Welcoming to Performing the Forms.
A video series where I look at a variety of composition techniques and how and why they
are used in musical theatre.
In this video I want to look at the fugue.
To understand fugues, we got to know what it is first.
What is a fugue?
A fugue is a type of composition technique which originally had its heyday during the
Baroque era.
It contains two or more voices, built on a single subject melody.
Out of time sake for this video, the only relevant part of the fugue is the beginning,
otherwise known as the exposition.
We'll quickly look at a typical Bach fugue.
Fugue no. 2 in C-minor.
A subject line is introduced.
Then another voice enters with the same subject line, and typically in a different key.
Notice how the original voice creates harmonies in what is known as counterpoint.
A third voice enters.
While it took the second voice 1 measure to enter, the third voice took 2 measures to enter.
This is very typical and is known as a staggered entrance.
And everybody continues on their merry way onto the development section, where the subject
line continues to make appearances while having the freedom to experiment.
I'm abridging this explanation to save some time.
But I suggest you look at some of these videos which dives more in-depth.
Jumping into musicals, one of the most famous fugues is probably Fugue for Tinhorns from
the 1950 musical Guys and Dolls by Frank Loesser.
But wait! It isn't a fugue!
Although there is a clear melody line that has separate and staggered entrances, all
the subject lines are in the same key.
Secondly, none of the voices explore outside of the subject line.
It’s the same thing over and over.
In the song 'In the Same Boat' from Kander and Ebb's 2007 musical Curtains, there's this line.
Frere Jacques is a round.
And on that point, Fugue for Tinhorns is more round than fugue.
And in any case, this song, 'In the Same Boat' isn't a fugue either, nor is it a round.
I'll probably talk about this in a later video.
Speaking of non-fugues, this "Fugue" from the 1937 musical, Me and My Girl by Noel Gay ain't a fugue.
In this scene where multiple characters are separately preparing for an upcoming party,
they're all just speaking in rhythm over each other.
Not even close to a fugue.
This lazy writing is pissing me off.
In these two examples, "fugues", is utilized to create a sense of butting heads or cocophony.
Yet another non-fugue is the song "Fugue for four girls" from the 1970 show "The Me Nobody
Knows" (aka the first landmark rock musical) written by Gary William Friedman.
Four girls sing separate melodies in counterpoint, but they are not in imitation of each other,
this is interjected with anecdotes about personal hardships.
I won't give this song crap for not being a fugue, because its absolutely gorgeous and
the lyrics are extremely poetic and written by kids.
Anyways, Not a fugue.
Lets move on to real fugues now.
A famous one is 'Cool' or sometimes called the "cool fugue' from 1957's West Side Story
by Leonard Bernstein.
Oh boy, that's a musical doozy right there.
Well first of all, is it a fugue?
Kind of...
There's lots of counterpoint.
There is a great video analysis of this song.
Click here for that.
It is extremely well done.
Anyways, there are only three basic themes recognized.
The tritone, which is famously prevalent throughout the entire score.
Then there is a 12-tone row.
And then this fun little cool jazz lick.
Each of these is introduced one by one, till we get a cacophony of all of the themes in
glorious counterpoint.
Then the closest thing we get to a fugue is this.
Two distinct voices doing that fun little lick.
Anyways, watch that great video and although its in Spanish read the accompanying written
analysis.
Anyways, it seems that as this counterpoint gets more fugue-y the more anxious the gang
gets; however, they recover and manage to stay cool.
The fugue sets as a parallel to how the gang is emotionally feeling.
Lets look at another fugue once again.
This is a New Orleans Jazzy dance number during a party scene in the 1955 musical Pipe Dream
by Rodgers and Hammerstein.
Pipe Dream is a show that didn't too well unfortunately.
But its got that fugue.
The melody is a variation of the previous song.
Only the beginning of this dance is a fugue, before it morphs into your standard upbeat
dance music.
This dance was most likely written by John Morris, who did the dance arrangements for
the show.
John Morris was also famous for scoring such Mel Brooks films such as Blazing Saddles,
Young Frankenstein, and the Producers.
Anyways, this fugue starts with the tuba.
The next entrance is the clarinet; interestingly the clarinet does a 2-bar intro before getting
to the subject line.
Then the trumpet comes in.
Then finally the trombone comes in.
But like the clarinet, the trombone also has a 2-bar intro before it reaches the subject line.
In a very Bach-like manner as well, the entrances are I-V-I-V.
The first entrance is in G major.
The next entrance in D major.
Then even though the next entrance seems to be different than the first, the notes have
been slightly altered to fit back into G major.
And finally the last entrance is back in D. Now this song is called Dance Fugue, and to
my knowledge a recording of this version doesn’t exist.
The NY Encores revived the show in 2012 and included this dance but retitled it Fractured
Fugue and rearranged it a bit, especially after the exposition ends.
The fugue acts as a fun little dance in order to get into the upcoming party scene.
Andrew Lloyd Webber's 1981 musical Cats, has a fugue in its overture.
Like the previous example, there are four distinct entrances, not necessarily 4 distinct
voices though.
Additionally, the entrances are also I-V-I-V.
The first one starts on F, the next one on C, then F again, then C again.
What isn't very fugue-like is the first subject line, because its already has an accompanying
figure.
However, the exponentially staggered entrances are fugue-like.
The second voice comes in after 2 bars, the third voice after 4, and the last voice after 8.
It is also a very atonal fugue.
It doesn’t seem to be in any set key.
This entire opening is meant to create the atmosphere of the cats.
The non-conformity of the cats and the very individualistic nature of our characters whom
we'll soon be introduced.
One amazing and underlooked fugue is from Gershwin' 1933 Porgy and Bess, though really
more of an opera, it is occasionally produced by musical theatre companies.
When Crown kills Robbins in a fight, we have the "Crap Game Fugue".
Btw, this fugue in only presented in an abridged form in the 2012 rewrite that was on Broadway.
This is a very fast-paced and atonal fugue, in which I could spend hours talking about.
But I don't got the time.
And perhaps I'll devote an entire video to Gershwin.
This is a high paced fugue to add to the excitement of this intense fight scene.
All the fugues we looked at so far was just instrumental, whether it be a dance break,
overture, or underscoring.
Where are the fugal songs?
Finally, I'd like to end this video with the most Fugue-iest of Fugues.
It is called the Goldfarb Variations from the 1974 musical The Magic Show by Stephen
Schwartz (who wrote such works like Godspell, Pippin, and Wicked).
Although the musical initially did well, Schwartz decided to ban future productions of the show
till rewrites could be done.
He wrote this song 8 years earlier for a show he did while attending Carnegie Mellon.
He just changed up the lyrics a bit to bring you this.
The song is scored for Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Bass.
The soprano enters in D Major, followed by the Tenor in the same key.
Then the Alto enters in A Major, followed by the bass in the same key.
Thusly the entrances are in I-I-V-V.
The harmonies and counterpoint is very Baroque and he develops this very well.
In the middle it even modulates into minor.
This is the closest we get to an accurate traditional fugue.
Like the first two examples I mentioned, this song too is to create the cacophony of excitement
that somebody is coming.
Anyways, I hope you've been able to enjoy these variety of fugues that exist in the
music theatre repertoire and how the various ways that they are used.
In the next video of this series I'll be looking at Overtures.
Thank you for Watching!