by Gene Hownington
I’ve been listening to music in the car quite a bit lately. A little of this, a little of that, but on the longer stretches I’ve preferred classical music. Lately, I’ve been listening to fugues. I’m a sucker for counterpoint. A fugue – meaning “to flee” or “to chase” – is a baroque classical form that traces back to the 16th Century. The word itself is French and describes a contrapuntal composition where a theme (sometimes called the subject) is introduced at the beginning and repeated throughout the composition in different keys. I like the way fugues build. They are very rational structures mathematically speaking. Some are even mirror fugues, which are actually two fugues where one is a mirror of the other and played in a key above or below the main melody “like a mirror”. There are also Italian named variants on fugues, the fugato (a small fugue inside a piece of music that is otherwise not a fugue) and the fughetta (a small fugue). This later leads to the piece I’ve been listening to most for it is a rather large fugue. Its name in German in fact means “great fugue”. This is Ludwig von Beethoven‘s Große Fuge in B-flat major. Enjoy.
Now when most people hear of a fugue, they are thinking of this Halloween classic written by J.S. Bach and used in hundreds of horror films, Toccata and Fugue in D minor for organ. While the prelude is something every kid in this country has heard, many people have never heard the whole piece. It’s quite striking and beautiful. Bach was a master of counterpoint and as such he is widely considered one of the great masters at writing fugues.
A starker example of Bach’s mastery of counterpoint can be heard in his fughetta, “Little” Fugue in G minor (here arranged for piano).
And a bonus for those of you curious about mirror fugues, this is Contrapunctus XII, a 3 and Contrapunctus XII, a 4 from Bach’s Art of Fugue.
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Gene Howington
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Joy of Fishes
Chuck Stanley
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Terry Welshans
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Flowers For Socrates 
Personally, I’m partial to Musikalisches Opfer. It’s the Bach piece discussed in Gödel, Escher, Bach.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kegrnJAvG9Y
Mozart gave it a shot and created this beauty … a double fugue
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAVbm35XrvE#t=83
Fugue were often written as teaching tools and I got my fill of them over the years.Pachelbel was one of Bach’s heroes and one can see his influence in many of Bach’s fugues.
This a quick little piece by Pachelbel
A Canon is more rigid than a fugue. Having listened to several fugues already, now try a Canon and see if you can hear the difference.
This is Pachelbel again and his, now, very famous Canon in D
The Toccata and Fugue in D Minor has always been one of my favorites. I told someone that if one could set the experience of flying a high performance sailplane in a mountain wave to the edge of the stratosphere to music, it would be that one piece.
Another Bach piece I have always loved was Air on the G String. This is Sarah Chang playing her two-million dollar 1717 Guarneri del Gesù violin.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_FfAi68aW8
Then there’s this beauty … just for the hell of it
opps … the Classical gods disapproved but I persevere:
Wasn’t Tuli Kupferberg a co-founder of The Fugues?
I IV V rules, because the sixteen cents of third’s accomodation hurts the ears.
It’s just that Just is not Equal.
Blouise,
I almost put something in about canons, but I’m still getting back up to speed here. If it’s any consolation, I would have used Pachelbel as the prime example
I hear the 1812 Overture does cannons quite well. 🙂
Chuck,
Oh brother. 🙄
gbk,
I wish I had the gift of composition
Gene, thank for this! You touch deep nerves with this topic.
Slarti, I had to give up my ancient piano to move to the Great Northwest. It would not have survived the move, let alone the two moves I ended up making. I donated it to a music school. By the end, I was playing mostly Bach, and the piece which struck me the most was The Musical Offering. I had been playing the opening 3-part and closing 6-part recercars pretty much daily, having discovered them in college. They struck me as “perfect music,” and fit hand in glove with software engineering.
A recercar, meaning “to search out,” is an evolution of the fugue, itself a type of canon. Fugues are absolutely my favorite form of music. I’ve even written a couple. I will replace my piano one day, as time and resources permit. I can still hold all the pieces I knew in my mind, and play them at will in that setting. Getting the fingers to obey was always the greatest challenge. I figured by the time I turned 50, I would be able to claim at least amateur status with Bach. One does not rush The Great One.
And Chuck, Boo Hiiss! But only because you beat me to it!
Gene, I especially like the visuals. They help me to anticipate the music and to “hear” all the parts. Maybe my hearing gets confused without the assistance of the visuals.
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You might appreciate yesterday’s Pearls before Swine comic strip. I don’t know how to post, sorry.
http://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2014/10/19
Tangentially, there was an interesting arc in Pearls Before Swine in June…
http://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2014/06/02
http://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2014/06/03
http://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2014/06/04
http://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2014/06/05
http://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2014/06/06
http://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2014/06/07
How it happened.
Bob, how obvious! THanks. It came to be on fb. It didn’t occur to me to check out the url itself,
Slartibartfast, thanks for that series.
Yes, I liked that installment, also. It’s one of the few daily comics that I read every day.
As stupid as Bucky is, he occasionally throws out remarkable insight.
He once described Satchel’s membership on his family tree, as being on the low-hanging branch that keeps getting hit by the UPS truck when it comes down the street.
I couldn’t believe that a clever human came up with that one, much less Bucky.