- A contrapuntal composition for two or more voices or parts built around a theme, which is successively imitated by entries of each voice at the beginning and developed throughout the piece. The initial entry in the tonic key is called the subject. The second entry in the dominant is called the answer. If this answer is exact (e.g. it reproduces the subject note for note in the dominant) then it is a real answer. If the answer is slightly modified to preserve tonality, it is called a tonal answer. After having announced the subject or answer, each voice passes on to another thematic element known as the countersubject. After each voice has made its initial entry the cxposition or first section of the fugue is complete. Thereafter, further entries of the subject appear, separated by contrapuntal episodes and the subject may be treated by augmentation, diminution, inversion, etc. J.S. Bach was one of the great masters of the fugue.?