36 Fugues (Reicha)
Encyclopedia
Opus number
An Opus number , pl. opera and opuses, abbreviated, sing. Op. and pl. Opp. refers to a number generally assigned by composers to an individual composition or set of compositions on publication, to help identify their works...
36, is a cycle of fugue
Fugue
In music, a fugue is a compositional technique in two or more voices, built on a subject that is introduced at the beginning in imitation and recurs frequently in the course of the composition....
s for piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
composed by Anton Reicha
Anton Reicha
Anton Reicha was a Czech-born, later naturalized French composer. A contemporary and lifelong friend of Beethoven, Reicha is now best remembered for his substantial early contribution to the wind quintet literature and his role as a teacher – his pupils included Franz Liszt and Hector Berlioz...
. It was first published by the composer in 1803 and served as an illustration of a nouveau système (Fr. "new system") Reicha invented for fugue composition. This system involved, among other things, extensive use of polyrhythm
Polyrhythm
Polyrhythm is the simultaneous sounding of two or more independent rhythms.Polyrhythm in general is a nonspecific term for the simultaneous occurrence of two or more conflicting rhythms, of which cross-rhythm is a specific and definable subset.—Novotney Polyrhythms can be distinguished from...
s, derived from traditional music
Traditional music
Traditional music is the term increasingly used for folk music that is not contemporary folk music. More on this is at the terminology section of the World music article...
, and fugal answers on any and all scale degrees
Degree (music)
In music theory, a scale degree or scale step is the name of a particular note of a scale in relation to the tonic...
, rather than just the dominant
Dominant (music)
In music, the dominant is the fifth scale degree of the diatonic scale, called "dominant" because it is next in importance to the tonic,and a dominant chord is any chord built upon that pitch, using the notes of the same diatonic scale...
, which was standard at the time.
Historical background
Reicha most probably started composing the fugueFugue
In music, a fugue is a compositional technique in two or more voices, built on a subject that is introduced at the beginning in imitation and recurs frequently in the course of the composition....
s during his short stay in Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
. In 1799 he moved to Paris and soon published a collection of twelve fugues there, all of which were subsequently included in 36 Fugues (as numbers 1, 2, 4, 8, 20–23, 25–27 and 35). By 1802 Reicha moved to Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, but the same year two more works that would later be included in the collection were published in Paris. These were a fantaisie from Etude de transitions et 2 fantaisies, Op. 31, and a fugue on a theme by Domenico Scarlatti
Domenico Scarlatti
Giuseppe Domenico Scarlatti was an Italian composer who spent much of his life in the service of the Portuguese and Spanish royal families. He is classified as a Baroque composer chronologically, although his music was influential in the development of the Classical style...
, Op. 32.
The complete cycle was published in 1803 in Vienna under the French title Trente six fugues pour le pianoforte, composées d'après un nouveau système ("Thirty-six fugues for the piano, composed using a new system"). The collection was dedicated to Haydn
Joseph Haydn
Franz Joseph Haydn , known as Joseph Haydn , was an Austrian composer, one of the most prolific and prominent composers of the Classical period. He is often called the "Father of the Symphony" and "Father of the String Quartet" because of his important contributions to these forms...
, whom Reicha knew since the early 1790s, and included a dedicatory poem
Poetry
Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
by Reicha, in French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
and German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
. The fugues were preceded by extensive textual notes, in which Reicha defended his methods, particularly polyrhythm
Polyrhythm
Polyrhythm is the simultaneous sounding of two or more independent rhythms.Polyrhythm in general is a nonspecific term for the simultaneous occurrence of two or more conflicting rhythms, of which cross-rhythm is a specific and definable subset.—Novotney Polyrhythms can be distinguished from...
, for which he cites numerous examples from traditional music
Traditional music
Traditional music is the term increasingly used for folk music that is not contemporary folk music. More on this is at the terminology section of the World music article...
of Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
, Alsace
Alsace
Alsace is the fifth-smallest of the 27 regions of France in land area , and the smallest in metropolitan France. It is also the seventh-most densely populated region in France and third most densely populated region in metropolitan France, with ca. 220 inhabitants per km²...
, Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
and western France around the Bay of Biscay
Bay of Biscay
The Bay of Biscay is a gulf of the northeast Atlantic Ocean located south of the Celtic Sea. It lies along the western coast of France from Brest south to the Spanish border, and the northern coast of Spain west to Cape Ortegal, and is named in English after the province of Biscay, in the Spanish...
.
The second edition was published in Vienna in 1805 and included a short theoretical text, Über das neue Fugensystem, in which Reicha explains the theoretical basis of the fugues in form of a polemic against the numerous opponents of his ideas. These included Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
, who dismissed Reicha's method for turning the fugue into something that is no longer a fugue ("daß die Fuge keine Fuge mehr ist"), and Robert Schumann
Robert Schumann
Robert Schumann, sometimes known as Robert Alexander Schumann, was a German composer, aesthete and influential music critic. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most representative composers of the Romantic era....
. Also mentioned in Reicha's text are the circumstances that led to the composition of some of the fugues with borrowed themes: apparently, his Parisian friends have chosen several themes and asked Reicha to compose fugues on them using the new method.
General information
In Über das neue Fugensystem Reicha outlines his idea of the fugue as a form. To him, the characteristics required were the following:- the theme must appear in all voices, voices entering one by one,
- throughout the fugue the texture and character must remain properly contrapuntalCounterpointIn music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more voices that are independent in contour and rhythm and are harmonically interdependent . It has been most commonly identified in classical music, developing strongly during the Renaissance and in much of the common practice period,...
, - all musical ideas should be derived from the subject alone.
The standard rule of answering the subject at the dominant
Dominant (music)
In music, the dominant is the fifth scale degree of the diatonic scale, called "dominant" because it is next in importance to the tonic,and a dominant chord is any chord built upon that pitch, using the notes of the same diatonic scale...
did not matter to Reicha, and he argues that any scale degree can be used (for example, the subject is answered at the tritone
Tritone
In classical music from Western culture, the tritone |tone]]) is traditionally defined as a musical interval composed of three whole tones. In a chromatic scale, each whole tone can be further divided into two semitones...
in Fugue No. 20). He also dismisses limitations on the nature of the fugue's subjects, such as obligatory non-periodic structure (one of the subjects of Fugue No. 18 consists of a single note repeated) and a maximum span of a ninth
Ninth
In music, a ninth is a compound interval consisting of an octave plus a second.Like the second, the interval of a ninth is classified as a dissonance in common practice tonality. Since a ninth is a larger than a second, its sonority level is considered less dense.-Major ninth:A major ninth is a...
(the subject borrowed from Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
, in Fugue No. 7, has a span of more than two octaves). Finally, in some fugues of the cycle, Reicha experiments with the structure of the form by adding introductory sections (Fugue No. 27) or alterating between two different forms of texture (Fugue No. 14).
Although most fugues employ a single subject, some are different: six fugues employ two subjects (nos. 4, 13, 18, 31, 32, 34), fugue number 30 has three and fugue number 15 has six. Of the 36 fugues, 6 use subjects from other composers. These are the following:
- Fugue No. 3 in F minor uses the primary theme from the first movement of Joseph HaydnJoseph HaydnFranz Joseph Haydn , known as Joseph Haydn , was an Austrian composer, one of the most prolific and prominent composers of the Classical period. He is often called the "Father of the Symphony" and "Father of the String Quartet" because of his important contributions to these forms...
's String Quartet No. 23 in F Minor, Op. 20, No. 5String Quartets, Op. 20 (Haydn)The six string quartets opus 20 by Joseph Haydn are among the works that earned Haydn the sobriquet "the father of the string quartet." The quartets are considered a milestone in the history of composition; in them, Haydn develops compositional techniques that were to define the medium for the next... - Fugue No. 5 in G major uses the subject of Johann Sebastian BachJohann Sebastian BachJohann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...
's G major fugue from Book II of the Well-Tempered Clavier, BWV 884/2 - Fugue No. 7 in D major uses the theme that starts Mozart's Haffner SymphonySymphony No. 35 (Mozart)Symphony No. 35 in D major, K. 385, was composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in 1782 and is also called the Haffner Symphony. It was commissioned by the Haffners, a prominent Salzburg family, for the occasion of Sigmund Haffner's ennoblement...
, K. 385 - Fugue No. 9 in G minor uses the subject of Domenico ScarlattiDomenico ScarlattiGiuseppe Domenico Scarlatti was an Italian composer who spent much of his life in the service of the Portuguese and Spanish royal families. He is classified as a Baroque composer chronologically, although his music was influential in the development of the Classical style...
's Cat's FugueCat fugueFugue in G minor by Domenico Scarlatti is a one-movement harpsichord sonata popularly known as the Cat fugue or Cat's fugue.-History of the nickname:...
, Kk. 30/ L. 499 - Fugue No. 14, fuga-fantasia, uses the subject of Girolamo FrescobaldiGirolamo FrescobaldiGirolamo Frescobaldi was a musician from Ferrara, one of the most important composers of keyboard music in the late Renaissance and early Baroque periods. A child prodigy, Frescobaldi studied under Luzzasco Luzzaschi in Ferrara, but was influenced by a large number of composers, including Ascanio...
's RecercarRicercarA ricercar is a type of late Renaissance and mostly early Baroque instrumental composition. The term means to search out, and many ricercars serve a preludial function to "search out" the key or mode of a following piece...
Cromatic[h]o post il credo from the second MassMass (music)The Mass, a form of sacred musical composition, is a choral composition that sets the invariable portions of the Eucharistic liturgy to music...
of Fiori musicaliFiori musicaliFiori musicali is a collection of liturgical organ music by Girolamo Frescobaldi, first published in 1635. It contains three organ masses and two secular capriccios. Generally acknowledged as one of Frescobaldi's best works, Fiori musicali influenced composers during at least two centuries...
, Missa Degli Apostoli. - Fugue No. 15 is built on six subjects, one of which is a theme from HandelGeorge Frideric HandelGeorge Frideric Handel was a German-British Baroque composer, famous for his operas, oratorios, anthems and organ concertos. Handel was born in 1685, in a family indifferent to music...
's oratorioOratorioAn oratorio is a large musical composition including an orchestra, a choir, and soloists. Like an opera, an oratorio includes the use of a choir, soloists, an ensemble, various distinguishable characters, and arias...
Israel in Egypt, namely the line "I will sing unto the Lord" from the first chorus of the second part, "Moses and the children of Israel [...]".
List of fugues
- Fugue No. 1, Allegro – uses fragmentation of the subject, then sequencesSequence (music)In music, a sequence is the immediate restatement of a motif or longer melodic passage at a higher or lower pitch in the same voice. It is one of the most common and simple methods of elaborating a melody in eighteenth and nineteenth century classical music...
it chromaticallyChromaticismChromaticism is a compositional technique interspersing the primary diatonic pitches and chords with other pitches of the chromatic scale. Chromaticism is in contrast or addition to tonality or diatonicism...
. - Fugue No. 2, Allegro
- Fugue No. 3, Molto moderato (theme by Haydn)
- Fugue No. 4, Allegro moderato – two subjects.
- Fugue No. 5, Allegretto (theme by Bach)
- Fugue No. 6, Allegro moderato
- Fugue No. 7, Allegro (theme by Mozart)
- Fugue No. 8, Allegretto, subtitled Cercle harmonique – modulatesModulation (music)In music, modulation is most commonly the act or process of changing from one key to another. This may or may not be accompanied by a change in key signature. Modulations articulate or create the structure or form of many pieces, as well as add interest...
through all keysKey (music)In music theory, the term key is used in many different and sometimes contradictory ways. A common use is to speak of music as being "in" a specific key, such as in the key of C major or in the key of F-sharp. Sometimes the terms "major" or "minor" are appended, as in the key of A minor or in the...
. - Fugue No. 9, Allegro moderato (theme by Scarlatti)
- Fugue No. 10, – in 12/4 (Reicha recommends imagining this as 3/4 time, tempo di una battuta.)
- Fugue No. 11, Allegro moderato
- Fugue No. 12, Allegretto – in 2/8.
- Fugue No. 13, Allegro moderato – two subjects. Composed using Reicha's "new harmonic system"; a modalMusical modeIn the theory of Western music since the ninth century, mode generally refers to a type of scale. This usage, still the most common in recent years, reflects a tradition dating to the middle ages, itself inspired by the theory of ancient Greek music.The word encompasses several additional...
fugue with cadences possible on every degree of the scale without further alteration, except the seventh. - Fugue No. 14, Fermé et avec majeste-Presto, subtitled Fuga-fantasia (theme by Frescobaldi) – alternates between slow chordal passages and chromatically planned fast sections.
- Fugue No. 15, Adagio – six subjects (one of them by Handel). Originally printed in both two- and six-stave form.
- Fugue No. 16, Andante un poco allegretto
- Fugue No. 17, Allegro
- Fugue No. 18, Adagio – two subjects.
- Fugue No. 19, Allegro
- Fugue No. 20, Allegretto – in 5/8.
- Fugue No. 21, Allegro
- Fugue No. 22, Allegretto
- Fugue No. 23, Allegro
- Fugue No. 24, Allegro moderato – 2/2 and 3/4 alternating.
- Fugue No. 25, Allegro
- Fugue No. 26, Allegro
- Fugue No. 27, Allegro – features an introductory section.
- Fugue No. 28, Allegro – 6/8 and 2/8 alternating.
- Fugue No. 29, Allegro moderato
- Fugue No. 30, Allegro moderato – three subjects. 4/2 + 3/4, used simultaneously (polyrhythm).
- Fugue No. 31, Allegro moderato
- Fugue No. 32, Poco lento
- Fugue No. 33, Allegro
- Fugue No. 34, Un poco presto – two subjects.
- Fugue No. 35, Allegro
- Fugue No. 36, Allegro moderato
Editions
- Kassel: Bärenreiter, 1973, catalogue numbers 19117–119. Edited by Václav Jan Sýkora.
Recordings
- 36 Fugues Op. 36 (1991–92). Tiny Wirtz (piano). 2 CDs, CPO 999 065-2
World premiere recording of the complete cycle. - 36 Fugues for piano, Op. 36 (selection) (1996–7). Milan LangerMilan LangerMilan Langer is a Czech pianist.He won Smetana Competition and the Chopin Competition in Mariánské Lázně, and was prized at the 1976 Paloma O'Shea Competition...
(piano). 1 CD, BONTON Music 71 0459-2.
Includes fugues nos. 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11–13, 20, 22, 23–26, 28–33. - 36 Fugues (2006). Jaroslav TůmaJaroslav TumaJaroslav Tůma is a Czech Organist.This organist, clavichord, harpsichordist and pianoforte player graduated from the Prague Conservatory and from the Faculty of Music of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague...
(piano). 2 CDs, ARTA F101462,
Performed on a period instrument, fortepiano Anton WalterAnton WalterAnton Walter was a builder of pianos. The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians describes him as "the most famous Viennese piano maker of his time".-Life:...
1790.
External links
- Complete score of Op. 36 at www.free-scores.com
- [ A description of the cycle and some of the fugues from Allmusic.com]