MUSC7470 Assessment – Fugue
Semester 1 2025

See the MUSC7470 Course Profile section 6 for details about assessment for this course.

Three-part Fugue and accompanying written responses (weight: 40% of final course grade)
Due date: 10 June 2:00 pm.
Upload a single pdf file to Blackboard containing your fugue and your written responses.
Include your name, student number, and the following statement: “This submission contains solely my own work.”

Summary (see below for detailed instructions)
The project comprises three parts:
• PART 1: Composition of a complete three-part fugue in eighteenth-century style utilising fugal resources
presented in class.
• PART 2: An analytical overview of your fugue (word length: maximum 400). This should follow the
exemplars given in the course notes for different fugues studied in class (for example, Bach’s Fugue in D
minor, WTC 1, week 11 class notes).
• PART 3: Written responses to assigned scholarly readings about fugue (word count: maximum 400).

Assessment Criteria
Your submission will be assessed according to the following criteria:
1. Demonstrates competence in all previously covered specific elements and general principles of counterpoint.
2. Ability to incorporate the specific elements of Baroque three-part Fugue comprising real or tonal answers,
episodes, middle entries and special devices such as stretto or augmentation.
3. Scholarly exegesis: Ability to provide a clear and logical analysis of the submitted fugal composition that
reflects awareness of scholarship on eighteenth-century fugal practice.
4. Scholarly Engagement: Evidence of engagement with scholarly literature on fugal practice and historically-
informed composition and an ability to synthesise key points in relevant literature with clarity of written
expression and accuracy of referencing and citation.

Detailed Instructions
PART 1: Composition of a complete three-part fugue in eighteenth-century style utilising fugal resources presented in
class.
• Write a fugue using the score template provided later in this document (see below).
• Your fugue should have the following structure:
o Exposition
o Episode 1
o Middle Entry (ME) in a new key
o Episode 2
o Final Entry in the home key.
• Remember:
o The Exposition ends when the third voice states the subject (the third voice does not need to also state
the countersubject).
o An Episode is based on a short idea. For Episode 1, the idea is given in bar 13 of the template below.
o All three voices should state the subject in the Middle Entry.
o For Episode 2, you should use your own new idea.
o The Exposition, Middle Entry and Final Entry should have different orders of voice entries.
o The three notes in bar 4 marked “Link” are not part of the fugue subject. They are linking notes to get
smoothly to the next voice entry (the Answer). You can use different notes here if you wish.




PART 2: Provide an analytical overview of your fugue (word length: maximum 400).
• This should follow the exemplars given in the class notes for different fugues studied in class.
o You should look, for example, in the Week 11 class notes for Bach’s Fugue in D minor, WTC 1.
• Your section headings should conform to the structure of the fugue: Exposition – Episode 1 – Middle Entry –
Episode 2 – Final Entry.
o Under each of these headings, write a short description that makes clear to the examiner what you are
doing at each point in your fugue. Remember to give bar numbers!
o You can use the following abbreviations: S (subject), CS (countersubject), ME (middle entry).
• For the Exposition:
a) List the order of voice entries and state which voice (upper, middle, or lower) has the
subject, answer or countersubject.
b) State if you use a real or tonal answer.
c) State if your countersubject works in invertible counterpoint at the octave with the
subject.
d) State where free counterpoint occurs.
• For Episodes:
a) Describe the motivic idea used for the sequential pattern.
b) State if the circle of fifths or another pattern is used.
c) Explain how you move your motivic idea from voice to voice during the episode (or
repeat it in the same voice only).
d) Describe the material in the other voices when they do not have the motivic idea.
e) Describe the chordal progressions in the episode, including any secondary dominants
or chromatic chords.
• For the Middle Entry and Final Entry:
a) State the key.
b) List the order of voice entries and explain which voice has the subject, answer or
countersubject.
c) State if you use a real or tonal answer.
d) State if you use the same countersubject that you used in the Exposition or if you use
a new countersubject. If the CS is new, state if it uses invertible counterpoint.
e) Describe where you use any free counterpoint.
f) Describe your use of any advanced contrapuntal technique such as inversion,
augmentation, stretto. NB use of these techniques is optional in your fugue.

• PART 3: Written responses to assigned readings about fugue (word count: maximum 400; that is, up to 100
words for each of the responses below).
o Remember that your answer should provide in-text citations (including page numbers) to each of the
readings.
o Your submission should also include a Reference List with the two readings formatted according to
the School of Music Style Sheet (2024), available online.
o Reading responses 1: Paul Walker, “Introduction” (see the week 10 class notes). Questions:
a) According to Walker, what are the different approaches to teaching fugue that have been used
in recent centuries?
b) How does Bach’s Fugue in C minor, Well-Tempered Clavier book 1, demonstrate the essential
characteristics of a fugue?
o Reading responses 2: Joseph Kerman, “Fugue in E Major, Well-Tempered Clavier book 2” (see the
week 12 class notes). Questions:
a) How does Kerman’s approach to analysing the structure of the Fugue in E Major differ
from the approach taken by Walker in his analysis of the Fugue in C Minor?
b) Kerman’s writing often mixes personal responses with sophisticated contrapuntal analysis.
How does this approach influence or change the ways in which you think that music can be
described?

MUSC7470 – Fugue
NAME:
STUDENT NUMBER:
STUDENT STATEMENT: I certify that this submission comprises solely my own work.
SIGNATURE:

Complete your fugue using this template:

























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