Performing and Visual Art

THEME ELABORATION TECHNIQUES IN 20TH-CENTURY FUGUE

Assist. Prof. Gabriela Vlahopol

“George Enescu” National University of Arts, Iasi, Romania

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 20 th-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:
Keywords: subject, fugue, 20th century music, development

SUBJECT & METHOD(S) OF RESEARCH

The main attribute of the theme, that of an entity with elaborate virtues, determined
during the history of musical thinking the appearance of the thematic forms. The
continuous evolution of the creation process created the conditions for the articulation
of the theme principle, which, through a continuous practice, led to the shaping of
certain principles of form.
In spite of the changes that the theme principle will underpin as a constructive element,
it remains fundamentally the aspect underlined by Zarlino three centuries ago: repetition
and variation throughout a work. The process has been widely encountered since the
creation of the Baroque, evolving in complexity during the classical and romantic
epochs, becoming one of the basic processes in the development of the sound material
in the musical discourse.
Over its occurrences during the development section, the subject on which the fugue
form is based undergoes more or less substantial changes at the rhytmic and melodic
level, depending on the composer’s will to conform or not to the rigors of the traditional
form. The latter required that the general profile of the theme be kept so as to be easily
recognisable by the listener.
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The following lines discuss a series of aspects relative to the treatment of the subject in
the elaboration of the fugue form which encompass novelty features when compared to
the traditional progression of the form.
The analysis of the phenomenon is based on the study of some vocal and instumental
works from the Romanian and universal repertoire. Starting from the identification of
the subject and of the basic sections of the form, we will emphasize the theme's
transformations from three perspectives: inversion, superimposition and constructive
symmetries.

DICUSSION
INVERSION AND SUPERIMPOSITION
In the Baroque fugue, in general, medial reprises use the direct theme and its inversed
variant or a variant varied through augmentation or diminution [1]. In modern times,
along with the rise of new compositional views, fugues tend to encompass all the
variants of a melodic line that plays the role of the theme – direct, inversed, recurrent,
and inversion of recurrence. In some of the fugues in Ludus tonalis, Paul Hindemith
combined all these theme variants (Fuga tertia and Fuga nona), going as far as to
undermine the importance of the direct theme itself. Thus, in Fuga tertia, owing to a
mirror construction (with an axis of symmetry after the first medial reprise), the
direction of post-expositive answers is modified in a recurrent manner so that, until the
end, the direct version of the theme appears only one more time, in Rm1 (before the
limit of symmetry).
Another innovative aspect in 20th-century fugues is represented by the various theme
superimposition (juxtaposition) techniques used in reprise sections [2].
The superimposition of two or three different intonation variants of the same theme
produces an obvious, complex polymodalism. This superimposition may be
simultaneous or delayed, taking the form of a very tight stretto.
In Paul Hindemith’s Sonata in C for violin and piano, three variants of theme 1 and
theme 3 are superimposed. The three variants of theme 1 are the following: the original
theme by the second voice, the same theme in a descant, but also in a stretto with the
second, and the same melodic material played in a rhythmically augmented low-pitched
register. Two of the three versions function on the same intonation centres (even if
delayed from a rhythmic perspective), and the third is played at a lower fourth interval.

Fig. 1 Paul Hindemith, Sonata in C for violin and piano, mark 36, bars 7-11
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One of the very obvious ways to create polymodalism is to superimpose the theme on
itself at different intervals.
The fourth is one of the strongest sounding intervals when it comes to modal
impressions. Sigismund Toduţă doubles the theme at a fourth in the piece Dance from
his Mioriţa Oratorio. During the medial reprise, the violins and the woodwinds play the
theme in parallel fourths, and the tension created by these unresolved dissonances is
amplified by the stretto technique. Simultaneously, on the vertical axis, complex
harmonic structures are born, generated by the superimposition of polyphonic lines.
This example confirms, once more, composer Sigismund Toduţă’s affinity for
polymodal theme superimpositions, especially in the works that approach folk music-
based intonations [3].

Fig. 2 Sigismund Toduţă, Mioriţa Oratorio, Dance, mark 33, bar 10

Another method to diversify the way in which the subject is treated in the development
section or in the final reprise is the imitation in a stretto of the theme and its modified
variant. Even if the interval ratio between the two entries is a perfect octave, the two
theme versions are differentiated at the level of rhythm and intonation so that it becomes
difficult to identify the function of the second entry, which may be either the subject or
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the answer. This phenomenon is to be found in the final reprise of the fugue in Max
Reger’s Variations and fugue on a theme by J. S. Bach.

Fig. 3 Max Reger, Variationen und Fuge über ein Thema von Johann Sebastian Bach
Op. 81, bars 370-373

CONSTRUCTIVE SYMMETRIES
Pascal Bentoiu’s works provide us with some elements of constructive symmetry in
medial reprises that are related to the manner in which the theme is rendered. In Quartet
op. 5 (part IV), medial reprise 2 encompasses an ample stretto section: the first stage is
an imitation at an octave of the direct theme, whereas the second stage involves the
progression in stretto of a set made up by the superimposition of the direct and inversed
variant with an incipit on the sound of the dominant.

Fig. 4 Pascal Bentoiu, Quartet op. 5, scheme of development

In the same work, the second fugue encompasses a structural symmetry produced
through the dual rendering of theme 2 and of its inversion, the axis being represented by
the sound B. As a matter of fact, the entire exposition is organised symmetrically: the
 Performing and Visual Art

order of entries follows an arched trajectory – E B / B E and B F# / F# B, respectively –

the sound B being the axis of symmetry of this sequence of perfect E B F#.
In the second part of Piano Concerto no. 2 the theme is superimposed on its inversion at
a second interval (A-B). These two centres were not chosen at random, but in the tonal
context of the expositive entries, E-B-E, as each of the two sounds (A, B) represents a
distinct tendency to continue the tonal progression: A as the lower dominant and B as
the upper dominant (mark 23).
Another novelty element is the fact that the theme is played by two instruments, in the
form of alternative complementary answers. In the third medial reprise in Benjamin
Britten’s Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Purcell the theme is fragmented and
distributed over two levels (between two trumpets) linked by a relation of quasi-
heterophonic complementariness (the two dialogic melodic planes oscillate between
identity and differentiation). The impression of continuity is created with the help of
timbral means, by using two instruments of the same type.

Fig.5 Benjamin Britten, Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Purcell, mark K, bar 1-8

Imitation at a chromatic semitone interval is one of the most relevant realities that show
how the imitation principle drifted away from the Baroque model, based mainly of the
fifth, as a result of the gradual leaving aside of the gravitational tonal thinking and
increased use of new tonal-modal systems. This procedure is common in the works of
Bartók and Hindemith, often combined with imitation at a fifth or an octave and that at
a third (favoured by Hindemith).
In Sonata in C for violin and piano, Paul Hindemith uses this type of imitation
frequently. In the 3rd fugue, the composer builds an ample stretto made up of 3
consecutive series of imitations between various pairs of voices, carried out at an upper
second interval (or augmented unison).
5th International Multidisciplinary Scientific Conference on Social Sciences & Art SGEM 2018

Fig. 6 Paul Hindemith, Sonata in C for violin and piano, bars 137-146

The use of the second as an imitation interval matches the composer’s propensity to
neutralize functional-tonal association tendencies. As a result, he prefers diminished
octave (augmented unison) intervals instead of the major seventh, which alludes to the
seventh chord used in classical harmony.
In fugue 1 and the final reprise in Part IV of Trio no. 1 op. 34, Hindemith ignores the
succession of metric and rhythmic accents and superimposes freely, in a stretto, the
theme and its various metric configurations, creating, as a result, an effect of polymetry.

RESULTS
Following the analysis of the various types of fugues extracted from the music of the
20th century, the following aspects related to the thematic treatment in the development
and the final part of the form were observed:
- The composers of the 20th century do not abolish the thematic treatment processes
specific to the Baroque period. Both the adherents to the Neoclassicism and those who
have approached the avant-garde languages preserve the principles of ancient
polyphony, thus proving their validity and their constructive potential, generating a
complex polyphonic discourse in any stylistic context;
- Along with the traditional processes, we find new thematic elaboration techniques,
derived from the modern compositional concepts, which give the 20th century a
momentary air, despite their distant origins;
- The combination of new and specific Baroque processes is not only a necessary
modern constitutional vision but a way to give diversity, complexity and versatility to
the fugue form, proving the ability to adapt the old structures to the renewal of the
trends of the new times.

CONCLUSION
A complex thematic form, based on the exposition archetype, the fugue form has as a
main constructive landmark the thematic articulation, which in the course of the work
undergoes more or less considerable transformations, and which, through episodic
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appearance, determines the organization of the whole in distinct architectural segments

with specific functionality.
Many of the 20th-century composers used the Bachian fugue as a model, preserving its
structural features. However, alignment with the new concepts and systems of sound
organization of the time have decisively influenced the modalities of processing the
subject throughout the developmental section.
Moreover, even the traditional polyphonic processes of thematic treatment gained new
significance by fitting them into modern compositional thinking, resulting in complex
polyphonic structures, both tonal and written.
In the 20th century, we note the presence of a theme with important transformations of
the notion. However, the principle will retain its significance in the form of escape, the
only structural pattern adapted to the new languages of the time, grounded on a core
idea. Moreover, the adaptation of an ancient form to modern musical thinking has been
made, creating the most original opuses.

REFERENCES
[1] Voiculescu, D., Fuga în creaţia lui J. S. Bach [Fugue in the works of J.S. Bach],
Bucureşti, Editura Muzicală, p. 34, 2000.
[2] Voiculescu, D., Polifonia secolului XX [Polyphony of the 20th Century], Bucureşti,
Editura Muzicală, p. 78, 2005.
[3] Voiculescu, D., Aspecte ale polifoniei în muzica românească contemporană
[Features of polyphony in contemporary Romanian music], Muzica, 6, Bucureşti,
UCMR, pp. 15-20, 1974.