MUSIC 2251 Chapter Notes - Chapter 27: Ostinato, Counterpoint, Stretto
19 Oct 2018
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Ch 27 - process as meaning: bach and the fugue. Keyboard instruments in the baroque era instruments like the organ. Used in church and in the home. Functions by plucking, not hammering like a piano. Less sustain, only 1 volume level (no dynamics) Passacaglia repeating bass line (ground bass) Toccata/prelude - highly contrasting musical ideas + tempos. Fugue - systematic working-out of a single musical thought. Its main theme, the subject, makes up the unifying idea. Stated alone at the beginning in one of the voices (satb) Then imitated in another voice - the answer. The first section of the fugue = exposition. Fugue alternates bt sections that feature episodes - interludes that serve as periods of relaxation. A subject can be presented in longer time values, called augmentation. Overlapping statements of the subject = stretto, heighten the tension. Although every fugue follows the same principle, no 2 fugues are alike. Bach: contrapunctus i, from the art of fugue.
