fugue

—fuguelike, adj.

/fyoohg/, n.

1. Music. a polyphonic composition based upon one, two, or more themes, which are enunciated by several voices or parts in turn, subjected to contrapuntal treatment, and gradually built up into a complex form having somewhat distinct divisions or stages of development and a marked climax at the end.

2. Psychiatry. a period during which a person suffers from loss of memory, often begins a new life, and, upon recovery, remembers nothing of the amnesic phase.

[1590-1600; < F < It fuga < L: flight]

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Musical composition characterized by systematic imitation of one or more themes in counterpoint.

Fugues vary greatly in their actual form. The principal theme (subject) is imitated

i.e., repeated successively in similar form at different pitch levels by different parts or voices

in the so-called exposition. The countersubject is the continuation of the subject that accompanies the subject theme's subsequent entries in the other voices. Episodes using modified themes often separate the subject's entries. The fugue emerged gradually from the imitative polyphony of the 13th century. Johann Sebastian Bach's keyboard fugues are the most famous of all. The works of Bach and George Frideric Handel inspired the later fugues of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, and others, many of whom commonly included fugues in the final movements of symphonies, string quartets, and sonatas.

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Introduction

      in music, a compositional procedure characterized by the systematic imitation of a principal theme (called the subject) in simultaneously sounding melodic lines ( counterpoint). The term fugue may also be used to describe a work or part of a work. In its mathematical intricacy, formality, symmetry, and variety, the fugue holds the interest of composers, performers, and listeners of Western art music in much the same way as the sonnet engages English-language poets and their readers.

History of the fugue

      The earliest and most rigorous imitative technique in Western polyphony is the canon, in which each successive voice (the term for a musical line that is sung or played) has the same melody. Canons appeared in the 13th century and have been an important resource in Western counterpoint to the present day. (Folk music includes many examples of repeating canon, called round: "Frère Jacques" and "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" are familiar examples.) Fugue can be thought of as a later stage in the evolution of canon. The name fuga was applied to canonic pieces as early as the 14th century, but the logical ancestors of the fully developed fugue are the closely imitative beginnings of late 16th-century ensemble canzonas, such as those by Giovanni Gabrieli (Gabrieli, Giovanni), as well as the related ricercare.

      An early Baroque work for keyboard showing intense imitative development of a single subject is the Fantasia chromatica by Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck (Sweelinck, Jan Pieterszoon), although much of this piece is dominated by fast-moving melodic counterpoint in a free, improvisatory style without the imitative subject. The Fiori musicali (1635; “Musical Flowers”) of Girolamo Frescobaldi (Frescobaldi, Girolamo) include imitative cantus firmus pieces (i.e., based on a preexisting melody), as well as such substantial fugues as the Recercar dopo il Credo (“Ricercare After the Credo”) and Canzon post il comune (“Canzona After the Communion”).

      In the 17th century, such composers as Frescobaldi and Johann Jakob Froberger (Froberger, Johann Jakob) made use of fugal technique within the context of larger movements. The same technique was used at times by Johann Sebastian Bach (Bach, Johann Sebastian), as in some of his keyboard preludes in Das wohltemperirte Clavier (1722, 1744; The Well-Tempered Clavier, two books, each comprising 24 paired preludes and fugues in all the major and minor keys); the E-flat Major Prelude in the first book, for example, freely intermixes strictly fugal and entirely nonfugal passages. By the time of Bach, the fugue as a complete composition, or as a named and self-contained section of a larger composition, had been well established in keyboard works by Dietrich Buxtehude (Buxtehude, Dietrich), Johann Pachelbel (Pachelbel, Johann), Georg Muffat (Muffat, Georg), and many others in Germany, as well as in orchestral concerti by Antonio Vivaldi (Vivaldi, Antonio) and others in Italy. The composer Johann Caspar Ferdinand Fischer's Ariadne musica (1702), with preludes and fugues in pairs, in most of the possible keys, is a forerunner of Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier.

      The works of Bach stand at the very pinnacle of the history of the fugue. Bach's fugues remain unsurpassed in their extraordinary variety and in their individual perfection, and no other composer produced so many resplendent examples of fugues large and small for every medium available to him at the time. Hardly less impressive, though not as numerous, are the large-scale choral fugues in the oratorios of Bach's contemporary, George Frideric Handel (Handel, George Frideric), as well as the fugues in concertante style in his concerti grossi. Yet by the middle of the 18th century, the fugue had passed its peak in popularity with composers; in the late 18th century, the fugue would survive chiefly in sacred music as a model of hallowed tradition. The symphonic era had begun, the period of Viennese Classicism, and the textures of the sonata and symphony developed in the direction of accompanied melody and chordal textures, generally leaving aside systematically maintained contrapuntal textures.

      The skill and imagination of Bach and Handel were nevertheless an inspiration to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus) when he wrote the choral fugues in his Mass in C Minor, K 427 (1782), and Requiem, K 626 (1791). As a composer in instrumental forms, Mozart employed fugal technique only seldom but with conspicuous success, as in the Fugue in C Minor for two pianos, K 426 (1783), and the F Minor Fantasia for organ, K 608 (1791). The finale of Mozart's Symphony No. 41 in C Major, K 551 (1788; Jupiter), a sonata-form movement with extensive passages of fugato in quintuple invertible counterpoint (see Elements of the fugue (fugue), below), is a unique tour de force in the history of music. Joseph Haydn (Haydn, Joseph) employed the fugue several times in his masses and occasionally in his symphonies—such as Symphony No. 70 in D Major (first performed 1779)—and chamber music (for example, String Quartet in F Minor, Opus 20, No. 5 [1772]).

      Ludwig van Beethoven (Beethoven, Ludwig van) brought the Classical symphony, piano sonata, and string quartet to a peak of lyrical and dramatic expression, but he also rediscovered the neglected fugue and virtually reinvented it. The second movement of his String Quartet in C Minor, Opus 18, No. 4 (1798–1800), begins with extensive fugato passages, and the treatment of the beginning of the slow movement of his Symphony No. 1 in C Major, Opus 21 (1799–1800), is quite similar. Even more extensive fugal treatment dominates the finale of the String Quartet in C Major, Opus 59, No. 3 (1806). Yet in his last works, Beethoven carried the fugue to new extremes, in the first movement and choral finale of the Symphony No. 9 in D Minor, Opus 125 (1822–24); in the Mass in D Major, Opus 123 (1819–23; Missa solemnis); in the enormous finale of the Piano Sonata in B-flat Major, Opus 106 (1817–18; Hammerklavier); and in the Grosse Fuge in B-flat Major for string quartet, Opus 133 (1825–26; Great Fugue). In the Hammerklavier fugue Beethoven calls not only for multiple stretti (overlapping entrances; see below (fugue)), melodic inversion (moving in the opposite direction; see below (fugue)), and augmentation (lengthening note values) but also the seldom-used cancrizans (literally, “crablike”), in which the fugue subject is written backward, note for note. Here and in the Great Fugue, Beethoven divides the fugue into sections, with changes of key, metre, and tempo; the Great Fugue assembles a three-movement structure into a single movement about 25 minutes long, all controlled by a single fugue subject with several countersubjects.

      In Beethoven's time the fugue became favoured as an instrument of pedagogy, especially in institutions such as the Paris Conservatory, where, beginning with Luigi Cherubini (Cherubini, Luigi) and continuing with Théodore Dubois (Dubois, Théodore) and André Gédalge, a specialized and strictly regulated fugue d'école (“school fugue”) style was established that has continued to be taught into the 21st century.

      After Beethoven, the fugue was favoured in the 19th century by composers who were influenced by the rediscovery of Bach's masterworks. In the remarkable "Offertory" of Hector Berlioz (Berlioz, Hector)'s Grande Messe des morts (1837; Requiem), the entire fugal treatment is in the orchestra, with a very long subject surmounted by a choral ostinato motive on just two notes. Organ works by Felix Mendelssohn (Mendelssohn, Felix), Franz Liszt (Liszt, Franz), and César Franck (Franck, César), as well as Liszt's Piano Sonata in B Minor (1851–53) and Faust Symphony (1857) and Franck's Prelude, Chorale and Fugue for piano (1884), contain notable fugal passages. Johannes Brahms (Brahms, Johannes)'s Variations and Fugue on a Theme by G.F. Handel (1861) is a worthwhile example, and his German Requiem (1857–68) includes a 37-measure fugue entirely on a tonic pedal point, as well as a brilliant double fugue. Giuseppe Verdi (Verdi, Giuseppe) turned to the venerable technique for his Messa da Requiem (1874) and created a spectacular vocal fugue to end his last opera, Falstaff (1893), to the text “Tutto nel mondo è burla” (“The whole world is a joke”). At the turn of the 19th century and into the 20th, Gustav Mahler (Mahler, Gustav)'s symphonies exhibited a conspicuous and impeccably skilled concern with orchestral counterpoint, but of his works only the finale of the Symphony No. 5 (1901–02) showed a genuine fugue exposition. Max Reger (Reger, Max) and Ferruccio Busoni (Busoni, Ferruccio) continued the Bach-inspired tradition of fugue writing into 20th-century keyboard music of great complexity. The neoclassical movement in European and American music marked a reinvigoration of interest in fugue (see the sidebar, , for further examples).

Elements of the fugue

      Fugal techniques can produce music of great interest and complexity, although the ingredients of a fugue are relatively few and the procedures are straightforward. The first section, always included, is the exposition, during which the principal theme, or subject, is stated successively in each of the constituent voices or parts. The first statement of the subject is in one voice alone. While this voice continues, the second statement enters, transposed to the key of the dominant (the fifth degree of the scale), and is called the answer; the third statement returns to the main key; the fourth statement, if there is one, typically is in the dominant key again. If the melody of the answer is an exact transposition of the subject, into the new key, it is a real answer; often, however, the melody will be slightly manipulated to avoid a true change of key, in which case it is a tonal answer.

      The answer is typically accompanied by counterpoint in another voice; if the same pairing continues throughout the fugue, that contrapuntal voice is labeled a countersubject. The contrapuntal relationship between subject and countersubject in different voices must work equally well regardless of which is above or below; that is, the counterpoint must be invertible. In many fugues, however, there is no countersubject; the counterpoint accompanying the subject is free and does not systematically recur.

      Following the exposition, the subject can be regularly restated as often as the composer desires, but normally the subject appears at least once more in every part. Statements of the subject are often varied by transposition, with a corresponding temporary change of key. In some fugues, the subject is always present in one part or another; in most, statements of the subject are often separated by connective melodic passages called episodes.

      The way the fugue unfolds and how long it lasts are determined by the composer's wish to include a variety of possible treatments of the subject. The subject may be short or very long, with a range of possibilities in between, and the fugue itself may be short, only a few measures, or of many minutes' duration. The number of parts (voices) in the fugue is likewise flexible. Most fugues are in three or four voices (“à 3” or “à 4”), but not all of these are used at any given moment; it is common for an episode to proceed in as few as two voices.

Varieties of the fugue

      Fugues have been composed for every medium and genre, sacred or secular, vocal or instrumental, solo or ensemble. Bach composed his fugues for the organ; for the harpsichord or clavichord in the two books of The Well-Tempered Clavier and in the toccatas, suites, and partitas; for unaccompanied chorus, in the motets; for chorus with organ or orchestra, in the cantatas, passions, and masses; even for solo violin, in the partitas and sonatas.

      Fugues in two voices are rare, and in Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier there is only one, No. 10 of Book 1; a few of his Fifteen Inventions are two-voice fugues (Nos. 5, 10, 12, and 15). Five-, six-, and even seven-part fugues are likewise possible but uncommon. Two fugues in The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1, are five-part fugues, Nos. 4 and 22. The opening "Kyrie" of Bach's Mass in B Minor, BWV 232 (1747–49), is a five-part fugue; the first "Credo" is a seven-part fugue over a free bass, an example of particularly complex yet clear counterpoint. The six-part fugue in the Musical Offering, BWV 1079 (1747; Musikalisches Opfer), Bach chose to call ricercare in honour of the older form.

      Composers have varied the subject by doubling the rhythmic value of each note, a technique known as augmentation. Conversely, they may cut the values in half, or into smaller fractions, resulting in the diminution of the subject. Another approach to manipulating the subject is melodic inversion, in which the up and down intervals of the subject are exactly reversed; for example, if the subject moves upward a whole tone (as from g to a), the inversion moves downward a whole tone (as from g to f). In The Art of the Fugue, BWV 1080 (published 1751; Die Kunst der Fuge), Bach composed two three-voice mirror fugues; each of these is paired with a second fugue that is the exact mirror inversion, in all parts, of the first.

      The subject may be begun in one part as usual but then proceed immediately in another as well, before the first statement has finished. This overlapping, called stretto, is often found near the end of a fugue, as a means of building to a climax, but may occur anywhere, usually after the exposition. Examples from The Well-Tempered Clavier include Nos. 1 and 8 from Book 1 and Nos. 5, 7, and 22 from Book 2; stretto occurs within the exposition of Book 2, No. 3.

      In a double fugue two subjects may receive simultaneous exposition; the result is similar to a simple fugue with a countersubject, as is the case in the opening chorus of Bach's St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244 (1727; Passio secundum Matthaeum). More often, in a double fugue the composer gives the two subjects separate complete expositions, first one and then the other, and eventually brings the two subjects together, as in The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 2, No. 18, a three-voice fugue. In Mozart's Fugue in G Minor, K 401, for piano four hands (1782), the two subjects are melodic inversions of each other.

      Two excellent examples of triple fugue (i.e., having three subjects) are Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1, No. 4, and his Fugue in E-flat Major for organ, BWV 552, called the St. Anne (1739); both of these are five-voice fugues, but a complete texture of five different parts appears only part of the time, with passages of two, three, or four parts making up most of the piece. In the St. Anne fugue, each of the three subjects has a separate exposition in its own metre, and only the first subject is combined with each of the other two.

      A fughetta is a short fugue, with exposition plus only a few restatements of the subject. Fugato applies to music where only part of a fugue—usually an exposition—appears in a context that is not otherwise fugal, as a means of thematic development. Well-known examples of fugato include passages in the first and fourth movements of Mozart's Symphony No. 40 in G Minor, K 550 (1788). Beethoven used the technique in the finales of Symphony No. 3 in E-flat Major (1803) and Piano Concerto No. 3 in C Minor (1800–03), the slow movement of Symphony No. 7 in A Major (1811–12), and the "Scherzo" of Symphony No. 9. An example from Mendelssohn is the first movement of Symphony No. 4 in A Major (1833; Italian); and Antonín Dvorák (Dvořák, Antonín) used fugato in the first movement of his Symphony No. 8 in G Major (1889).

      A noteworthy subcategory of fugue is the type based on a cantus firmus. An example is the double fugue at the beginning of Bach's St. Matthew Passion, already mentioned, which includes widely spaced phrases of the chorale melody "O Lamm Gottes unschuldig" (“Oh, Innocent Lamb of God”). Max Reger's Variations on a Theme of Mozart for orchestra (1914) concludes with a lengthy fugue climaxing with Mozart's original theme (from the A Major Piano Sonata, K 331) superposed; the same idea marks the concluding fugue of Benjamin Britten (Britten, Benjamin)'s Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Purcell (1946; Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra). Bach's Musical Offering is made up of a three-part fugue, a trio sonata, 10 canons, and a six-part ricercare, all on a "Royal Theme" by King Frederick the Great; one of the canons ( "Fuga canonica in epidiapente" ) is constructed, as the title states, so that two of the voices are canonic at the fifth (that is, a fifth apart in pitch) throughout. Bach's Art of the Fugue, unfinished at his death, includes many of the special melodic techniques mentioned above in some 16 different fugues and 4 canons, their subjects all melodically derived from the subject of the first; a 17th fugue, intended as a quadruple fugue, breaks off shortly after the exposition of the third subject, a four-note motive B-A-C-H (German notation for the pitches B-flat, A, C, and B-natural), a fitting way for the composer to sign one of his last works.

Mark DeVoto

Additional Reading

Pedagogical works include André Gédalge, Treatise on the Fugue (1965; originally published in French, 1901); Ebenezer Prout, Fugue (1891, reprinted 1970); and C.H. Kitson, Studies in Fugue (1909, reissued 1953).Among the modern analytical studies are Alfred Mann, The Study of Fugue (1958, reprinted 1987); Warren Kirkendale, Fugue and Fugato in Rococo and Classical Chamber Music, rev. and expanded 2nd ed., trans. from German (1979); Paul Mark Walker, Theories of Fugue from the Age of Josquin to the Age of Bach (2000); and Joseph Kerman, The Art of Fugue: Bach Fugues for Keyboard, 1715–1750 (2005).A full analysis of Bach's C Minor Fugue from Book 1 of The Well-Tempered Clavier is presented in “Fugue,” The New Grove Encyclopedia of Music, vol. 9, pp. 320–321; the online version of the same article offers a way to hear the example and follow the score.

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