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Fugue and canon
Canon
Strict imitation and sometimes called a round. After one part starts to play or sing a melody, another part enters shortly afterwards with exactly the same melody. Listen to this simple example sung by young female voices.
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Perhaps one of the most famous examples of this style is the Canon by Pachelbel. This is really also an example of a chaconne, variations over a repeated progression of chords. Listen to the chord progression and how the parts enter and are immediately copied by the next part to enter.
Fugue
A contrapuntal piece based on a theme (subject) announced in one voice part alone, then imitated by other voices in close succession. Listen to this excerpt from the start of the Fugue in C Major for Organ by J S Bach. The subject is quite distinctive and can be clearly heard entering, each time lower than the entry before. In a fugue, the second time the melody enters it is called the answer as it enters at a different pitch, usually the dominant of the original key, for example the first note of the subject would be C and the first note of the answer would be G. As the answer plays, the first part continues with the counter subject above.The pattern for the start of this fugue is as below.
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| Voice 1 | Subject | Counter subject | Free part | Free part |
| Voice 2 | Answer | Counter subject | Free part | |
| Voice 3 | Subject | Counter subject | ||
| Voice 4 | Answer |
Now listen to the fugue from the first movement of Bach’s B Minor Mass. It has five voices. Starting with the tenors, each part can be clearly heard entering with the subject, followed in turn by other voices, similar to the pattern above.
See also episode, answer, subject, exposition and stretto.
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