FUGUE
What does "FUGUE" mean?
A musical composition in which a theme is introduced by one voice and taken up in turn by others.
Meanings
- A contrapuntal composition in which a short melody (the subject) is stated and then imitated and developed by successive entering voices. Bach's organ fugues weave a single theme through four interlocking voices. technical
- A dissociative psychiatric state in which a person loses awareness of their identity and may wander or travel, later with no memory of it. He came out of the fugue in another city, unsure how he had arrived. technical
Did you know?
- Bach's final, unfinished 'The Art of Fugue' stops mid-phrase in a fugue whose third subject spells his own name - B-A-C-H, which in German note-naming is B-flat, A, C, B-natural.
Word origin
From Italian 'fuga' (flight, fleeing), from Latin 'fuga', because in a fugue each voice seems to chase and flee the others; the psychiatric sense borrows the same image of flight.
Remember it
A fugue is a musical chase: the word comes from 'fuga', flight - the voices flee and pursue each other. Same root in 'fugitive'.
A little poem
One voice starts the path-
another takes up the chase,
till the running's a house.
tercet
Wordplay
- I lost my memory and wandered into a Bach recital. The doctors called it a fugue state; the audience called it the second movement.
What it teaches
A theme survives by being passed on, not held: what flees you may also carry you forward.
Quick facts
What does FUGUE mean?
A musical composition in which a theme is introduced by one voice and taken up in turn by others.
Is FUGUE a valid word?
Yes — FUGUE is one of the answer words in Wordul, the daily word game.
How many letters is FUGUE?
FUGUE has 5 letters and 1 syllable.
Where does FUGUE come from?
From Italian 'fuga' (flight, fleeing), from Latin 'fuga', because in a fugue each voice seems to chase and flee the others; the psychiatric sense borrows the same image of flight.
What can FUGUE teach us?
A theme survives by being passed on, not held: what flees you may also carry you forward.
How players do
Be the first to solve it.