Editing Fugue (section)

===Stretto===
{{main|Stretto}}
[[File:Fischer-fugue1.png|thumb|400px|Example of ''stretto'' fugue in a quotation from Fugue in C major by [[Johann Caspar Ferdinand Fischer]] who died in 1746. The subject, including an eighth note rest, is seen in the alto voice, starting on beat 1 bar 1 and ending on beat 1 bar 3, which is where the answer would usually be expected to begin. As this is a ''stretto'', the answer already takes place in the tenor voice, on the third quarter note of the first bar, therefore coming in "early"<br/>[[File:Fugue in C major by Johann Caspar Ferdinand Fischer.mid]]]]
Sometimes counter-expositions or the middle entries take place in ''[[stretto]],'' whereby one voice responds with the subject/answer before the first voice has completed its entry of the subject/answer, usually increasing the intensity of the music.<ref name="ReferenceA">{{Cite Grove |last=Walker |first=Paul |title=Stretto (i)}}</ref>

Only one entry of the subject must be heard in its completion in a ''stretto''. However, a ''stretto'' in which the subject/answer is heard in completion in all voices is known as ''stretto maestrale'' or ''grand stretto''.<ref>{{harvnb|Verrall|1966|p=77}}</ref> ''Strettos'' may also occur by inversion, augmentation and diminution. A fugue in which the opening exposition takes place in ''stretto'' form is known as a ''close fugue'' or ''stretto fugue'' (see for example, the ''Gratias agimus tibi'' and ''{{lang|la|[[Mass in B minor structure#Dona nobis pacem|Dona nobis pacem]]}}'' choruses from J.S. Bach's [[Mass in B minor]]).<ref name="ReferenceA"/>