The Fugue Thread

[WI-Tom]

One of my favorite series of classes in my undergraduate music program was formal training in counterpoint. So I figured, why not another Bilge thread about fugues? (Wait--has there been a fugue thread?)

Let's start with the 20th century, why not:



This one is the fourth movement for Barber's Piano Sonata. It was a three-movement sonata commissioned by (of all people) Richard Rodgers and Irving Berlin, and premiered by Vladimir Horowitz, who requested a fourth movement:

: “I saw three movements and told him the Sonata would sound better if he made a veryflashy last movement, but with content. So he did that fugue, which is the best thing in theSonata.”

I really really dig the 20th-century harmonies, and of course the fugue subject itself, so long, and so distinctive. And so pianistic. Apparently Barber wrote the entire fugue in a single day! (After Mrs. Horowitz, complaining about the 2-year delay in composing, called him a "constipated composer").

Feel free to add your favorite fugues as well. Viva la counterpoint!

Tom

[ron ll]

Maybe the most famous (toccata and) fugue, presented a little differently.

[Canoeyawl]

I wrote that word on the chalkboard in 5th grade and was suspended for a week...

[WI-Tom]

I wrote that word on the chalkboard in 5th grade and was suspended for a week...

You must have pronounced it wrong.

Tom

[ron ll]

It’s just a round on ‘roids.

[Canoeyawl]

You must have pronounced it wrong.

Tom

No, I wrote it out, never said a word the classroom was empty at that moment. It was at the end of class, sort of a finishing piece
The "teacher" might have pronounced it wrong, but that incident firmly established my relationships with "teachers" for evermore

[ron ll]

Bad spacing as in fug ue?

[dutchpp]

Leo Brouwer, Fuga no. 1.

[Canoeyawl]

Bad spacing as in fug ue?

What? At 10 years old?
Shirley you're kidding

[ron ll]

Leo Brouwer, Fuga no. 1.

Very nice. Thanks.

[sp_clark]

Rahsaan's take - https://youtu.be/Sq64-fTTibs

[WI-Tom]

It’s just a round on ‘roids.

Hmm... Technically, a round would be a canon, which is a piece based on direct musical imitation that can occur at various musical intervals (unison, fifth, octave, etc.). The key relationships in a fugue are much stricter if you're playing by the generally accepted Common Era rules (which are not rules at all but merely codifications--descriptive rather than prescriptive).

Canons (rounds) often do occur within a fugue. But to my mind at least, a fugue is largely defined by the Tonic-Dominant relationship between the first and second statement of the fugue subject.

Tom

[WI-Tom]

Here's another 20th century fugue (of sorts):



Tom

[skuthorp]

I prefer the C major Ron ll.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxtJ_av5NHo

[Harry Miller]

Sorry Tom, no trumpet

[ron ll]

Okay Tom, you got me on the technicals. I just don’t know enough music theory to go that deeply into it. But the Maynard Ferguson was great! Long been a fan.

[WI-Tom]

Okay Tom, you got me on the technicals. I just don’t know enough music theory to go that deeply into it. But the Maynard Ferguson was great! Long been a fan.

Ah, the technicals don't matter much. You're basically right--"a round on steroids" is not a bad description of a fugue.

I got to see Maynard live several times. A completely unique voice on trumpet, and a perennial showcase of young talent in his bands starting way back in the 1950s and continuing until his death. Sounds like he was a great boss, too, from all I've heard.

Not everything he did appeals to me musically, but just... Maynard. 'Nuff said.

Tom

[WI-Tom]

Sorry Tom, no trumpet

No trumpet needed--great stuff!

Tom

[MushCreek]

Well, I read the title too fast, and jumped in looking for a good fudge recipe. Carry on....

[Breakaway]

I saw this performed live.

https://youtu.be/gJcV-l0fUQE

Kevin


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[leikec]

Music theory—now there’s an interesting term.

Jeff C

[Canoeyawl]

Music theory—now there’s an interesting term.

Jeff C

Is that string theory?

[leikec]

Is that string theory?

Jeff C

[WI-Tom]

Today, a bit of Prokofiev. Young Prokofiev. Pianist Frederick Chiu, my favorite Prokofiev interpreter.



I admit to a particular fondness for fugues written for piano.

Tom

[WI-Tom]

And--why not--some Ravel as well.



Isn't that swell?

You can sit up at night to write a fugue, but you have to sit down to play it in the daytime. Why is that?

Tom

[elf]

Ironic. Couperin never wrote fugues.

[WI-Tom]

Ironic. Couperin never wrote fugues.

Au contraire!

The Kyrie from one of his masses is a fugue, as are two of the movements from his other mass. (These are both from his only surviving collection of organ music).

I think it would be hard to have been a Baroque composer without writing fugues. Counterpoint was the language of the day.

Tom

[elf]

One of my faves. You'll have to watch the prelude first, sorry.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLTNyhpMEEM

[elf]

Au contraire!

The Kyrie from one of his masses is a fugue, as are two of the movements from his other mass. (These are both from his only surviving collection of organ music).

I think it would be hard to have been a Baroque composer without writing fugues. Counterpoint was the language of the day.

Tom

Considering the enormous amount of music he wrote, it's amazing that he wrote nearly no fugues, except that the French had no interest in counterpoint at that level. Even Rameau, possibly the greatest of all French composers, wrote no fugues. The French were indebted to the Italians in so many ways. And Bach's preoccupation with big fugal constructions was an aberration, a product of his particular quirky mind.

[elf]

This one is very funny - trills piling up on trills finally cascading down into a heap of notes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erbfaKl1Uqc

[elf]

Shostakovich wrote amazing Preludes and Fugues. Here is one performed by the one and only Sviatoslav Richter.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_rESlGKYZ0

[elf]

Here's one prefaced by some 19th C German recitative. If you've ever been in middle of a choir singing this, it's an amazing experience. The pedal point gets into the bottom of your stomach.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTD0...s-A_7W&index=3

[elf]

In his old age, Verdi was convinced to set the Shakespeare comedy Merry Wives of Windsor. After Falstaff had been thoroughly ridiculed, his pretensions and foibles completely exposed and the wives had reduced him to a sad fool, Verdi decided to show off his compositional skill.

He wrote an amazing fugue for the finale.

The text is:

Everything in the world is a jest.

Man is born a jester.

In his mind, his reason

Is wavering always

All mocked! All mortals

Taunt one another,

But he laughs well who has the last laugh.

[Translated by William Weaver]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yx2zJMN4uEo

[elf]

And if you want to know a whole lot of scholarly stuff about it

http://majoringinunhstudies.blogspot...ring-2011.html

[dutchpp]

And then there's Mozart, a fugue for two piano's in C minor