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The six-part fugue in the "Ricercar a 6" from The Musical Offering, in the hand of Johann Sebastian BachIn classical music, a fugue (/ f juː ɡ /, from Latin fuga, meaning "flight" or "escape" [1]) is a contrapuntal, polyphonic compositional technique in two or more voices, built on a subject (a musical theme) that is introduced at the beginning in imitation (repetition at different pitches ...
In this fugue, Beethoven puts together three versions of the main subject: (1) the subject in its simple form, but in augmentation (meaning half the speed); (2) the same subject, abbreviated, in retrograde (that is, played backwards); and (3) a variation of the first half of the subject in diminution (that is, double time). Together, they sound ...
During the Middle Ages, Renaissance, and Baroque—that is, through the early 18th century—any kind of imitative musical counterpoints were called fugues, with the strict imitation now known as canon qualified as fuga ligata, meaning "fettered fugue".
BWV 577 – Fugue in G major "à la Gigue" (spurious) BWV 578 – Fugue in G minor "Little" BWV 579 – Fugue on a theme by Arcangelo Corelli (from Op. 3, No. 4); in B Minor; BWV 580 – Fugue in D major (spurious) BWV 581 – Fugue in G major (not by Bach, composed by Gottfried August Homilius) BWV 581a – Fugue in G major (spurious)
Fugue in G minor, BWV 578, (popularly known as the Little Fugue), is a piece of organ music written by Johann Sebastian Bach during his years at Arnstadt (1703–1707). It is one of Bach's best known fugues and has been arranged for other voices, including an orchestral version by Leopold Stokowski .
The Musical Offering (German: Musikalisches Opfer or Das Musikalische Opfer), BWV 1079, is a collection of keyboard canons and fugues and other pieces of music by Johann Sebastian Bach, all based on a single musical theme given to him by Frederick the Great (King Frederick II of Prussia), to whom they are dedicated.
A fugue usually has two main sections: the exposition and the body. In the exposition, each voice plays its own adaptation of the theme, in either a subject or an answer; they also provide countersubjects (counterpoints) to the following voices as they enter. [7]
Moreover, in a fugue the musical material used at each entrance (the so-called "subject") is repeated many times throughout the piece, whereas in a fuguing tune it normally appears just in the one location of sequenced entries, and the rest of the work is somewhat more homophonic in texture. Indeed, "fuguing" does not derive from "fugue".