Here the entries are at a regular distance of one bar after each other; the alto is a fifth below the treble, the bass a fifth (twelfth) below the alto, and the tenor the fourth above the bass, which is the inversion of the fifth below. Each voice, except the tenor, which is the last to enter, discontinues the subject when the next voice enters with it. In the fifth bar of the extract is seen a fragment of the acountersubject in the alto, which, in the following bar, is continued by the treble. It is not uncommon in the middle section of a fugue to find a countersubject begun by one voice and completed by another. It should be noticed that the counterpoint of semiquavers, seen first in the bass and then in the treble, is developed from the codetta in the fourth bar of the example in § 169, before the entry of the countersubject.
272. Sometimes not only the subject, but the countersubject of a fugue is used in a stretto. A remarkably fine example of this is seen in the great five-part fugue in C sharp minor of the 'Wohltemperirtes Clavier.' It will be remembered that this fugue has two countersubjects, both of which we quoted in § 172. Only the second one, shown at (b) is employed with the subject in the stretto. Though the passage is rather long, it is so interesting, and deserves such careful examination that no apology is needed for quoting it in full.
