What is the formal structure of a fugue in music?

Answer 1

In music, a form of composition in which the basic principle is imitative counterpoint of several voices. Its main elements are: (1) a theme, or subject, stated first in one voice alone and then successively in all voices; (2) the continuation of a voice after the subject, forming an accompaniment to the subject statements in the other voices and sometimes assuming sufficiently distinct character as to be called a countersubject; and (3) passages that are built on a motive or motives derived from the subject or the countersubject but in which these themselves do not appear. Those sections in which the subject appears at least once in all voices are called expositions; those in which it does not appear at all are called episodes. Expositions other than the opening one often modulate. The formal structure of any fugue is an alternation of exposition and episode, and an infinite variety of formal scheme is possible.The term fugue designates a contrapuntal texture which may be in any formal design. Imitation as the systematic basis for musical texture was first applied during the generation of Josquin Desprez, Loyset Compère, and others, c.1500. During the 16th cent. the technique was further developed in the instrumental ricercare and canzone. In Germany in the 17th cent. composers such as Sweelinck, Froberger, and Buxtehude developed contrapuntal pieces based on one subject, which led to the fugal style exemplified in the Art of the Fugue, the Goldberg Variations, and the Well-tempered Clavier of J. S. Bach, the master of fugue. After him fugue was adapted by Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven to the classical style. Brahms was the chief composer to make use of the fugue in the romantic period. A contemporary volume of preludes and fugues is Paul Hindemith's Ludus Tonalis (1943). http://www.answers.com/topic/fugue

Answer 2

In the Baroque period when Fugues are considered 'in fashion' (and considerably after where the greatest proponent of the Baroque Fugue, J. S. Bach, is concerned), the fugue would usually be preceded by a prelude.

Preluding was not limited to fugues: throughout the baroque, it was considered both acceptable and advised practice to precede composed music with an improvised prelude. J. J. Quantz addresses preluding in his tretise on playing the Flute, but the practise dates back to the Renaissance period, when a lutenist would use a prelude to check the tuning of his instrument, test the acoustics of the room, and even to familiarize the listeners with a new key. Keyboardists, naturally, took up the practise, and the prelude became formalized and was more and more often written down in detail.

Preludes for fugues were not limited to rambling bits of frippery, and often became highly musical and formulaeic performance pieces, themselves. (Chopin, in a later era, wrote many preludes with not a fugue in sight!) Preludes were sometimes named for their musical form (e.g., "passacaglia and fugue") or by a parallel term ("tocatta and fugue"). The term "prelude" is French for 'play before' or 'before play', tocatta is Italian for "touch", i.e., demonstrating the player's 'touch' on the instrument.

Preludes are generally rhapsodic in form, and rarely as structured as a fugue, to provide a contrast to the intense logic and structure to follow.

Answer 3

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/fugue

a musical form consisting essentially of a theme repeated a fifth above or a fourth below the continuing first statement

Answer 4

ricercar