Middle Ages and Renaissance The term
fuga was used as far back as the
Middle Ages, but was initially used to refer to any kind of imitative counterpoint, including
canons, which are now thought of as distinct from fugues. Prior to the 16th century, fugue was originally a genre. It was not until the 16th century that fugal technique as it is understood today began to be seen in pieces, both instrumental and vocal. Fugal writing is found in works such as
fantasias,
ricercares and
canzonas. "Fugue" as a theoretical term first occurred in 1330 when
Jacobus of Liege wrote about the
fuga in his
Speculum musicae. The fugue arose from the technique of "imitation", where the same musical material was repeated starting on a different note.
Gioseffo Zarlino, a composer, author, and theorist in the
Renaissance, was one of the first to distinguish between the two types of imitative counterpoint: fugues and canons (which he called imitations). Palestrina's imitative motets differed from fugues in that each phrase of the text had a different subject which was introduced and worked out separately, whereas a fugue continued working with the same subject or subjects throughout the entire length of the piece.
Baroque era It was in the
Baroque period that the writing of fugues became central to composition, in part as a demonstration of compositional expertise.
Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck,
Girolamo Frescobaldi,
Johann Jakob Froberger and
Dieterich Buxtehude all wrote fugues. Fugues were incorporated into a variety of
musical genres, and are found in most of
George Frideric Handel's
oratorios. Keyboard
suites from this time often conclude with a fugal
gigue.
Domenico Scarlatti has only a few fugues among his corpus of over 500 harpsichord sonatas. The
French overture featured a quick fugal section after a slow introduction. The second movement of a
sonata da chiesa, as written by
Arcangelo Corelli and others, was usually fugal. The Baroque period also saw a rise in the importance of
music theory. Some fugues during the Baroque period were pieces designed to teach contrapuntal technique to students. The most influential text was
Johann Joseph Fux's Gradus Ad Parnassum ("Steps to
Parnassus"), which appeared in 1725. This work laid out the terms of
"species" of counterpoint, and offered a series of exercises to learn fugue writing. Fux's work was largely based on the practice of
Palestrina's modal fugues.
Mozart studied from this book, and it remained influential into the nineteenth century.
Haydn, for example, taught counterpoint from his own summary of Fux and thought of it as the basis for formal structure. Bach's most famous fugues are those for the harpsichord in
The Well-Tempered Clavier, which many composers and theorists look at as the greatest model of fugue.
The Well-Tempered Clavier comprises two volumes written in different times of Bach's life, each comprising 24 prelude and fugue pairs, one for each major and minor key. Bach is also known for his organ fugues, which are usually preceded by a
prelude or
toccata.
The Art of Fugue, BWV 1080, is a collection of fugues (and four
canons) on a single theme that is gradually transformed as the cycle progresses. Bach also wrote smaller single fugues and put fugal sections or movements into many of his more general works. J.S. Bach's influence extended forward through his son
C.P.E. Bach and through the theorist
Friedrich Wilhelm Marpurg (1718–1795) whose
Abhandlung von der Fuge ("Treatise on the fugue", 1753) was largely based on J.S. Bach's work.
Classical era During the
Classical era, the fugue was no longer a central or even fully natural mode of musical composition. Nevertheless, both
Haydn and
Mozart had periods of their careers in which they in some sense "rediscovered" fugal writing and used it frequently in their work.
Haydn Joseph Haydn was the leader of fugal composition and technique in the Classical era. Later in life, the major impetus to fugal writing for Mozart was the influence of Baron
Gottfried van Swieten in Vienna around 1782. Van Swieten, during diplomatic service in Berlin, had taken the opportunity to collect as many manuscripts by Bach and Handel as he could, and he invited Mozart to study his collection and encouraged him to transcribe various works for other combinations of instruments. Mozart was evidently fascinated by these works and wrote a set of five transcriptions for string quartet, K. 405 (1782), of fugues from Bach's
Well-Tempered Clavier, introducing them with preludes of his own. In a letter to his sister
Nannerl Mozart, dated in Vienna on 20 April 1782, Mozart recognizes that he had not written anything in this form, but moved by his wife's interest, he composed one piece, which is sent with the letter. He begs her not to let anybody see the fugue and manifests the hope to write five more and then present them to Baron van Swieten. Regarding the piece, he said "I have taken particular care to write
andante maestoso upon it, so that it should not be played fast – for if a fugue is not played slowly the ear cannot clearly distinguish the new subject as it is introduced and the effect is missed". Mozart then set to writing fugues on his own, mimicking the Baroque style. These included a fugue in C minor, K. 426, for two pianos (1783). Later, Mozart incorporated fugal writing into his opera
Die Zauberflöte and the finale of his
Symphony No. 41. The parts of the
Requiem he completed also contain several fugues (most notably the Kyrie, and the three fugues in the Domine Jesu; he also left behind a sketch for an
Amen fugue which, some believe, would have come at the end of the Sequentia).
Beethoven ]
Ludwig van Beethoven was familiar with fugal writing from childhood, as an important part of his training was playing from
The Well-Tempered Clavier. During his early career in
Vienna, Beethoven attracted notice for his performance of these fugues. There are fugal sections in Beethoven's early piano sonatas, and fugal writing is to be found in the second and fourth movements of the
Eroica Symphony (1805). Beethoven incorporated fugues in his sonatas, and reshaped the episode's purpose and compositional technique for later generations of composers. Nevertheless, fugues did not take on a truly central role in Beethoven's work until his late period. The finale of Beethoven's
Hammerklavier Sonata contains a fugue, which was practically unperformed until the late 19th century, due to its tremendous technical difficulty and length. The last movement of his
Cello Sonata, Op. 102 No. 2 is a fugue, and there are fugal passages in the last movements of his Piano Sonatas in
A major, Op. 101 and
A major Op. 110. According to
Charles Rosen, "With the finale of 110, Beethoven re-conceived the significance of the most traditional elements of fugue writing." Fugal passages are also found in the
Missa Solemnis and all movements of the
Ninth Symphony, except the third. A massive, dissonant fugue forms the finale of his
String Quartet, Op. 130 (1825); the latter was later published separately as Op. 133, the
Große Fuge ("Great Fugue").
Glenn Gould said that "...the Grosse Fugue is not only the greatest work Beethoven ever composed but just about the most astonishing piece in musical literature." However, it is the fugue that opens Beethoven's
String Quartet in C minor, Op. 131 that several commentators regard as one of the composer's greatest achievements.
Joseph Kerman (1966, p. 330) calls it "this most moving of all fugues".
J. W. N. Sullivan (1927, p. 235) hears it as "the most superhuman piece of music that Beethoven has ever written."
Philip Radcliffe (1965, p. 149) says "[a] bare description of its formal outline can give but little idea of the extraordinary profundity of this fugue ."
Romantic era By the beginning of the
Romantic era, fugue writing had become specifically attached to the norms and styles of the Baroque.
Felix Mendelssohn wrote many fugues inspired by his study of the music of
Johann Sebastian Bach. Johannes Brahms'
Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel, Op. 24, is a work for solo piano written in 1861. It consists of a set of twenty-five variations and a concluding fugue, all based on a theme from George Frideric Handel's
Harpsichord Suite No. 1 in B♭ major, HWV 434. ]
Franz Liszt's
Piano Sonata in B minor (1853) contains a powerful fugue, demanding incisive virtuosity from its player:
Richard Wagner included several fugues in his opera
Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg.
Giuseppe Verdi included a whimsical example at the end of his opera
Falstaff and his setting of the
Requiem Mass contained two (originally three) choral fugues.
Anton Bruckner and
Gustav Mahler also included them in their respective symphonies. The exposition of the finale of Bruckner's
Symphony No. 5 begins with a fugal exposition. The exposition ends with a chorale, the melody of which is then used as a second fugal exposition at the beginning of the development. The recapitulation features both fugal subjects concurrently. The finale of Mahler's
Symphony No. 5 features a "fugue-like" passage early in the movement, though this is not actually an example of a fugue.
20th century Twentieth-century composers brought fugue back to its position of prominence, realizing its uses in full instrumental works, its importance in development and introductory sections, and the developmental capabilities of fugal composition. The second movement of
Maurice Ravel's piano suite
Le Tombeau de Couperin (1917) is a fugue that
Roy Howat (200, p. 88) describes as having "a subtle glint of jazz". , Bartók:
Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta movement I, mm. 1–5 and movement IV, mm. 204–209.
Béla Bartók's
Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta (1936) opens with a slow fugue that
Pierre Boulez (1986, pp. 346–47) regards as "certainly the finest and most characteristic example of Bartók's subtle style... probably the most
timeless of all Bartók's works – a fugue that unfolds like a fan to a point of maximum intensity and then closes, returning to the mysterious atmosphere of the opening." The second movement of Bartók's
Sonata for Solo Violin is a fugue, and the first movement of his
Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion contains a fugato.
Schwanda the Bagpiper (Czech: Švanda dudák), written in 1926, an opera in two acts (five scenes), with music by Jaromír Weinberger, includes a
Polka followed by a powerful
Fugue based on the Polka theme.
Ernst Toch composed a strict fugue for speakers, the
Geographical Fugue.
Igor Stravinsky also incorporated fugues into his works, including the
Symphony of Psalms and the
Dumbarton Oaks concerto. Stravinsky recognized the compositional techniques of Bach, and in the second movement of his
Symphony of Psalms (1930), he lays out a fugue that is much like that of the Baroque era. It employs a double fugue with two distinct subjects, the first beginning in C and the second in E. Techniques such as stretto, sequencing, and the use of subject incipits are frequently heard in the movement.
Dmitri Shostakovich's
24 Preludes and Fugues is the composer's homage to Bach's two volumes of
The Well-Tempered Clavier. In the first movement of his
Fourth Symphony, starting at rehearsal mark 63, is a gigantic fugue in which the 20-bar subject (and tonal answer) consist entirely of semiquavers, played at the speed of quaver = 168.
Olivier Messiaen, writing about his ''
Vingt regards sur l'enfant-Jésus (1944) wrote of the sixth piece of that collection, "Par Lui tout a été fait''" ("By Him were all things made"):
György Ligeti wrote a five-part double fugue for
his Requiem's second movement, the Kyrie, in which each part (SMATB) is subdivided in four-voice "bundles" that make a
canon. The melodic material in this fugue is totally
chromatic, with
melismatic (running) parts overlaid onto skipping intervals, and use of
polyrhythm (multiple simultaneous subdivisions of the measure), blurring everything both harmonically and rhythmically so as to create an aural aggregate, thus highlighting the theoretical/aesthetic question of the next section as to whether fugue is a form or a texture. According to
Tom Service, in this work, Ligeti
Benjamin Britten used a fugue in the final part of ''
The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra'' (1946). The
Henry Purcell theme is triumphantly cited at the end, making it a choral fugue. Canadian pianist and musical thinker
Glenn Gould composed
So You Want to Write a Fugue?, a full-scale fugue set to a text that cleverly explicates its own musical form.
Outside of classical music Fugues (or fughettas/fugatos) have been incorporated into genres outside Western classical music. Several examples exist within
jazz, such as
Bach goes to Town, composed by the Welsh composer
Alec Templeton and recorded by
Benny Goodman in 1938, and
Concorde composed by
John Lewis and recorded by the
Modern Jazz Quartet in 1955. In "
Fugue for Tinhorns" from the Broadway musical
Guys and Dolls, written by
Frank Loesser, the characters Nicely-Nicely, Benny, and Rusty sing simultaneously about hot tips they each have in an upcoming
horse race. In
West Side Story, the dance sequence following the song "Cool" is structured as a fugue. Interestingly,
Leonard Bernstein quotes Beethoven's monumental
Große Fuge and employs Arnold Schoenberg's
twelve-tone technique, all in the context of a jazz-infused Broadway show stopper. A few examples also exist within
progressive rock, such as the central movement of "
The Endless Enigma" by
Emerson, Lake & Palmer and "
On Reflection" by
Gentle Giant. On their EP of the same name,
Vulfpeck has a composition called "Fugue State", which incorporates a fugue-like section between Theo Katzman (guitar), Joe Dart (bass), and Woody Goss (Wurlitzer keyboard). The composer
Matyas Seiber included an atonal or twelve-tone fugue, for flute trumpet and string quartet, in his score for the 1953 film
Graham Sutherland. The jazz composer and film composer,
Michel Legrand, includes a fugue as the climax of his score (a classical theme with variations, and fugue) for
Joseph Losey's 1972 film
The Go-Between as well as several times in his score for
Jacques Demy's 1970 film ''
Peau d'âne. John Williams includes a fugue in his score for the 1990 film, Home Alone, at the point where Kevin, accidentally left at home by his family, and realizing he is about to be attacked by a pair of bumbling burglars, begins to plan his elaborate defenses. Another fugue occurs at a similar point in the 1992 sequel film, Home Alone 2: Lost in New York''. == Discussion ==