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fugue

Contrapuntal musical form based on a subject that recurs in imitation

Entitytype of musical work/composition musical form music genreQ181014

Also known as fughetta · fugal · fuge · fuga

Instance of: type of musical work/composition
, musical form
, music genre
Subclass of: counterpoint
, composed musical work
, classical music

Overview

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia · Read full article · Text CC BY-SA 4.0

In classical music, a fugue is a contrapuntal, polyphonic compositional technique in two or more voices, built on a subject that is introduced at the beginning in imitation, which recurs frequently throughout the course of the composition. It is not to be confused with a fuguing tune, which is a style of song popularized by and mostly limited to early American music and West Gallery music. 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. Fugues can also have episodes, which are parts of the fugue where new material often based on the subject is heard; a stretto, when the fugue's subject overlaps itself in different voices, or a recapitulation. A popular compositional technique in the Baroque era, the fugue was fundamental in showing mastery of harmony and tonality as it presented counterpoint.

Overview

All data

54 statements · 17% with external sources · numbers in brackets are citations

Uses: imitation
counterpoint
theme
Members / parts: fugue stretto nature of statement: sometimes
episode nature of statement: often
coda nature of statement: often

On other databases

40 identifiers linking fugue across the web's reference databases

Data quality

statements

17%

externally sourced

Source last edited October 5, 2026. AIDb refreshes this page daily.

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AIDb. (2026). fugue (Q181014). Retrieved from https://aidb.si/e/fugue-Q181014