Definition of countersubject in English:
countersubject
nounˈkaʊntəˌsʌbdʒɛktˈkountərˌsəbjikt
Music A second or subsidiary subject, especially accompanying the subject or its answer in a fugue.
Example sentencesExamples
- He excelled the skills even of Frescobaldi in the manipulation of fugal devices such as countersubject, stretto and sustained pedalpoint.
- There remains one composition by Buxtehude, a canzonetta in A minor that is clearly similar to the opening of the first fugue of the A major toccata in both the shape and treatment of its subject and countersubject.
- Additional counterpoint is called ‘free’, but such material may be restated in an identical form, as if it were a second countersubject.
- Normally there is a dynamic interplay between subject and countersubject in a fugue, but here the energy is concentrated in the subject, with the countersubject limply shadowing it in thirds and sixths.
- In both pieces a fugue follows without a break and the fugue is created by stating the subject at the tonic and the fifth, with little in the way of a countersubject.