Fugue

Listen to a fugue by Bach arranged for the modern piano

Listen to a fugue by Handel for the Basic Baroque Orchestra

A highly systematized procedure of imitative polyphony based on a single theme called a subject. The parts of a fugue are as follows:

Exposition: The fugue subject is announced by al the voices of the fugue in imitative polyphony.

Episode: Modulatory passages built on motivic material drawn from the subject. There are no complete subject statements in an episode.

Re-statement: Return of the fugue subject in various keys and modes.

Coda: A short ending to the highly polyphony writing and very often a brief shift in texture to homophony to tell the listener the polyphony is coming to a close.