Table of Contents
What are the three main parts of a fugue and what is the material that comes between those sections called?
A fugue usually has three sections: an exposition, a development, and finally, a recapitulation that contains the return of the subject in the fugue’s tonic key, though not all fugues have a recapitulation.
What are the three main elements of a fugue?
A fugue usually has three main sections: an exposition, a development and a final entry that contains the return of the subject in the fugue’s tonic key.
What is the characteristics of fugue in baroque period?
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.
What is the term used to describe a fugue theme that is heard at half its original rhythmic values?
Diminution (rhythmic), the restatement of a subject in half its original note values (i.e., at twice the original speed).
Why are fugues important?
Fugal writing is a very complex form of counterpoint. In the Baroque it could also be considered a genre, as many pieces were composed as stand-alone fugues. The most important thing to remember is the role of the fugue subject as the main melodic idea that is imitated throughout the piece.
What is the characteristics of fugue?
fugue, in music, a compositional procedure characterized by the systematic imitation of a principal theme (called the subject) in simultaneously sounding melodic lines (counterpoint). The term fugue may also be used to describe a work or part of a work.
How is a fugue varied?
Statements of the subject are often varied by transposition, with a corresponding temporary change of key. In some fugues, the subject is always present in one part or another; in most, statements of the subject are often separated by connective melodic passages called episodes.
What is the form that defines a fugue?
A fugue is a multi-voice musical form that hinges on counterpoint between voices. Composers can write fugues for a single instrument (most notably a piano or other keyboard instrument), or they can write them for several individual players.
What is a fugue in music theory?
A fugue is a contrapuntal composition for a number of separate parts or voices. e.g. “a fugue in 4 parts”, “a fugue in 3 voices”. Each part/voices enters in imitation of each other. In this music theory lesson we are going to look at the basic structure of a fugue in 4 voices/parts.
What comes after the subject in a fugue?
So, the voice/part which has just played the Subject will go on to play the Countersubject whilst the next voice is playing the answer. After the Exposition there comes an Episode. An episode is a connecting passage of music in a fugue and is usually made up of a development of the music that has already been heard in the Exposition.
What is Exposition in fugue writing?
Exposition – The first section of the fugue wherein the subject is stated. Subject – The principal theme or main idea; the first statement of the subject is usually by a single voice.
Why are the voices in a fugue in different ranges?
The voices are all in different ranges so that each time the subject enters, it can be clearly heard. To start the fugue, the subject is played by one of the voices. Let’s say this is you, starting the race with your friends. After the subject is introduced, an answer is given.