A question regarding transposition and fugal answers?

Question

Is it compulsory to introduce the answer of a fugue at +5 or -4 scale degrees relative to the home key? I'm not asking whether it's necessary to transpose the answer; my question is whether transposing to the said degrees is a must or is it flexible?

Answer 1

It's typically been the +5 or -4 degree (I know of no fugue that isn't, other than one I wrote), but you could experimentally use other intervals and still call it a variant fugue if you preserve the other elements. However some people would disagree; I myself wouldn't call it a straightforward fugue.

Answer 2

Hello,

Sounds to me like you’re in a counterpoint class. Is that so?