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8/12/2019 Fugue - Oxford Music Online
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Fugue(from Lat. fuga: flight, fleeing; Fr. fugue; Ger. Fuge; It. fuga).
A term in continuous use among musicians since the 14th century, when it was introduced, along
with its vernacular equivalents chaceand caccia, to designate a piece of music based on canonicimitation (i.e. one voice chasing another; the Latin fuga is related to both fugere: to flee and
fugare: to chase). Like canon, fugue has served since that time both as a genre designation for a
piece of music and as the name of a compositional technique to be introduced into a piece of music.
Imitative counterpoint in some fashion has been the single unifying factor in the history of fugue, but
as compositional approaches to imitation changed so did the meanings and usages of the word
fugue. Between 1400 and 1700 the word held a wide variety of meanings and was employed in a
great many contexts, with the idea of fugue as a compositional technique predominating. By the
early 18th century musicians had come to prefer its use as a genre designation, in which guise
fugue has continued until the present. It is generally distinguished on the one hand from canon,
which involves the strictest sort of imitative counterpoint, and on the other from mere imitation, which
involves the least strict.
Despite the prominence of fugue in the history of Western art music and its virtually continuous
cultivation in one form or another from the late Middle Ages until today, there exists no widespread
agreement among present-day scholars on what its defining characteristics should be. Several
factors contibute to this lack of consensus: (1) between the late Middle Ages and the late Baroque a
great variety of genre designationsricercare, canzona, capriccio, fantasia, fugue itself, even motet
came and went in which techniques of imitative counterpoint figured prominently. Thus the history
of fugue cannot adequately be accounted for if only pieces called fugue are studied. (2) If all pieces
called fugue were collected together and compared, no single common defining characteristic would
be discovered beyond that of imitation in the broadest sense. (3) Since the early 19th century genre
designations have been defined largely if not exclusively by their formal structures. Formal structure,
however, is not in the end a defining characteristic of fugue. As a result, there has been prolonged
argument about whether fugue is a form at all (and, by extension, whether it is a genre) as well as
whether any particular formal model should be considered necessary (most often recommended in
this context is a ternary model vaguely reminiscent of sonata form; see Dreyfus, 1993). (4) There
has developed, beginning in the mid-17th century, a theoretical, textbook model for fugue, most
often associated with Fuxs Gradus ad Parnassumand, thanks in large part to Cherubini, with the
teaching of the Paris Conservatoire. The appropriateness of this model as a standard, and of its
characteristics as necessary and sufficient for the genre, has been a topic of considerable debate.
The most commonly recommended alternative to this model has been the fugues of J.S. Bach,
especially those of Das wohltemperirte Clavier(the 48). (5) Although it is generally agreed that a
great deal of fine fugal composition appeared before Bach and Fux, reliance on post-1700 models
has caused disagreement and uncertainty about how to define and evaluate fugal works composed
before 1700.
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The historical survey beginning in 2 below is preceded by a detailed analysis of the C minor fugue
from book 1 of the 48 as it is commonly presented by English speakers. This particular fugue is
frequently cited as a paradigm, and it is through just such an analysis that over the years many
musicians have encountered fugue for the first time. The analysis introduces the most important
standard fugal terminology and demonstrates the kind of norm that many musicians consider
essential to define the genre. The emphasis throughout the survey that follows will be on the
changing nature and uses of fugal composition and the various meanings of the word as understood
by musicians of each era.
1. A classic fugue analysed.
The fugue in C minor from book 1 of Bachs 48 (ex.1) is now generally described by English
speakers as follows.
The fugue is for three voices, which may be labelled soprano, alto and bass, and the independence
and integrity of each are strictly maintained until the last two bars, when chords are introduced to
lend fullness and finality. A single voice, the alto, begins the fugue by stating the subject. The
subject is in the tonic key: it begins on the tonic note C, emphasizes the dominant note G (downbeat
of bar 2) and ends on the mediant note (downbeat of bar 3). Once the subject has been stated in its
entirety, the second voice (the soprano) enters with the same subject, but transposed to the key of
the dominant. This second statement is termed the answer. Such a transposition often requires, as
here, that the original intervals of the subject be altered in order to keep the answer close to the
tonic key. More specifically, whereas tonic note is answered by dominant note (i.e. transposed up a
5th or down a 4th), dominant note is answered by tonic rather than by supertonic. In this particular
answer, the second note is an exact intervallic reproduction, producing F and signalling the key of
the dominant, G minor, but the fourth note is changed from D (supertonic) to C (tonic). All other
intervals from the fifth note to the end of the answer are exact renderings of the subjects intervals.
An answer of this sort, in which intervals are altered to remain close to the tonic key, is called a
tonal answer. Any answer in which no intervals of the subject are altered is called a real answer.
While voice 2 states the answer, voice 1 continues with counterpoint against it. This counterpoint
may, as here, be material that returns frequently during the course of the piece, usually as
counterpoint to the subject, or it may present material that never returns. Especially in the former
case, this thematic material is called a countersubject. Both answer and countersubject conclude
on the downbeat of bar 5, at which point both continue in counterpoint for two bars without stating
either the subject or the countersubject in complete form. These two bars constitute what is often
called a codetta. Although neither thematic unit is present in its entirety, the material in voice 2 is a
melodic sequence based on the opening motif of the subject, and voice 1 contains scalar passages
reminiscent (although in contrary motion) of the countersubject. The final voice enters with the
subject (in its original, not its answer, form) at the beginning of bar 7, accompanied by voice 2 with
the countersubject. Voice 1 states yet another countersubject, though one that is treated rather
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freely during the course of the fugue. All three subject, countersubject 1 and countersubject 2
end with the downbeat of bar 9.
The opening eight bars make up the fugues exposition. Standard requirements of a fugal
exposition are that (1) the voices enter one by one with the subject, each waiting until the preceding
voice has completed its statement before entering; (2) each voice enter with the subject, in either
subject or answer form, only once (occasionally the first voice to enter may restate the subject at the
end of the exposition); and (3) the entries alternate between subject and answer statements.
Additional options are that (1) the first statement of the answer may be accompanied by a
countersubject, which is then stated in turn by all voices (except the last) as accompaniment to the
next statement of the subject; and (2) there may be a codetta between statements 1 and 2 and
statement(s) 3 (and 4).
An exposition is the most strictly regulated portion of a fugue. The remainder is understood to be an
alternation between sections in which the subject is stated in its complete form by one or more
voices and sections in which it is not present in its complete form. The latter, called episodes, may
or may not take any of their motivic material from the subject or countersubject. Complete
statements of the subject may take place in keys other than the tonic, in which case episodes serve
to modulate to and from those keys. Statements may also incorporate some learned contrapuntal
device that alters the subject in some way but leaves it complete and recognizable. These devices
include augmentation (the slowing down, generally by a factor of two, of the original note values),
diminution (halving or quartering the note values), inversion (stating the subject upside down) and
stretto (introducing a second statement before the first has finished). It is generally understood that
the fugue will end with some sort of statement of the subject in the tonic key. Any material following
that statement is termed a coda.
Beginning with bar 9, Bachs C minor fugue proceeds as follows: there are four episodes (bars 9
10, 1314, 1719 and 226). Each takes its thematic material from the opening five-note motif of the
subject and the scalar passages of quavers and semiquavers in the two countersubjects. These
motifs are generally treated in melodic sequence. In addition, the first two episodes modulate to and
from the key of the relative major, E . The complete statements of the subject that appear in
between involve in each case subject and two countersubjects distributed among the three voices.
In bars 1112 (in E ) the soprano carries the subject, in 1516 the alto, in 2021 the soprano
again, and in 268 the bass. After a brief connecting passage the final statement of the subject, in
its original form and at its original pitch, is stated by the soprano over a C pedal point in the bass
and accompanied by a few full chords in the alto. The entire fugue appears inex.1.Most elements
of a textbook fugue are present in Bachs C minor fugue. One of its most attractive features is its
thematic tightness, that is, the presence of material from the subject or one of the countersubjects in
virtually any voice at any point in the fugue. Also present is a modulation to a related key with the
subject stated in that key. What this particular fugue lacks is the use of any of the contrapuntal
devices enumerated above.
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Ex.1 Bach, Fugue in C Minor from Das wohltemperirte Clavier, book 1
To hear this example please click here
Ex.1 continued
To hear this example please click here
2. Medieval and Renaissance vocal music.
(i) 14th and 15th centuries.
The words fuga, chace and caccia all denote the chase or hunt, and in the 14th century all
acquired the same musical meaning, namely a piece of music consisting either entirely or principally
of two or more voices in canon. Canonic technique was, along with Stimmtausch, the earliest type of
imitative counterpoint in Western music, and it may therefore fairly be said that the word fugue has
been associated with imitative techniques since their first formulation. By the 15th century, chace
and caccia had largely fallen from use and fugue became the term of choice for any piece in whichall voices participated in the canonic performance of a single melodic line (see, for example, the
fugues by Oswald von Wolkenstein).
As early as the mid-15th century, however, fugue had begun to take on new meanings. As canonic
technique came increasingly to be incorporated into pieces that also included non-canonic voices,
musicians often continued to apply the word, though not to the piece as a whole; they reserved it
instead for the canonic voices. Also at this time, musicians began to use fugue to designate the
compositional technique itself. Johannes Tinctoris, in his dictionary of musical terms written about
1472, defined it as the sameness [ idemtitas] of the voice parts in a composition. The notes andrests of the voice parts are identical in [rhythmic] value, name [i.e. hexachord syllable], shape and
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sometimes even location on the staff. Here fugue is not a piece of music or group of voices
governed by canonic technique; it is the technique itself, the quality of having made the voice parts
identical. Perhaps the best-known use of the word in this sense is Josquin des Prezs Missa ad
fugam, or mass by means of fugue.
(ii) 16th century.
During the 15th century, as composers gradually abandoned the compositional process of writing
one voice at a time above a cantus firmus in favour of the simultaneous composition of all voices a
few bars at a time, the point of imitation began to replace canonic writing as the pre-eminent
technique of imitative counterpoint. To write a motet or mass movement using this technique, the
composer first created for each phrase of text a musical phrase that fitted its Latin declamation well.
The piece then proceeded as a series of imitative sections, each devoted to its own textual/musical
phrase which was treated in a manner similar to (if much freer than) the fugal exposition described
in 1 above. These imitative sections, usually referred to today as points of imitation but called
fugues by musicians of the time, might also alternate with occasional homophonic sections for
contrast. A classic early example of a piece composed in this manner is Josquins four-voice Ave
Maria virgo serena. Musicians never adopted the word fugue as a genre designation for such
pieces, however. The first composers to import point-of-imitation technique into instrumental music
beginning with the Musica nova (1540) of Julio Segni, Willaert and others chose instead the
designation ricercar, a word meaning to seek out or to search. Throughout the 16th century, only
the strictly canonic piece might bear the genre designation fugue.
North of the Alps, composers of the post-Josquin generation, most notably Clemens non Papa and
Nicolas Gombert, made point-of-imitation technique the cornerstone of their style. As described by
the German theorist Gallus Dressler, an enthusiast for the music of Clemens, in his manuscript
treatise Praecepta musicae poeticaedated 1563, a fugue (i.e. pointof imitation) that appeared at
the beginning of a piece needed to be constructed in such a way that the mode of the composition
was made clear at the outset. This meant that the melodic motion of the voices should emphasize
the important modal notes of final, dominant, mediant and psalm tone tenor(s), and that the imitation
should show a certain clarity of structure. As a result the opening fugue of a 16th-century motet
resembles in many respects the exposition of an 18th-century fugue: its voices are most likely to
enter on final (tonic) and dominant, its theme is also likely to feature those notes prominently, and
each voice is likely to wait until the previous one has completed its thematic statement before
entering.
Dressler borrowed the tripartite division of beginning (exordium), middle (medium) and end (finis)
from classical rhetoric to describe a compositions overall structure, and indicated that fugues
appearing in the body of the piece (i.e. the medium) could be handled much more freely than the
opening one (which Dressler defined as the exordium). This freedom extended to the allowing of
thematic entrances on notes other than final and dominant, the greater altering of the theme from
statement to statement, the incorporation into the theme o f notes outside the mode, and
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considerable use of stretto. For the finis, however, the composition should close with a strong
reaffirmation of the mode.
Here again certain parallels can be drawn, this time between the structure of a motet and that of an
18th-century fugue: both begin and end in the key (or mode) and with greater regularity but may
wander (i.e. touch on other notes or keys) and behave more freely in the body of the composition.
Most of the motets of Clemens and Gombert fit Dresslers model well.
South of the Alps, meanwhile, Clemenss and Gomberts Netherlandish contemporary Adrian
Willaert and his Italian pupil Gioseffo Zarlino took a different attitude towards imitative counterpoint
and attempted instead to preserve Tinctoriss 15th-century definition of fugue as exact imitation. In
his Istitutioni harmoniche (1558) Zarlino subdivided imitative counterpoint into four categories, for
which he coined the expressions fuga legata, fuga sciolta, imitatione legataand imitatione sciolta.
Whereas musicians in the north had already begun to label all imitative counterpoint fugue, Zarlino
insisted that the word be reserved exclusively for instances in which the following voice (which he
called consequente) reproduced exactly all the intervals and rhythmic values of the preceding voice
(guida). Imitatione should refer to instances when the consequente did not reproduce the guida
exactly. The adjectives legata and sciolta then distinguished further between, respectively,
passages in which the consequente continued to imitate the guida from beginning to end of the
piece, and those in which the imitation was broken off at some point. Zarlino also allowed for both
fugaand imitationein contrary motion, for which he offered the modifier per arsin et thesin(which
was a Greek expression literally designating upbeats and downbeats).
Zarlino pointed out that fugawas possible only when the consequentewas a perfect interval from
the guida. This requirement was a direct descendant of Tinctoriss insistence that the solmization
syllables of the two voices be identical, which restricted the imitation to the three hexachords.
However, a perfect interval does not guarantee exactness of imitation. For instance, any imitative
counterpoint written at the 4th or 5th can be melodically exact only so long as the voices remain
within the bounds of their respective hexachords. Thus, if Zarlinos distinction between exact and
inexact replication is to be strictly maintained, it must be conceded that his technique of imitation
can take place at any interval, perfect or imperfect.
Scholars are not in full agreement about whether Zarlino meant to allow for the technique of
imitatione at a perfect interval, but in any case the theorist himself seems to have recognized a
conflict between categories of imitative counterpoint based on the degree of exactness of replication
and those based on imitation at perfect as opposed to imperfect intervals. To address this problem,
Zarlino created a final category, which he called part fugue and part imitation but admitted was
often called fugue. The example he offered involves two voices that imitate each other canonically at
the 5th. At only three places does the second voice answer inexactly, and in each case the
inexactness consists of an F answered by a B natural rather than the B that would be required for
precise replication.
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Willaerts music reflects Zarlinos thinking closely in its penchant for introducing imitative
counterpoint horizontally into a composition voice by voice. The point of imitation almost never
serves as the building-block for Willaerts mature works as it does for the works of Clemens and
Gombert, whereas canon is frequently encountered (see, for example, Verbum supernum and
Praeter rerum seriem from Musica nova, 1559). Nevertheless, despite Willaerts prestige and the
lasting influence of Zarlinos writings, the wave of the future was not canon but the point of imitation,
which allowed a much more flexible treatment of the words and thus fitted better with humanistic
ideals about text expression and clarity of declamation. In the end, therefore, Zarlinos ro le in the
history of fugue is a peculiar one. On the one hand, the traditional idea of fugue as precision of
imitation and its manifestation in canonic writing quickly faded. Yet, at the same time, the categories
of imitative counterpoint which he invented lived on, though with very different meanings from those
intended by their creator.
As the 16th century drew to its close, the rise of humanism, with its emphasis on clarity of text,
caused many musicians, especially in Italy, to question altogether the suitability of fugal techniques
in vocal music, since their use virtually ensured that different words were being sung simultaneously
by the various parts. By the 1580s, when Vincenzo Galilei began to call for the abandonment of
fugal writing, it was apparent that the most important and innovatory genre of music was the Italian
madrigal, in which fugue played no significant role. Even such conservative composers as
Palestrina and Lassus began, partly under the influence of Counter-Reformation concerns for
textual clarity, to show much greater caution in introducing points of imitation into their motets, in
contrast to its almost ubiquitous presence in the works of Clemens and Gombert. Introduce it they
did, however. In fact, Lassus continued to be cited by German theorists writing about fugue
throughout the first half of the 17th century, and in the 1660s Christoph Bernhard chose Palestrinas
offertories to illustrate his chapters on fugue. The first major composers of vocal music in the new
Baroque style, however, all but abandoned fugal techniques for their seconda pratica music. (A
piece such as Monteverdis Piagne e sospira, from the fourth book of madrigals, is a rare exception.)
Fugue found no place in the new genres of opera, monody or cantata, nor, surprisingly, did it play a
role in the early development of the oratorio. Even such a retrospective collection as Schtzs
Geistliche Chor-Music(1648) is of li ttle significance in the history of imitative counterpoint. It was not
until towards the end of the 17th century that fugue once again re-entered the sphere of vocal music
in a significant way. By that time, a great deal had changed.
3. 16th-century instrumental music.
Although histories of Western music tend to emphasize a sharp division in musical style about 1600,
the history of fugal techniques in instrumental music cuts across this divide. A direct and continuous
line of development can be traced from the ricercares of Segnis Musica novaof 1540 to the fugues
of Das wohltemperirte Clavier. Surprisingly, this development has been less well mapped out than
one might expect. Perhaps the most troublesome of the several difficulties inherent in the study is
the issue of genre and terminology. Very few of these pieces written before 1700 were designated
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as fugues, and other designations abound. The best way to approach this body of music and to tie
all the compositions together is to consider fugue in its guise as a compositional technique.
From its inception the imitative ricercare seems to have carried connotations of learnedness that
is, it served either as compositional study or, in Newcombs phrase, as intellectual chamber music.
Michael Praetorius, writing at the beginning of the next century, described its function as follows (his
use of fugue is discussed below, 4(i)): Fugue: Ricercar
Fugues are nothing more than repeated echoes of the same theme on different degrees [of the
scale], succeeding each other through the use of rests In Italy they are called ricercars.
RICERCARE is the same thing as to investigate, to look for, to seek out, to research diligently
and to examine thoroughly. For in constructing a good fugue one must with special diligence and
careful thought seek to bring together as many ways as possible in which the same [material] can
be combined with itself, interwoven, duplicated, [used] in direct and contrary motion; [in short,]
brought together in an orderly, artistic and graceful way and carried through to the end.
Because some collections were published in partbooks, some in open score, and a few in keyboard
score, earlier scholars (e.g. Apel) attempted to uncover a stylist distinction between those collections
intended for instrumental ensemble performance (i.e. in partbooks) and those intended for keyboard
(in score or keyboard notation). More recently, Newcomb has argued against such a distinction and
has noted instead consistency of style and purpose that cuts across the differences of format.
Interest in the later classic fugue has also led scholars frequently to overemphasize the presence of
monothematicism in these works. The 16th-century ricercare makes much better sense if
understood as the instrumental counterpart to the motet in both seriousness of purpose and severity
of contrapuntal style; indeed, it represents the first genre of purely instrumental music able to
challenge the sophistication of Flemish vocal polyphony.
Furthermore, because it had no text, the instrumental ricercare escaped the humanistic criticism
levelled at vocal fugue, and composers felt free to embrace the genre and to continue to explore
new possibilities. Most 16th-century ricercares proceed, like the imitative motet, as a series of points
of imitation, each based on its own theme. Also reminiscent of the motet in these cases is a frequent
emphasis on the opening point as the longest and most systematic. The two genres differ in several
respects, however. To compensate for the ricercares lack of tex t, composers sought out a more
purely musical solution to the problem of continuity and structural logic, for which they turned to
techniques of thematic manipulation. A point may be quite long in comparison to its vocal
counterpart, therefore, with many more thematic statements. A much less tidy compartmentalization
of themes each to its own point is found, and considerably greater and more systematic use of the
contrapuntal devices of augmentation, diminution, inversion and stretto is to be expected.
Adding to the impression of these ricercares as systematic pieces for study or the display of
compositional skill is their frequent publication in collections devoted to the genre, usually by a
single composer, and often organized with exactly one ricercare in each mode. Towards the end of
the 20th century several such collections of 16th-century ricercares once thought lost were
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rediscovered, and a re-evaluation of the genre was undertaken by Newcomb, who identified two
distinct schools of ricercare composition in the 16th and early 17th centuries, the first centred in
Venice, the second in Ferrara and, later, Naples. The most important composers in the first group
are Willaert, Girolamo Cavazzoni, Buus, Padovano, Merulo and Andrea Gabrieli; the second
includes Luzzaschi, Jacques Brunel, Macque, Mayone and Frescobaldi. Although these works differ
in significant respects from the classic fugue of the 18th century, they certainly represent the oldest
instrumental works to merit detailed study in a history of fugue.
4. 17th century.
During the first half of the 17th century, fugue as a compositional technique might have seemed to
many musicians to be well on its way to the historical scrap-heap as the most pre-eminent
composers focussed increasingly on opera, cantata and oratorio. And yet Monteverdi had staked his
defence of modern music on the premise that the old style and its technical basis remained valid
and worthy of attention. Certainly the ricercares role as compositional study, and its absence of text,
made it well suited for continued cultivation of the stile antico. In addition to its museum-piece
status, however, fugue continued to evolve, especially in the hands of organists and violinists. By
around mid-century most of the characteristics of the classic fugue as we recognize it today were in
place, and as the century progressed to its conclusion they gradually reintegrated themselves into
most genres of music and most parts of Europe.
(i) Fugue and genre in organ music, 160020.
The imitative ricercare had been throughout the 16th century an Italian phenomenon, cultivated
exclusively by composerseither Italian or northernworking in Italy. By the early years of the new
century, however, this monopoly had come to an end as keyboard composers working in Germany
and the Low Countries also began to produce fugal works characterized by rigorous handling of
counterpoint, extended length, carefully controlled dissonance and strictly maintained part-writing.
With the wider geographic cultivation of this genre came a variety of labels for such works. The most
important Italian composer of such pieces in the early 17th century, Frescobaldi, used at various
times the designations fantasia, ricercare, canzona and capriccio. Roughly speaking, these four can
be grouped according to the nature of their thematic material into the slower and more ponderous
(fantasia and ricercare) and the quicker and livelier (canzona and capriccio). The first important
German composer to cultivate the serious fugue was Hassler (a pupil of Andrea Gabrieli), who,
judging from surviving manuscripts, chose two designations, ricercare and fugue. In the Low
Countries Sweelinck and Peeter Cornet preferred fantasia.
It is not certain how the various composers came to choose such a variety of titles for pieces that
are more alike than different. Sweelinck presumably chose fantasia under the influence of the
English, who preferred that designation for most of their untexted pieces without vocal models.
(Frescobaldis use of the term followed shortly after a visit he made to the Low Countries.)
Praetoriuss definition of ricercare quoted above implies that fugue was appropriated because of its
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connotations of seriousness and sophistication. Fugue may have appealed also to the Germans
because of its international character, as opposed to the very Italian ricercare. Frescobaldis use of
canzona and capriccio introduces yet another layer into the terminological morass. In both of
these cases, the kind of lively thematic material traditionally associated with the canzona alla
franceseis treated with the contrapuntal sophistication and length of the ricercare.
Probably the most significant compositional trend to emerge in serious fugal works at the beginning
of the 17th century was an emphasis on monothematicism. Because monothematicism could easily
lead to tediousness in a long work, however, composers sought to maintain interest by varying their
treatment of the theme as the work progressed. Two approaches predominated. For the first a
series of sections, neatly dovetailed to create a continuous flow from beginning to end, proceeds
with either a new counter-theme or a new contrapuntal device applied to the principal theme in each
new section. A classic example is Sweelincks Fantasia chromatica. SeeTable 1.
In the second category, best exemplified by many of Frescobaldis works, the sections are fewer but
not dovetailed and the principal theme is rhythmically transformed from one to the next, usually
including at some point a change of metre from duple to triple. Such pieces are sometimes referred
to as variation canzonas or variation fugues.
Both these types show many elements of the later classic fugue: severity of contrapuntal style,
strictness of part-writing, greater regularity of exposition than in the old ricercare (about which more
below), thematic hierarchy with a single principal theme, and emphasis on learned devices. Overall
structure, however, differs considerably. Whereas the classic fugue proceeds as a series of well-
defined sections alternating between episodes and self-contained groups of thematic statements,
the early 17th-century learned fugue proceeds as a kind of continuous unfolding of contrapuntal
possibilities with only a few major cadences to mark off sections.
Certain German musicians of the early 17th century also began to designate contrapuntally free,
short pieces fugues. These works traced their ancestry to the lively Parisian chansons of the
previous century, instrumental intabulations and arrangements of which Italian composers had
designated canzone alla francese. Both the chanson and the canzona often consisted of a short
series of brief sections, each beginning with simple imitative entries but quickly lapsing into chords
or melody-and-accompaniment texture. The Zarlinian rules of counterpoint were more often flouted
than followed, and keyboard canzonas often showed in addition little regard for strictness of part-
writing and frequent lapses into stock keyboard figuration. Bernhard Schmid the younger, in his
Tabulatur Buchof 1607, included 12 pieces written by Andrea Gabrieli, Adriano Banchieri and other
Italians that he described as Fugues or, as the Italians name them, Canzone alla francese. A
similar tablature book was published in 1617 by Johann Woltz, who included in it 20 fugues from the
pen of Simon Lohet, a Netherlander who had served as organist to the Wrttemberg court in
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Stuttgart until his death in 1611. Although modest in nearly every respect, Lohets are the first group
of non-canonic pieces to be called fugues. It is characteristic of this experimental age that fugue
could serve as a genre designation for these simple, almost banal works while Hassler and
Praetorius were reserving it for pieces of the most sophisticated, serious sort.
(ii) Theory: terminology, structure.
Zarlinos attempt to restrict the words meaning to imitative counterpoint in which the imitation is
exact failed to take hold, despite later Italian theorists attempts to preserve his terminology. What
these later writers did instead (inadvertently, it appears) was to keep Zarlinos restriction of fugue to
the perfect intervals but to suppress the ideal of exactness of imitation. Because the two are not
always identical, the end result of their change of emphasis was that exact imitation came to be
replaced by the relationship between fugue and mode. In other words, for early 17th-century
theorists the technique of fugue took place at a perfect interval not in order that the intervals might
remain identical but in order to emphasize final and dominant notes of the mode.
To this restriction was then added, by Girolamo Diruta in 1609, the theory of tonal answers. Both
Zarlino and Dressler had insisted that modal clarity was important in the beginning of a work, Zarlino
by insisting that the voices begin on final and dominant of the mode, Dressler by advising the
composer to see to it that the thematic material emphasized those and other important modal notes.
Diruta, a disciple of Zarlino, took these admonitions one step further and insisted that they be
applied not only to the opening theme but to its answer as well. As a result, given that theme and
answer were to begin on final and dominant (in either order) and were to emphasize important
modal notes, and given that the octave was divided unevenly into a 5th and a 4th, then the answer
had to be altered such that 5th was answered by 4th and 4th by 5th. The rather general advice of
the mid-16th-century musicians had become by the early 17th century a specific, strict edict.
Progressive musicans of the time quickly adopted Dirutas theory. Marco Scacchi, for instance, used
it repeatedly in his Cribrum musicumof 1643 to fault Paul Sieferts handling of the stile anticoin a
collection of psalm settings published in 1640. Sieferts defence that he was simply doing what his
teacher, Sweelinck, had taught him was probably true, given the freedom with which most 16th-
century composers handled such imitation, but by the 1640s the majority of musicians considered
tonal answers a virtual necessity to ensure modal clarity. Schtzs early collection of double -choir
psalms (published only a few years after his study with Giovanni Gabrieli) and his Geistliche Chor-
Musicof 1648 (possibly published as a practical response to the ScacchiSiefert quarrel) contain
numerous instances of opening tonal answers and not a single real answer.
Musicians in the north had never accepted Zarlinos definitions of fugue and imitation, and continued
instead to experiment with their own subdivisions of imitative counterpoint. They generally referred
to all imitative counterpoint as fugue, which most writers divided into canonic (variously called fuga
ligata, totalisor imaginaria) and non-canonic (fuga soluta,partialisor realis). Sethus Calvisius furthersubdivided the latter into fuga ejusdem modulationis and fuga diversae modulationis, or fugue of
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either similar or diverse melodic motion, which he understood to mean, respectively, imitative
counterpoint in which the melodic contour of the theme was maintained (whether exactly or
approximately) by the answering voices and that in which imitation was perceived to be present
even though melodic contour was not maintained (his example was the opening of the Lassus motet
Inclina Domine). Joachim Burmeister, by contrast, categorized the techniques of non-canonic
imitation based on rhetorical terminology, although he seems to have fitted fugal techniques to his
chosen rhetorical figures rather than subdividing fugal techniques first and then naming them. Those
figures he chose to relate to fugue were metalepsis, for which he chose imitation with two themes;
hypallag, imitation in inversion; and apocop, imitation of a very brief head-motif. Calvisius even
went so far as to allow fugue to designate virtually any repetition of musical material in a
composition, including ostinato technique and the answering back and forth of polyphonic textures in
double-choir music. Others were more restrictive. Burmeister, for instance, insisted that only if all
voices of the texture participated in the imitation of a theme should the name fugue be used.
None of these schemes for subdividing non-canonic imitation took firm root, however, and the Italian
theory of fugue as imitative counterpoint handled according to proper treatment of the mode began
to find wide acceptance. With this understanding of fugue as a basis, the south German writer
Wolfgang Schonsleder distinguished in 1631 between long [fugues] that are worked out and short
ones or imitations, and he suggested as paradigms works by Palestrina and Frescobaldi for the
former category and duets by Monteverdi for the latter. With this division of imitative techniques into
canon, fugue and imitation, the essence of our understanding of these words is in place.
All the above definitions refer to fugue as a compositional technique involving imitative counterpoint.
The word continued to be applied also to pieces of music, but here again there was no universal
agreement. Musicians had of course inherited from the late Middle Ages the idea of fugue as canon,
to which in the Renaissance they added fugue as a point of imitation. The former category proved
surprisingly durable and was still being used by German school treatises as late as the early 18th
century. (It is interesting to speculate whether Bachs first encounter with the word was when he
sang canons while a schoolboy in Ohrdruf.) Fugue as a single point of imitation also survived the
Baroque. Praetorius, for instance, defined motet style as the alternation of harmonies and fugues
and the canzona as a textless piece with brief fugues and artful fantasies. Keyboard composers in
the early 17th century (e.g. Lohet in south Germany and Heinrich Scheidemann in the north)
sometimes wrote short pieces entitled fugue that consisted of nothing more than a single point of
imitation. Well into the 18th century French organists designated as fugues similarly brief imitative
works, and Henry Purcell understood the word thus in his discussion of fugue published by Playford
in 1694. Perhaps the last such use of the word can be traced to early 19th-century New England,
where William Billings and his colleagues took up the form of the FUGING TUNE, which had first
become popular in 18th-century English parish churches.
As already noted, German musicians at the beginning of the 17th century introduced fugue as a
genre designation for non-canonic pieces widely disparate in style and intent. One final meaning of
the word turns up in Italy about 1600, where a few musicians used it to refer to the thematic material
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of an imitative piece (e.g. Ricercar primo tono con tre fughe). Perhaps the most famous composer
to use the word in this way was Monteverdi, whose six-voice Missa da capella(1610) is composed
with ten fugues, derived from Gomberts motet In illo tempore, which are spelt out even before the
piece begins.
The origin of the textbook fugues structural principles, until recently obscure, can now be traced
with some certainty. In the early years of the 17th century the two most common models were the
motet, with its series of points of imitation each based on a different theme, and the extended
keyboard fugue, with its longer sections, few cadences, and almost continuous presence of the
theme. What was lacking was a series of much shorter points of imitation (or, in modern terms,
groups of thematic statements) all based on the same theme but set apart from each other in some
way.
The earliest theoretical source to describe such a scheme is a manuscript treatise, Sequunturregulae compositionis, surviving in several copies and now thought to be the work of Antonio Bertali,
a north Italian violinist and Kapellmeister of the imperial court in Vienna from 1649 to 1669. Bertalis
text treats the study of counterpoint as a progression of species counterpoint leading to the writing
of fugue, as does Fuxs classic Gradus ad Parnassum. Bertalis treatise outlines for fugal
composition the following structural plan: (1) once a theme has been selected, it should be assigned
to an appropriate mode. (Note the inversion of the modern approach, which is to select the key first,
then devise a theme for it.) (2) The opening point of imitation brings in the theme in systematic
fashion in all voices (beginning on final and dominant of the mode), after which free counterpoint
leads to the f irst cadence. (3) Successive points of imitation, all of course based on the same theme,
should be distinguished in some fashion, for which the author recommends exchanging starting
notes among the voices or switching the order of entry of the voices. (4) In the body of the
composition, the theme may be brought in on notes other than final or dominant. (5) Stretto is
particularly prized, but only in the middle or towards the end of the piece, since it generally requires
thematic alteration and does not allow for careful treatment of mode. (6) The whole piece will
generally consist of four or five such sections, with the theme presented prominently at the very end.
Here, then, we find most elements of the modern fugue: carefully worked-out opening point of
imitation (i.e. exposition), groups of thematic statements separated from each other (by free
counterpoint), variety among the thematic groups, possible movement to closely related keys for
later groups (described as beginning the theme on other notes), fondness for stretto and
prominence of the theme at the end of the piece. Lacking only are the countersubject and the well-
defined episode.
This model obtains, not in keyboard works of the period, but in pieces entitled canzona or sonata
and composed by Bertalis north Italian violinist colleagues. The fugues found in these works do not
generally form the entire piece, but rather one section (often the first) of a multi-section work. One of
the first composers of such pieces may be Tarquinio Merula, whose Primo libro delle canzoni of
1615 already includes several. Massimiliano Neri and Giovanni Legrenzi also wrote sonatas
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incorporating such fugues. The contibution of all these composers to the history of fugue merits
further study.
(iii) Second half of the century.
Much remains to be learnt about the history of fugal composition in the second half of the 17th
century, and this lack of knowledge has led some scholars to attribute to Bach and Handel
innovations in fugal writing with which they should not be credited. Only in the realm of keyboard
music is there a relatively complete and well-rounded picture of the music of the time. There is,
however, no questioning that, with respect to fugal composition, the years 16501700 witnessed the
gradual but complete passing of the mantle from Italy to Germany, where it largely remained into the
20th century. Several factors contributed to this transfer: Italys gradual abandonment of interest in
keyboard music and inexorable move towards paramountcy of opera; Germanys continued
fascination with counterpoint (even in the music of such early Baroque composers as Schtz); and
the eagerness with which German musicians learnt from such Italian teachers as Frescobaldi and
Bertali.
Perhaps the key figure in this transfer of fugal authority from south to north was the Stuttgart -born
Johann Jacob Froberger, who studied with Frescobaldi, worked for the Holy Roman Emperor in
Vienna (at the same time as Bertali), and during the 1650s travelled widely to other parts of
Germany, France and even England. The four autograph manuscripts of keyboard works that
Froberger presented to the Emperor Ferdinand III in the years around 1650 include easily the best
fugal compositions written at a time when most of Europes leading composers were absorbed with
opera, cantata and oratorio. Frobergers fugues follow closely the example of Frescobaldi and
comprise the same four genre designations of ricercare, fantasia, canzona and capriccio,
understood in the same way. Of even greater historical significance than the quality of these works
may be Frobergers role in awakening interest in fugal composition among composers north of the
Alps. Inspired by Frobergers example the Frenchman Franois Roberday published in 1660 a
volume of Fugues, et capricesexplicitly modelled after the composers variation fugues and even
including one of Frobergers own pieces. French composers did not follow Roberdays lead, but in
Germany Frobergers influence bore spectacular fruit. Through his personal contacts with Schtzs
pupil Matthias Weckmann and others, he reawakened the interest of the Germans in large-scale
fugal composition. In north Germany, where Weckmann spent most of his career, this led to
significant experimentation with fugue and invertible counterpoint. In central Germany, where
Frobergers music circulated widely in manuscript, the interest in fugal writing led directly to Bach
and Handel.
The unbroken tradition of serious fugal composition begun in the 1540s continued through this
period and, indeed, well into the 18th century. Composers retained the two types developed by
keyboard composers early in the 17th century namely, Sweelinck and Hasslers continuous piece
in a single metre with contrapuntal devices, and the variation fugue cultivated by Frescobaldi and
Froberger. Italians who composed such extended fugal works include Fasolo, Battiferri, Fabrizio
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Fontana and Pasquini. Among the many German contributions one might mention as particularly
significant the set of 12 ricercares compiled by Poglietti and keyboard fugues (variously designated)
by Weckmann, J. Krieger and N.A. Strungk (a complete list is given in Riedel, 1979).
Also during this half-century fugue took on a much greater significance within the genre of toccata
and its sometime equivalent, praeludium. Improvisation and freedom had traditionally been among
the genres principal characteristics, but since the 16th century many keyboard works entitled
toccata had included relatively freely imitative sections interspersed among the more improvisatory
passage-work. Froberger also began to bring a contrapuntally freer version of the variation fugue
into this genre, with the two or more fugal sections based on rhythmic variants of the same theme.
Undoubtedly the best such pieces are the organ praeludia of Buxtehude. Although it was not the
model he ultimately chose for most of his fugal writing, Bach himself wrote a few pieces
incorporating fugue in this manner (e.g. the E major Praeludium BWV566).
Probably the most important innovation in fugue during the period under discussion was developed
in the north German cities of Hamburg and Lbeck by a circle of musicians that included
Weckmann, Buxtehude, Reincken and Christoph Bernhard. In the 1660s and 70s these men
discovered a common interest in the compositional potential of combining fugal writing (to which
they had been awakened most probably by Froberger) with invertible counterpoint, about which they
had learnt through Zarlinos Istitutione harmonicheas taught by Sweelinck to their teachers Jacob
Praetorius (ii) and Heinrich Scheidemann. This combination led to two significant and related
innovations: the idea of countersubject and the so-called permutation fugue.
An incipient form of both phenomena can be seen in the fugue from the
fifth suite of Reinckens Hortus musicus(1688) for instrumental ensemble, whose structure is shown
inTable 2(where A represents the opening theme, B the second theme, xxx free counterpoint, and
duxand comesthe two forms, subject and tonal answer, of theme A). Though tediously formulaic,
Reinckens fugue employs Bertalis groups of thematic statements (five altogether), with variety from
one to the next provided by the exchanging of starting notes (S I begins the first group with the dux
form, but begins the second with the comes form). To this is added a second theme that
accompanies every statement of the first theme except the opening one. If episodes were to be
added between groups of thematic statements, and the scheme in general loosened up, the result
would bring Reinckensmodel very close to the classic 18th-century fugue.
Table 2
TABLE2
bar 1 4 7 10 13 16 19 22 25 28 31 34 37 40 43 468
S I A B x x x A B x x x A B B A B x x x A B x x x full-
S II A B x x x A B x x x A x x x x x x A B x x x A B textured
B A B x x x A B x x x A x x x x x x A B x x x A conclusion
duxcomesdux comesdux comesdux comesdux dux comesdux comesdux comes
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If instead the formulaic nature of Reinckens model were emphasized
by the addition of further themes and the elimination of the free counterpoint, the resulting scheme
would be close to that of the earliest Bach vocal fugues, called by modern scholars permutation
fugues. The opening fugue from BWV182, Himmelsknig, sei willkommen, for instance, is
constructed as shown inTable 3(A, B, C and D refer to the themes, T and D to entries of theme A
on tonic and dominant). The permutation fugue consists of fugue and canon in equal measure.
Characteristic of the former is the presence of a fugal exposition, complete with tonal answer,
properly spaced entries and strict alternation of tonic and dominant for entries. Characteristic of
canon is the near absence of non-thematic material, in that each voice continues with the same
material as every other once it has stated the opening theme complete, and returns to the opening
theme once it has fully stated all themes. Although the first known piece to fit this description
appears to have been composed by Johann Theile for instructional purposes and is found in histreatise Das Musikalisches Kunstbuch, Bach was among the first to employ the technique
successfully in a musical context.
Table 3
TABLE3
S ABC DA B CDxxxx
A AB CD A B CD
T A B C DA B C
B A B CDA B
T D T D T D T D T
5. The golden age: early 18th century.
C.P.E. Bach, writing to Forkel about his father in 1775, remarked: Through his own study and
reflection alone he became even in his youth a pure and strong fugue writer. His models, according
to Carl Philipp Emanuel, included Froberger, Kerll, Pachelbel, Frescobaldi, J.C.F. Fischer, Strungk,
Buxtehude, Reincken, Bruhns and Bhm. Among the results of this study were the following: (1)
although his earliest fugues bear a variety of designations, including Canzona (BWV588), Capriccio
(BWV993), Praeludium (BWV566) and even Imitatio (from the Fantasia BWV563), Bach seems early onto have settled on fugue as the designation of choice for all pieces based on non-canonic imitation.
This choice is not entirely expected; it may reflect the influence of Pachelbel, th e teacher of Bachs
older brother (and first teacher) Johann Christoph and the only composer listed above who preferred
that designation. (2) After some experimentation with other models for fugal writing, Bach settled for
his keyboard or organ fugues on the model ultimately derived from Bertali, but including by this time
frequent use of a countersubject and episodes and eventually incorporating tonal harmony and
modulation to related keys. (3) Bach paired most of his keyboard fugues with preludes. Praetorius
had described in 1619 the practice of improvising a toccata or prelude before a written-out fugal
piece, and only towards the end of the 17th century did a few composers begin to attach written-out
preludes to their fugues. Bachs preference for this practice ensured that wherever his keyboard
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fugues have been admired the prelude and fugue has served as one of the most important genres
to incorporate fugal writing. (4) For his earliest vocal fugues, Bach chose in place of this model the
permutation fugue, which he probably encountered through the treatises of Theile.
The mature Bach employed fugue in his music for organ, for keyboard (harpsichord) and for voices.
The harpsichord fugues are in general relatively brief and tight in construction; they would seem to
have been intended primarily for study and teaching. Those for the organ are usually grander and
more expansive; they would seem to have been intended for public performance. For his mature
vocal fugues (e.g. in the B minor Mass) Bach eventually abandoned the permutation fugue model in
favour of that of the keyboard fugues.
Like all masterly bodies of music, Bachs fugues resist easy summary, generalization and
classification. A few attempts have however been made to subdivide these works further. Kunze
proposed that the fugues of Das wohltemperirte Clavierbe categorized on the basis of musical style:fuga pathetica, with predominantly slow movement and expressive of a certain affect; ricercar-fugue,
the artful fugue reminiscent of the old ricercare; dance-fugue, based on certain dance idioms;
Spielfuge, characterized by idiomatic instrumental writing; and choral- or motet-fugue, which brings
together instrumental structure and vocal style. Stauffer has applied Kunzes plan to the organ
fugues, adopting two of the categories (dance-fugue and Spielfuge) but offering in place of the
others the allabrevefugue (i.e. derived from the stile antico) and the art fugue (emphasizing learned
devices). More recently Dreyfus has questioned the idea of categorization based on style and has
proposed instead subdivisions derived from Matthesons Der vollkommene Capellmeisterand based
on the use of contrapuntal procedures: simple fugue, based on only one theme and without
invertible counterpoint; double fugue, based on two or more themes treated invertibly; and
counterfugue, involving the application of contrary motion, augmentation or diminution to one of the
themes.
In contrast to the almost universal esteem accorded Bachs fugues since at least the early 19th
century, those of Handel have been somewhat neglected. Handels focus on opera and oratorio,
and the relative paucity of keyboard music from his pen, result in a very small number of pieces
designated fugue, the most prominent being the Six Fugues or Voluntarys for the Organ or
Harpsichord issued by Walsh in 1735. Handels most important contributions to the genre are
probably those in the choruses of his oratorios, which differ in only small ways from the keyboard
fugues (two of the six keyboard fugues of 1735, for instance, ended up arranged as choruses in
Israel in Egypt). In general, Handels treatment of fugue is freer and less rigorous than Bachs: the
part-writing (at least of the keyboard fugues) is often loosely handled, the counterpoint is sometimes
allowed to relax into thematic statement accompanied by chordal texture, thematic statements are
less recognizably grouped, episodes less clearly defined, thematic material less economically used.
These characteristics have not universally been considered signs of inferiority: writing in 1789,
Burney (History) called Handel perhaps the only great Fuguist exempt from pedantry. Marpurg in
his treatise on fugue (17534) subdivided the genre into strict (fuga obligata) and free (fuga liberaor
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soluta) which he associated, without expressing particular preference, with Bach and Handel
respectively.
The third great figure of this era for the history of fugue is J.J. Fux, whose Gradus ad Parnassum
(1725) remains a classic of fugal theory. The book is written, in Latin, as a dialogue between the
author (as pupil) and Palestrina (as teacher); its goal, however, is the writing not of a stile antico
motet but of late Baroque fugue, especially Fuxs preferred genre, the fugue with two themes. Fux is
probably most famous today for his use of the pedagogical progression from species counterpoint to
fugue, but he probably also deserves credit for popularizing the terms subject and countersubject,
which he used, in their Latin forms, for the two themes of a fugue. His model for fugal composition,
like his use of species counterpoint, derives ultimately from Bertali, although Fux recommends a
tripartite structure of only three groups of thematic statements. This model seems intended purely as
a way of getting the student started; Fuxs own use of fugue in his music is considerably more
imaginative than his somewhat formulaic plan would lead one to expect.
6. Late 18th century.
The golden age of fugue was brilliant but short-lived. By the 1750s, during which decade both Bach
and Handel died, Enlightenment ideals had brought fugue once again (as had humanistic ideals at
the beginning of the Baroque) into disrepute, this time as pedantic and unnatural. Never again would
the genre play the central role it had enjoyed in music of the early 18th century. At the same time,
however, musicians continued to find fugue and counterpoint important for a composers training,
just as they had a century and a half earlier, and fugue even made an occasional appearance in
music in the new style. In the latter case, its most common role was that of finale, a role it had long
played in the Mass, where et in secula seculorum and amen fugues were a well-established
tradition. In addition, composers began to experiment with the insertion of brief fugal imitation,
sometimes only a single point of imitation, into works in sonata form and other forms.
Fugue retained its prestige longest in Vienna, aided by the aura surrounding Fuxs bestselling
treatise as well as the conservative musical tastes of the citys Habsburg patrons. The technique
figures relatively prominently in the works of most composers, both German and Italian, associated
with the Viennese court and churches during the third quarter of the 18th century. G.J. Werner
(Haydns predecessor at the Esterhzy court), G.C. Wagenseil, M.G. Monn, F.L. Gassmann, Nicola
Porpora (Haydns teacher) and F.X. Richter all incorporated fugues into their instrumental music for
chamber ensemble and larger orchestra. Perhaps the most significant of all Viennese contributions
to fugue was that of J.G. Albrechtsberger, Beethoven's teacher, who not only assigned fugue a
prestigious role in his compositions but wrote one of the most admired counterpoint treatises of the
day. Elsewhere interest in fugue waned rapidly. A handful of composers in northern Italy, most
notably F.M. Veracini and CA. Campioni, continued to cultivate fugue under the influence of the
Bologna theorist G.B. Martini. In Germany J.S. Bachs fugal legacy was carried forward not primarily
by his sons but by his students and admirers, in particular F.W. Marpurg and J.P. Kirnberger.
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With the establishment of the so-called Viennese Classical style by Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven,
however, fugues central role in music came to an end as sonata form and the symphony orchestra
quickly rose to a position of dominance. Nevertheless, none of the three composers entirely
abandoned fugue. Haydns study of the technique seems to have been accomplished on his own
using primarily Fuxs Gradus ad Parnassum. In addition to a number of fugues in his masses,
fugues serve as finales to several of his instrumental works, including three of the op.20 string
quartets, the quartet op.50 no.4 and the symphonies nos.3, 40 and 70. These fugues are finely
wrought works in the late Baroque style and suggest that Haydn would probably have been
comfortable writing many more if his patrons had desired them. Mozart learnt fugal composition not
through any treatise but through the study of other composers works: first Haydn and the earlier
Viennese instrumental composers, then in 1782 J.S. Bach (the 48) and Handel (probably the Six
Fugues or Voluntarys, among other works), to both of which he was introduced by Baron von
Swieten. As a result, we find in Mozart fugal finales to string quartets la Haydn ( K168, 173 and
387), as well as independent fugues or preludes and fugues in late Baroque manner, including the
Prelude and Fugue for keyboard K394/383aand the Fugue for two pianos four hands K426, later
arranged for string quartet as K546. Of course, fugal finales also appear in Mozarts sacred music,
including the C minor Mass K427/417a, and the Requiem. Mozarts most important contribution to
the history of fugue, and certainly his most innovatory, is probably the insertion of fugal imitation into
works in sonata form. This category includes perhaps his two best-known instrumental movements
incorporating fugal imitation: the finale of the Jupiter Symphony and the overture to Die
Zauberflte.
As in so many facets of composition, Beethoven pushed back the boundaries of fugue while
integrating it into the new style. He was introduced both to the 48 (through his teacher in Bonn,
Neefe) and to a systematic study of counterpoint and fugue (through his later teacher
Albrechtsberger). Perhaps the most traditional are the fugal finales Beethoven included in the Missa
solemnis; among his instrumental works, by contrast, scarcely a single fully worked-out, traditional
fugue is to be found. Instead we find such offerings as the Finale: alla fuga of his variation set
op.35, on the theme of the last movement of the Eroica Symphony. Here Beethovens fugal finale
begins conventionally enough, but, in a manner reminiscent of Buxtehudes praeludia, the
counterpoint eventually begins to break down and is finally abandoned about two-thirds of the way
through the movement. The composer acknowledged his freer approach to fugue in two of his most
famous efforts, the finale to the Hammerklavier Sonata op.106, and the Grosse Fuge op.133
(originally conceived as the finale to op.130). He headed the first Fuga con alcune licenze, the
second tantt libre, tantt recherche. Like Mozart, Beethoven also introduced fugal imitation into
sonata form movements, for instance in place of the first theme group (in the finale of the string
quartet op.59 no.3) or as a part of the development (in the opening movement of op.59 no.1).
Fugue emerged from its golden era accompanied by no particular consensus with regard to its rules,
definitions or how it ought best to be handled. Musicians who wrote about fugue and counterpoint in
the second half of the 18th century continued to focus on the styles and techniques of the late
Baroque, but they brought to the task a variety of approaches. One of the most famous of these
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writers was G.B. Martini of Bologna, renowned as a teacher of counterpoint and sought out by
Mozart and many others. In his Esemplare, o sia Saggio de contrappunto of 17746, Martini
subsumed all imitative counterpoint under the general heading fugue, which he subdivided into fuga
reale(i.e. with a real answer), fuga del tuono(with a tonal answer) and fuga dimitazione(freer sorts
of imitation). He further subdivided the former into canonic ( legata) and non-canonic (sciolta). Here
we see fugal terminology at the crossroads: words and pairings traceable all the way back to Zarlino
(fuga legataand sciolta) side by side with newly paired expressions central to our modern theory
(real versus tonal answers). The tripartite division (with additional subdivision) obscures to some
extent the more apt one of canon, fugue and imitation, and certainly shows Martinis respect for
traditional Italian terminology. In Austria Fuxs Gradus ad Parnassum continued to find favour
among musicians. Beethovens teacher Albrechtsberger (Grndliche Anweisung zur Composition,
1790) was only the best-known of a number of Austrian pedagogues who, either directly or indirectly
under Fuxs influence, likewise wrote texts on counterpoint and fugue.
Meanwhile the predominant influence on fugal theory in Germany remained J.S. Bach and his many
pupils. Whereas Bachs most progressive sons, Carl Philipp Emanuel and Johann Christian, showed
in their compositions little interest in fugue, two members of the Bach circle with more conservative
bent, F.W. Marpurg (Abhandlung von der Fuge, 17534) and J.P. Kirnberger (Die Kunst des reinen
Satzes, 17719), made important contributions to its theory. Marpurg, author of the first full-length
treatise to include fugue in its title, divided imitative counterpoint as we do today into canon, fugue
and imitation. He insisted that fugue was actual, proper or regular only if it was constructed
according to the rules; otherwise, it was figurative, improper or irregular. Five essential
characteristics defined fugue, and these required proper handling for a piece to earn the designation
proper: Fhrer (dux) and Gefhrte (comes), Wiederschlag (i.e. regularity of opening imitation
between duxand comesforms), Gegenharmonie(i.e. good counterpoint accompanying the theme)
and Zwischenharmonie (episodes). Even when these five elements were handled in proper
fashion, Marpurg allowed for still further subdivision of proper fugue into strict ( la Bach) and free (
la Handel). Also worth mentioning is Marpurgs borrowing from Mattheson of the word Durchfhrung
(still used by German speakers today) to designate the fugues sections marked off by its episodes.
One notices immediately in Marpurgs use of Harmonie the ever greater focus of the time on
vertical sonority rather than horizontal part-writing.
7. The romantic era.
In the early 19th century fugue became the subject of intense debate as musicians struggled to
reconcile its myriad definitions and manifestations and to determine its role in contemporary
composition. Nevertheless, it was the general consensus that fugue was the quintessential
contrapuntal genre and as such was only with difficulty susceptible to integration into the modern
style. One musician who did attempt to update the technique in light of post-Baroque compositional
innovations was the Czech-born Antoine Reicha: contemporary and colleague of Beethoven, pupil
of Haydn, Salieri and Albrechtsberger, and teacher of Berlioz, Liszt and Franck. In 1803 in Vienna
Reicha dedicated a set of 36 fugues for piano to his teacher Haydn; for a new edition two years later
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he added an introduction entitled ber das neue Fugensystemdefending their construction. In this
introduction Reicha dismissed Martinis three principal categories of fugue as irrelevant to
contemporary composition and identified the following characteristics as necessary for a fugue: the
leading of the theme through all voices, proper contrapuntal texture, derivation of all musical ideas
from the theme alone, and the maintenance of a contrapuntal character throughout the piece. As
might be expected from a composer interested in more adventurous Romantic harmony, Reicha
rejected the traditional relationship between fugue and tonality, including the handling of the fugal
answer and any restrictions on modulation during the course of the piece. In a later treatise, written
after he had been appointed to the Paris Conservatoire, he also tried to bring the ubiquitous
periodicity of Classical-style music into the fugue by describing its structure as a series of periods
well delimited by phrases: these periods included an opening one called exposition and, following
an intervening episode, another called counterexposition. Reichas innovations were not widely
accepted, however; Beethoven, who himself treated fugue relatively freely, expressed the probably
common opinion that in Reichas collection of 36 fugues the fugue is no longer a fugue. Reichas
colleagues at the Paris Conservatoire, Cherubini and Ftis, later expressed similar criticisms. When
their ideals prevailed, the last serious attempt to update fugal theory died, and the teaching and
writing of fugue became once and for all an act of homage to the past.
Writing about fugue meanwhile continued apace. Authors included Ftis (1824), Cherubini (1835),
Weinlig (1845), E.F. Richter (1859), Riemann (189094), Prout (1891) and many others. Fugal
theory came to focus increasingly on one of two strains: either fierce, partisan debate about what
constituted a proper fugue, principally for the purpose of evaluating music of the past, or the
establishment of a rigid model to be followed to the letter by any student wishing to master the ideal
fugue. The latter came eventually to be known as the school fugue or fugue dcole and to be
associated most closely, as it still is today, with the Paris Conservatoire. Andr Gdalges Trait de
la fugue(1901) offers the definitive outline of the school fugue. The model is laid out in great detail
and is widely understood to bear no relationship at all to real composition outside the academy.
Beethovens judgment concerning Reichas fugues and his ambivalence about the freedoms
allowable in his own fugal composition mirror the widespread uncertainty of the time towards the
question of fugues definition and essential characteristics. Marpurg had allowed for strict and free
fugues, and some musicians of the early 19th century (e.g. Koch) simply expanded the latter to
encompass such innovatory works as Mozarts overture to Die Zauberflte, in which fugal texture is
by and large maintained but within a movement structured according to sonata form. Others (e.g.
J.A. Andr) vigorously rejected such (as they saw it) terminological looseness. For Andr, the sine
qua non of fugue was the opening fugal answer at the 5th. Other musicians since Andr have
identified their own essential characteristics, including most commonly contrapuntal rigour or overall
compositional structure (i.e. form). Most pieces designated fugue by 19th-century composers have
probably at some time been declared unworthy of the name for one or another reason; even Bachs
fugues themselves have occasionally been measured and found wanting.
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Adding to the terminological confusion is the 19th-century introduction of the word fugato, an Italian
past participle meaning fugued, which was occasionally used during the 16th and 17th centuries in
the expression contrappunto fugato(literally fugued counterpoint, perhaps best rendered in English
as fugal counterpoint). In 1760, however, Giorgio Antoniotto, an Italian -born musician living in
England, published a treatise in English in which he introduced the word as a noun meaning
imitative counterpoint that is not proper fugue (what earlier musicians had called simply imitation).
Fugato subsequently came to be the term most commonly applied to brief passages of fugal
imitation within non-fugal movements, as well as to any fugal piece (even if designated fugue by its
composer) that fails the test for proper fugue. In both of these senses, the word remains current
today.
As fugal theory became more and more orientated towards the past (and, by extension, towards the
analysis of earlier music), composers turned increasingly to the fugues of past composers, rather
than to the theoretical pronouncements of their teachers, for inspiration. Chief among their models
were the keyboard fugues of Bach, which, despite the disappearance of most of the rest of his
works from public consciousness, had never really faded from the view of the musical cognoscenti.
It is no accident that Schumann, Liszt and Reger all wrote fugues on the notes BACH, or that
both Schubert and Beethoven showed their greatest interest in fugue late in life, as they searched
for new ideas and models, rather than early in their careers, when their teachers precepts were
fresh in their minds. In the end, only Chopin among all the major composers of the 19th century
seems to have shown no interest whatsoever in counterpoint and fugue.
Perhaps the single exception to this new role of fugue as historical revival or archaeological relic
was its traditional, well-established place as finale in sacred vocal music. Prominent examples from
the century include, in addition to those of Beethovens masses, the final chorus of Mendelssohns
Elijahand the end of the third movement (on the words Der Gerechten Seelen sind in Gottes Hand)
of Brahmss German Requiem. Berlioz, on the other hand, criticized this convention and chose to
use fugue in more innovatory ways in his Requiem. Verdi introduced a brilliant spoof of the tradition
by closing his final opera, Falstaff, with a fugue on the words Tutto nel mondo burla (the whole
world is a joke). Meanwhile, the fugal finale in instrumental music, a much more recent tradition,
faded in importance. Among its few post-Beethoven appearances one might name the Variations
and Fugue on a Theme of Handel op.24 of Brahms and the fourth movement of Bruckners
Symphony no.5.
With the decline of interest in sacred music generally and the instrumental fugal finale in particular,
the writing of independent fugues, or preludes and fugues, came increasingly to attract composers
attention, just as it had Mozarts. Beethovens most contrapuntally rigorous fugue is probably the
opening movement of the C minor Quartet op.131, Schuberts the Fugue in E minor for piano four
hands, written in the year before he died. Both Mendelssohn and Schumann showed keen interest
in wrriting fugues, the former as an outgrowth of his interest in the revival of Bachs music, the latter
as a kind of artistic stimulus to his creative juices. Clara Schumann went so far as to refer to her
husbands Fugenpassion, and he enthusiastically instructed her using Cherubinis counterpoint
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treatise. One can see in all of these compositions their creators attempts to rein in or adapt the
current stylistic preference for beautiful, singing melody and adventurous harmony within a genre
designed first and foremost for contrapuntal display and technical sophistication.
By the second half of the century fugue had found its most comfortable niche within the genre of
prelude and fugue, and increasingly within the realm of organ music. These fugues might take the
form of studies (e.g. the organ fugues of Brahms), showpieces (the preludes and fugues of Liszt),
continued fascination with the Baroque (the works of Reger), or simply occasional essays (the
Prlude, fugue et variationfor organ op.18 of Franck). Of course fugue also retained its reputation
for learnedness. In order to characterize Beckmessers pedantry Wagner introduced fugal
counterpoint into Die Meistersinger (see bars 13850 of the overture, reprised in association with
Beckmesser in Act 3) and in La damnation de FaustBerlioz included a fugue in parody of German
learnedness. Of all of these men probably the most consistently successful composer of fugue was
Brahms, who also proved most capable of integrating past and present.
8. 20th century.
The indissoluble bond between fugue and tonality, traceable back to Dressler and Clemens in the
16th century and strongly reaffirmed in the 19th, made the genre uncongenial to those 20th-century
composers who had abandoned tonal harmony. A rare early use of fugue in atonal music occurs in
Der Mondfleck from Pierrot lunaire (1912), a movement that Schoenberg described as fugue
between piccolo and clarinet on the one hand, canon between violin and cello on the other.
Schoenbergs understanding of the difference between the two techniques is clear: the canon
carries through from beginning to end, whereas the fugue involves a theme, two bars long, which is
stated several times in the two voices, with intervening free counterpoint, and to which the
contrapuntal devices of inversion and stretto are applied. Nevertheless, as Schoenberg and Webern
began to explore thematic transformation as yet another way to avoid the sensation of a
recognizable tonality, fugue found itself all but excluded from 12-note music. The composers of the
Second Viennese School favoured both counterpoint and classical forms, but canon, not fugue, was
the preferred imitative technique. In fact, possibly the best-known fugue associated with these
composers was not an original composition but Weberns arrangement of the six-voice ricercare
from Bachs Musical Offering.
Perhaps the most significant atonal fugue from the first half of the century is the triple fugue in Act 2
scene ii, bars 286365, of Bergs Wozzeck(191722). Opera and fugue had traditionally had little to
do with each other, but Berg exploited the technique brilliantly by assigning a fugue subject to each
of the scenes three characters and using various contrapuntal combinations to parallel the dramatic
action. The fugue is laid out in several well-defined sections: exposition of theme 1, exposition of
theme 2, combination of themes 1 and 2, transition based on theme 2, exposition of theme 3,
combination of all three themes, and coda on themes 1 and 2. Even allowing for the absence of
tonality (the first five thematic statements enter on F , F , E , D and G), the handling of the
imitation itself is free and untraditional, much more so than Schoenbergs in Der Mondfleck. Bergs
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three expositions do not present their themes in the customary orderly fashion, integrity of voices is
not maintained, and thematic alteration, although seldom drastic, is omnipresent.
The so-called neo-classicism of the 1920s and 30s brought fugue back into favour. Each of the
movements adherents sought to put his own individual stamp on the tonal harmony he inherited,
and that desire led to a variety of tonal plans for both the imitative entries and the fugue as a whole.
Whereas Stravinsky, in the second-movement fugue of his Symphony of Psalms(1930), presented
a regularly laid-out fugal exposition with entries alternating between tonic and dominant, Bartk
chose, for the opening fugue of his Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta (1936), to take
successive entries around the circle of 5ths, with odd-numbered entries proceeding around the
circle in one direction and even-numbered entries in the opposite direction. These early attempts at
reinterpreting fugue in 20th-century terms led to further experiments, including later 12-note fugues
by Schoenberg (the finale of his Variations on a Recitative op.40 (1941) for organ and the Genesis
Prelude op.44 (1945) for orchestra and chorus without text). Also falling within the category of neo -
classical are two major collections of fugues inspired by the example of Bachs 48: Hindemiths
Ludus tonalis(1942) and Shostakovichs 24 Preludes and Fugues (195051).
The principal compositional trends since World War II total serialism, aleat