[Smt-talk] stretto calculation

[Slottow, Stephen]

I have always tested (and taught) the suitability of a subject for stretto
by trial and error, using subject and answer forms (including inversions)
at various pitch and time intervals. Yet it seems to me that there must be
a more dependable and rigorous method of composing and, especially,
evaluating a subject a subject to maximize its "strettobility." One way is
to make it sequential, but there must be others. I noticed at the SMT
counterpoint session that Robert Gauldin's comments on the Bb minor fugue
(WTC2, Eric Wen's talk) seemed to come out of a fairly well worked out
stretto methodology, but it doesn't seem to be set forth in his 18th-c.
cpt. book, where the comments on stretto are fairly sketchy.
Schubert&Neidhofer also appear to recommend a trial and error approach,
but have a short section about making first species reductions of subject
and answers to facilitate the discovery process.

Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

Thanks,

Stephen Slottow
University of North Texas