Fugue definitions and example sentences on Wordnik

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noun Music An imitative polyphonic composition in which a theme or themes are stated successively in all of the voices of the contrapuntal structure.
noun Psychiatry A pathological amnesiac condition during which one is apparently conscious of one's actions but has no recollection of them after returning to a normal state. This condition, usually resulting from severe mental stress, may persist for as long as several months.

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In music, a polyphonic composition based upon one, two, or even more themes, which are enunciated by the several voices or parts in turn, subjected to various kinds of 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. The most general divisions of a fugue are the exposition, the development, and the conclusion. A strict fugue is one in which each division is developed symmetrically and in a purely contrapuntal manner; while a free fugue is one that is irregular or incomplete in plan or detail. In the exposition, the first voice enunciates the theme alone (subject, dux, antecedent) in the tonic key; the second voice then enunciates it (answer, comes, consequent) in the dominant key, sometimes with slight alterations; the third voice then imitates the first at the octave (usually); the fourth voice imitates the second in the same way; and so on, until all the voices, if there are more than four, have entered with the theme. The earlier voices usually accompany the later ones as they enter; and the melody added by the first voice to the answer in the second is often contrived in double counterpoint with it, so as to serve throughout the fugue as a counter-subject or foil for the original theme. The character of the theme gives the name to the fugue; a diatonic fugue having a diatonic subject, a chromatic fugue a chromatic subject, a Doric fugue a subject in the Doric mode, etc.: the character of the subject generally determines the character of the development. A real fugue is one in which the answer imitates the subject, note for note, usually at the fifth or fourth; while a tonal fugue is one in which the answer contains such slight alterations of the subject as shall adjust it exactly to its different tonality. A fugue, by inversion is one whose answer is the inversion of the subject; so fugue by augmentation, by diminution, at the sixth, etc. The order in which the voices shall enter, and the exact relations of the answer to the subject, are both regulated by rules. A double fugue has two subjects, a triple fugue three subjects, etc. A fugue in two parts is one for two voices only, etc. A free part is sometimes added to those essential to the contrapuntal development of the fugue. In the development, the subjects, answers, and counter-subjects are used repeatedly, either wholly or in part, in different keys, under varying treatment, so as to unfold their entire contrapuntal capacity. The successive sections should have on increasing contrapuntal interest and intricacy, and should be closely bound together; though episodes or diversions from the orderly treatment of the principal themes may be inserted between the sections for contrast. In the conclusion, the theme is usually presented by all the voices in turn, as in the exposition, but frequently so rapidly that the entries overlap. Such an overlapping section is called the stretto. In connection with this, and usually as the final section, a pedal point is often introduced. The fugue is the consummate form of the polyphonic style of composition, requiring for its successful production a mastery of all the devices of counterpoint, as well as a very high grade of inventive and constructive genius. The greatest writers of fugues are J. S. Bach (1685–1750) and G. F. Handel (1685–1759). His volant touch Instinct through all proportions, low and high, Fled and pursued transverse the resonant fugue. Milton, P. L., xi. 563.
Single fugue a fugue with only one subject: opposed to double fugue (which see, under fugue ).

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“Do you know what a fugue is Are you changing the subject No.” I thought in silence for some distance before his answer arranged itself sensibly in my mind. — The Beekeeper’s Apprentice - Laurie R. King - Russell-Holmes 01
Isaah's hands were inhumanly swift in his drugged fugue, and he came away with a handful of the skein; Rathere screamed, bleeding a few drops from her eyes. — F ;SF - vol 098 issue 04 - April 2000
I also asked a certain Professor there to give me a theme for a fugue, and worked it out Now for my congratulations My very dearest papa,—I cannot write poetically, for I am no poet. — The Letters of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Vol.1.
It begins with a parody of a fugue, the answer being announced before the subject—that is, what purports to be the answer occurs a fifth instead of a fourth below; then what purports to be the subject is re-announced one tone above its first statement, and answered, as before, a fifth below. — Richard Wagner
If not, we shall see each other again at Weymar, for you owe me a compensation for your last fugue, which is no more to my taste than Kuhmstedt's counterpoint. — Letters of Franz Liszt, Volume 1, "From Paris to Rome: Years of Travel as a Virtuoso,"

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fugue

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