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  Midterm Exam
    Final Exam

Midterm Study Guide

The Midterm exam will cover canon, cantus firmus techniques, invention and fugue. You should study the internet notes, class notes plus handouts, and pages in Stein related to these topics. Written musical examples may be drawn from the internet notes, Stein, or handouts such as the Art of Fugue Contrapunctus XII (mirror fugues) and Contrapunctus XIV distributed in class. Listening examples may be drawn from any musical work included in your homework assignments as well as the Passacaglia in C-Minor (E. Power Biggs disk) that we listened to in class. You should be able to identify listening examples as: canon (be specific about type), chorale prelude, invention, or fugue. You should be able to determine, after hearing the exposition of a "fresh" fugue (not heard in class or homework), if the relationship between subject(s) and answer(s) is tonal or real, and how many voices state the subject or answer.

Canon

1. Study pp. 127-130 of Stein.
2. Be prepared to define "canon".
3. Be prepared to list the conditions that must be met for music to qualify as a canon.
4. Be prepared to describe and recognize the various types of canons:
   • at the unison or octave
   • at other intervals
   • in retrograde
   • in contrary motion
   • in mirror image (as a subtype of contrary motion)
   • in rhythmic proportions
   • in perpetual motion
   • in modulating spiral
   • with accompaniment in free counterpoint
   • with more than one canon at the same time (double or triple canon)
5. Understand the concept of cryptic notation and be able to articulate the contrapuntal processes implied by upside down clefs, two or more clefs on the same melody, backwards clefs, etc.
6. Study Bach's canons: the fourteen on the Goldberg Ground, four canons of the Art of Fugue, and the ten canons of the Musical Offering. Use the CDs to listen to these canons.
7. Make sure that you understand the role of contrapuntal inversion (double counterpoint) in defining the overall form of canons two (double ctpt @ the 10th), three (double ctpt @ the 12th), and four (double ctpt @ the 8va) of the Art of Fugue. Check out the Die Kunst der Fuge (Art of Fugue) CD and listen to these canons, clicking on the graphics in various places to hear how these contrapuntal inversions work.
8. Study excerpts from each of the above-mentioned canons to see how contrapuntal inversion works at different intervals.

1. Study pp. 130-131 of Stein.
2. Study the score and motivic analysis of the Two-Part Invention in C Major. Be prepared to identify two-measure "chunks" of this work as having been derived from an original "chunk" by process of melodic inversion or contrapuntal inversion or Evolutio. These questions may be framed in the context of score study and/or listening.

1. Study the cantus firmus internet notes and take the cantus firmus quiz.
2. Study pp. 147-148 of Stein.
3. Study the chorale prelude "Now Thank We All Our God" pp. 101-104 of Stein's Anthology.
4. Be able to define cantus firmus.
5. Be able to recognize in which voice (from score, or as a listening example) the cantus firmus appears.
6. In a listening example, be able to discern if the cantus firmus is treated in canon.
7. Be able to recognize if the form of a chorale or chorale prelude and represent it using letters (e.g. AB, ABA, AAB, AABB, etc.).

1. Study pp. 131-138 of Stein on Fugue.
2. Be prepared to define "fugue".
3. Be prepared to define and recognize the essential motives of a fugue: the subject, the answer (real versus tonal), and countersubject.
4. Be prepared to describe and recognize the sections of a fugue: the exposition (and its subtypes re-exposition, counterexposition, and double exposition), developmental episode, and coda or codetta.
5. Be prepared to recognize contrapuntal techniques which are used to develop the fugue: contrary and retrograde motion, stretto, augmentation & diminution, pedal point, contrapuntal inversion, sequence, modulation, and mutation.
6. Be prepared to recognize thematic transformation of the fugue's subject in Bach's Art of Fugue.
7. In a listening context, be prepared to describe what you hear in any of the fugues from the following sections of Bach's Art of Fugue: four simple fugues, three stretto fugues, or four mirror fugues.

1. What type of canon is implied by Bach's inscription Ascendenteque Modulatione ascendat Gloria Regis in the fifth canon of the Musical Offering?. Answer

2. What type of canon is implied by the enigmatical key signature of one sharp ("incorrectly" notated as g-sharp) in the third canon of the fourteen on the Goldberg Ground?. Answer

3. What type of canon is implied by the following cryptic notation?. Answer

   
   

4. Study the first eight measures of the last canon of the Art of Fugue. Identify the two contrapuntal techniques by which the lower voice (follower) is generated from the upper (leader). Answer

5. Again, go to the last canon of the Art of Fugue, but this time compare mm 5-8 with mm. 57-60. What contrapuntal procedure does a comparison of these two sections reveal? Answer

6. Let's play retrograde Jeopardy!
   
   
   • What is a "polyphonic elaboration of a chorale, usually for organ?" Answer p. 147 of Stein
   • What is a "substantive figure [in a fugue] that recurs immediately following the subject or answer (in the same voice)?" Answer
   • What is a "section [of a fugue] in which motives from the exposition are treated in sequence, modulation, melodic inversion, contrapuntal inversion, stretto, augmentation/diminution, pedal, etc.?" Answer
     
   • Are the following subject and answer in a real or tonal relationship with each other? Answer