Grace Notes
Volume 2
April 2024
Musical TERM: Fugue
A fugue is a piece of music that uses interwoven melodies based on a single musical idea. Fugues were most popular during the Baroque Period, ca. 1600-1750. They were based on an earlier idea from the Renaissance Period called imitative polyphony, where multiple singers would sing the same melody at different times. (Source: study.com)
Fugues themselves are a variety of counterpoint, the art of harmoniously tying different melodies (or voices) together throughout a piece. Derived from the Latin for “flight”, their name hints at how fugues work. A “subject” melody comes in first. It is then “chased” by different voices, all entering in turn and imitating what came before. Sophisticated fugues have four or five voices, each one picking up and savouring the subject before passing it on. (Source: The Economist) Many consider J.S. Bach to have perfected the fugue as a compositional form. Fugues are still studied and used in music today.
Bach’s St. John Passion has many fugues. Here is a brief example from the first movement; the “subject” is introduced in just four measures by the Bass, Tenor, Alto, and Soprano in turn.
GRACE NOTES