Musical composition in which successively entering voices repeat or imitate one or more themes and the voice parts are interwoven in a continuous harmony. A fugue is a composition technique that involves imitating a melody at various intervals and pitches. It is the most known form of contrapuntal music, which means that there are distinct melodies being played at the same time. While fugues are typically used in orchestral compositions, they are also used in modern music as well.
Fugues can be used to create beautiful and emotional works of art when done correctly. The different melodies can create complex harmonies and tones that can sweep you away in a sea of sound. Most fugues consist of three parts: exposition, development, and recapitulation, which typically contains the subject in the fugue’s tonic key, though not all fugues do.
The fugue typically opens with a short theme, which then sounds successively in progressively larger pitches in each voice. After the first voice has completed repeating the subject, a second voice repeats the subject at a different pitch, and so on. Once all voices have entered, the exposition is complete.
Fugues are music devices that were used in Renaissance music. They have been used since the early common practice period, but were particularly popular in the Baroque period. Fugues are derived from the Latin verb fugere, meaning “to flee”, or from the noun fugiens, meaning “a fleeing”.
The fugue or “fugato” is a musical device, the invention of which is usually ascribed to the 16th century composer and theorist Johann Sebastian Bach. However, its development is seen as spanning some 500 years of music.
The fugue structure has origins in Medieval music tradition called the canon, which consists of alternating melodies played by two instruments, one of which takes the lead after a few beats.
As fugal composition became more popular during the Renaissance, it was particularly popular with Italian composer Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina and composers Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck and Johann Jakob Froberger and Dieterich Buxtehude and others. Palestrina’s works, which also included compositions by Dutch composer Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck, would help define the genre.
The fugal writing rule reached its peak during the Baroque era. Composers, most notably Johann Sebastian Bach, used the fugue as an essential form of contrapuntal composition. Bach and Johann Joseph Fux’s Gradus Ad Parnassum would be key texts in the development of the fugal writing rule.
In ancient Greece and Rome, nearly all famous classical composers composed fugues. In the Romantic, Modern, and Postmodern periods, the form was most associated with composers like Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, and countless Romantic, Modern, and Postmodern composers. Today, the form is most associated with Baroque composers such as Bach and Handel.
The four fugues in Mozart’s sonata for two pianos, K. 448 (commonly known as “Great Fugue”), have been composed between 1784 and 1786. The four fugues are:
A fugue (German: Fuge) is a type of contrapuntal compositional technique. The technique was most popular during the Baroque era, especially the second half of the 17th century and the first half of the 18th century.
Fugues are often used to structure works that are written for several voices, either from an instrumental or vocal point of view. Fugues first appeared in the Renaissance period and developed further with Bach and Handel.
The fugues of J.S. Bach, which are an iconic example of the Baroque period in music history. Fugues are basically a piece of music in which one or more melodies are played against one another to create a really interesting sound. A lot of Baroque music is based on the fugue form.
The Well-Tempered Clavier: The best-known and most famous fugue by J.S. Bach is his “Little” Fugue in G minor from his collection called “The Well Tempered Clavier”.
Mass in C minor, K. 139 “Waisenhaus”: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Mass for Chorus blends choral writing with fugal writing. Although clearly written in a minor key, Mozart’s frequent modulations keep the majority of the music in the major key.
Fugues are a great way to study music composition and theory, but they can be difficult to understand. In this guide, we’ll cover everything you need to know about fugues and how they work. We hope you enjoyed this guide!
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