ABSTRACT
This chapter provides exercises that deal with two-part counterpoint in subjects and answers. They can be performed as duets or as “Play-and-Sing” exercises. These examples serve to reinforce understanding of the differences encountered between real and tonal answers. A real answer is the imitation of the subject in the dominant, where all intervals are reproduced at the interval of a fifth. While some subjects modulate to the dominant (accommodating a real answer), there are usually two situations that call for a tonal answer: the subject ends in the tonic; and scale degree 5 appears early in the subject. Since scale degree 5 transposes to scale degree 2 (if the transposition were to be at the 5th), a real answer would not fit the ending harmony (tonic) of the subject, necessitating a transposition of that note or notes at the 4th.
