home  > 
music theory / muziektheorieanalysis / analyse  Fugue  Fuga
 

Text on fugue  Tekst over fuga
You can download the completet text as pdf:
De complete tekst kun je downloaden als pdf-bestand:
Fugue / pdf English (18,7 MB)   TEXT FROM 2014 (extended and improved text)
 
Fuga / pdf Nederlands (23,4 MB!)   TEKST UIT 2009
Fuga / pdf Nederlands kleiner bestand, twee voorbeelden ontbreken!   TEKST UIT 2009
I would recommend Dutch readers to primarily use the English text, because it is (much) more complete - as it is newer -than the old Dutch. The Dutch text you can use  for example for the translation of terminology.

Ik zou ook Nederlandstaligen willen aanraden primair de Engelse tekst te gebruiken, want deze is (veel) completer - want nieuwer - dan de oudere Nederlandse tekst. De Nederlandse tekst kun je bijvoorbeeld gebruiken voor de vertaling van begrippen. 

For your information, I here quote the 'Intro' of the new English version:
 
This text is an extended, and largely revised translation of a text I wrote in Dutch on the same subject in 2009. Probably this text will by no means be a final version: revision may be necessary, and it is my intention to add more information after the text as it is now. So, some chapters will follow later... 

I will translate the text (back) to Dutch in the near future, as I believe this new version offers better and more complete information than the Dutch version of (almost) five years ago. I would like to advice my Dutch students to mainly use this English text, and to use the old Dutch version eventually adjacent (and then primarily because of the differences in terminology). 

This is about what I want to add in the future:

  • Example(s) of analyses of complete fugues (perhaps together with:)
  • Example(s of harmonic analysis of fugue(s)
  • Example of a fugue in the Classical period (probably Mozart)
  • Fugue as part of another form, after Bach (for example: in a development section) or with another 'aim' than contrapuntal elaboration as such (possible examples: Beethoven String Quartet Op. 59.1, Piano Sonate Op. 110, Franck: String Quartet, Reger: ? )
  • Fugue / counterpoint in the Twentieth century (Bartok, Hindemith, Shostakovich..)


When translating, I had to make a few decisions concerning terminology: 

  1. It seems that in the more recent textbooks in English the terms subject and answer are preferred over dux and comes. Because I am convinced that the terms dux and comes are  convenient, and more appropriate when describing (and understanding) fugal imitation technique, I stick to these. In practice, I use dux and comes in order to make the precise distinction between entrances in 'original' and transposed form, and subject in a more general sense, to label any entrance of the subject. In the examples though, I mostly mention the alternative lables subject and answer as well.
  2. In many English texts no clear distinction is made between interludes and episodes1 But: the non-thematic measures within groups of entrances of the subject often clearly have a different function than sections without the subject outside such groups. I therefore believe it makes prefect sense to make a clear distinction: 
    • a. Sections in which the subject is used should not be labeled episodes or interludes
    • b. Interludes stand within  a group of entrances of the subject
    • c. Episodes stand after a group of entrances of the subject.


In most places where I mention the Well-Tempered Clavier, I use the abbrevation WTC. 

Please feel invited to observe errors and omissions in this text, to suggest additions etc.!

 
Amsterdam, February 22, 2014