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Stating a theme in longer note values (e.g., doubling all durations), making it slower and grander.
Augmentation transforms a theme by stretching it in time. A quick motif becomes a broad, noble statement. Use it in fugue (the subject in augmentation is a climactic device) or in symphonic development. The augmented theme can appear in the bass while shorter note values continue above.
Bach, The Art of Fugue, Contrapunctus 7, headed “per Augmentationem et Diminutionem”: the subject is combined with versions of itself in halved and in doubled note values, the augmented entries moving slowly through the faster voices.
Augmentation is one of 1760 terms in the Gradus musical dictionary: the words, abbreviations and instrument names that appear in printed scores, plus the vocabulary composers use to talk about them.
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