | Episode 4: Motives a and b variously distributed between all three voices. |
| 20-21 | Subject in Soprano, in tonic key again, counter-subject in Alto, motive c in Bass, |
| 22-25 | Episode 5: Motives a and b in all voices. |
| 26-28 | Climax: Subject in Bass, motives b and c in other voices. |
| 29-31 | Coda: Subject in Soprano. |
Note that all the episodes take the form of sequences, as, for example, in the following instance (measures 9-10):
FIGURE XIa. A SEQUENCE FROM BACH'S FUGUE IN C-MINOR.
The general form of this fugue illustrates the same principles of modulation, and of restatement of subject after contrast, that we noticed in the folk-songs and in the invention. This may be tabulated thus: