Comes (Fugal Answer)
The answer to a fugue subject, usually on the dominant.
What it means
Comes, Latin for “companion,” is the term used in fugue for the answer to the subject: as soon as the first voice, the dux (subject), has fully stated the theme, a second voice takes up the same melodic shape, usually on the dominant rather than the tonic, while the first voice continues with a countersubject.
Comes and dux together form the basic principle of a fugue's exposition: each further entering voice alternates in turn between the two levels until all voices have entered.
Musical use
A distinction is made between a real answer, in which the subject appears transposed exactly to the fifth, and a tonal answer, in which certain intervals are slightly adjusted so the answer leads harmonically back into the key. Johann Sebastian Bach uses both procedures in his Well-Tempered Clavier, depending on the needs of each subject.
The comes should be distinguished from a simple thematic entry in another voice with no harmonic relationship to the dominant, as occurs in freer imitative writing: only the fixed tonic–dominant relationship between dux and comes constitutes a fugue exposition in the strict sense.
Performance practice
When playing or listening to a fugue, listen specifically for how the comes stands out against the dux: since both carry the same shape, it helps to articulate each entry deliberately and set it slightly apart in dynamics, so the voice leading remains easy for the ear to follow.