Philip Greeley Clapp see the Musical Quarterly for April, 1916.]
[Footnote 43: Some eloquent comments on Bach’s style and
significance may be found in Chapter III ofThe Appreciation of
Musicby Surette and Mason.]
Two additional fugues are now given in the Supplement (see
Nos. 17 and 18) for the consideration of the student: theCat-
Fugueof Domenico Scarlatti, with its fantastic subject (said
to have been suggested by the walking of a favorite cat on the
key-board) and theFuga Giocosaof John Knowles Paine, (the
subject of which is the well-known street-tune “Rafferty’s lost
his pig"). This latter example is not only a brilliant piece of
fugal writing but a typical manifestation of American humor.
Several eulogies of the fugue are to be found in literature; three
of the most famous are herewith appended.
“Hist, but a word, fair and soft!
Forth and be judged, Master Hugues!
Answer the question I’ve put you so oft:
What do you mean by your mountainous fugues?
See, we’re alone in the loft.”—Browning,Master Hugues of Saxe-Gotha.
Throughout, a most fantastic description of fugal style.
“Whence the sound
Of instruments, that made melodious chime,
Was heard, of harp and organ; and who mov’d
Their stops and chords was seen; his volant touch
Instinct through all proportions, low and high,
Fled and pursued transverse the resonant fugue.”
—Milton,Paradise Lost, Book XI.
“Then rose the agitation, spreading through the
infinite cathedral to its agony; then was completed
the passion of the mighty fugue. The golden tubes of
the organ which as yet had but sobbed and muttered
at intervals—gleaming amongst clouds and surges of
incense—threw up, as from fountains unfathomable,