rm has been used to
express well-nigh every form of human emotion, the sublime, the
tragic, the romantic; very often the humorous and the fantastic. When
we recall the irresistible sparkle and dash of Mozart's _Magic Flute
Overture_, of the Overture to the _Bartered Bride_ by Smetana, of the
Finale of Mozart's _Jupiter Symphony_, and of many of the fugues in
the _Well-tempered Clavichord_, it is evident that to call a fugue
"dry" is an utter abuse of language. It is true that there are weak,
artificial and dull fugues, where the composer--frankly--had nothing
to say and merely filled out the form; but the same may be said of
every type of composition, _i.e._, among them all are examples
inspired and--less inspired. This, however, is no indictment of the
fugue _per se_, against which the only thing to be said is that it
requires on the part of the listener an exceeding concentration. Some
of the masterpieces of the world being wholly or partially in the
fugal form, it is the duty of those listening to polyphonic music to
train their powers to the same seriousness of attention expected and
freely given in the appreciation of an oration, a drama or a
cathedral. These latter manifestations of artistic expression, to be
sure, are less abstract than the fugue and more closely related to
daily life. Yet no effort is more repaying than the mental and
emotional energy expended in listening to the interweavings of a good
fugue; for, conscious of missing the periodic divisions of the
Folk-song, we have to listen to more than one melody at a time. A
fugue being a composition, as the French say, of "longue haleine,"
our attention, in order to follow its structure, must be on the "qui
vive" every moment. The fugue, in fact, is an example of the intricate
and yet organic complexity found in all the higher forms of life
itself; and whenever a composer has wished to dwell with emphasis on a
particular theme, he almost invariably resorts to some form of fugal
treatment, strict or free. The most effective media for rendering
fugues are the chorus of mixed voices, the organ (by reason of its
pedal key-board always making the subject in the bass stand out
majestically) and the stringed orchestra which, with the "bite" of the
strings, brings out--with peculiar sharpness--the different entrances
of the subject. The student should become familiar with standard
examples in each of these classes and should, above all, seek
opportunity to hear so