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THEME ELABORATION TECHNIQUES IN 20TH-CENTURY FUGUE

G. Vlahopol

Abstract

The subject is the key element, the basis of the structure of the fugue form due to its melodic, rhythmic, harmonic and polyphonic features. Even from the Baroque period, the development and the final entry were the sections with the most innovative constructive aspects due to a certain freedom given to the composer in the treatment of the theme, resulting in a multitude of ways to conceive them. In 20th-century music, this freedom becomes manifest in all musical parameters (melody, rhythm, key, writing etc.), but especially at the construction level and so theme elaboration procedures are approached from various angles. Traditional polyphonic processes (imitation, stretto) are combined with modern ways of varying the subject, involving intonational or rhythmic transformations, or polymetric and key superpositions. This study is a review of some of the techniques used to process the subject in the development and the final sections of the modern fugue, highlighting the impact that the diversity of aesthetic and stylistic directions has had on an original and current formal pattern. Starting from some of the representative works of universal music to less well-known works from the Romanian repertoire, the study is a first stage of a wide-ranging process of analyzing the phenomenon of transformations of the fugue form into the 20th century music.

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DOI resolver: doi.org/10.5593/sgemsocial2018/6.2/S25.027

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