Faà di Bruno, Giovanni Matteo [Horatio, Orazio] Fabbri, Anna Maria

Fugue

A term in continuous use among musicians since the 14th century, when it was introduced, along with its vernacular equivalents chace and caccia, to designate a piece of music based on canonic imitation (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 designations – ricercare, 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 Fux’s Gradus ad Parnassum and, 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.

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.

PAUL WALKER