Editing Fugue (section)

==History==

=== Middle Ages and Renaissance ===
The term ''fuga'' was used as far back as the [[Medieval music|Middle Ages]], but was initially used to refer to any kind of imitative counterpoint, including [[canon (music)|canons]], which are now thought of as distinct from fugues.<ref>{{harvnb|Walker|2000|p=7}}</ref> Prior to the 16th century, fugue was originally a genre.<ref name="Walker-2000-p7">{{harvnb|Walker|2000|pp=9–10}}</ref> It was not until the 16th century that fugal technique as it is understood today began to be seen in pieces, both instrumental and vocal. Fugal writing is found in works such as [[Fantasia (music)|fantasias]], [[ricercar]]es and [[canzona]]s.

"Fugue" as a theoretical term first occurred in 1330 when [[Jacobus of Liège|Jacobus of Liege]] wrote about the ''fuga'' in his ''Speculum musicae''.<ref>{{harvnb|Mann|1960|p=9}}</ref> The fugue arose from the technique of "imitation", where the same musical material was repeated starting on a different note.

[[Gioseffo Zarlino]], a composer, author, and theorist in the [[Renaissance music|Renaissance]], was one of the first to distinguish between the two types of imitative counterpoint: fugues and canons (which he called imitations).<ref name="Walker-2000-p7" /> Originally, this was to aid [[improvisation]], but by the 1550s, it was considered a technique of composition. The composer [[Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina]] (1525?–1594) wrote masses using [[musical mode|modal]] counterpoint and imitation, and fugal writing became the basis for writing [[motet]]s as well.<ref>{{cite book | first = Leeman L. | last = Perkins | title = Music in the Age of the Renaissance | location = New York | publisher = [[W. W. Norton & Company]] | year = 1999 | pages = 880–81 }}</ref> Palestrina's imitative motets differed from fugues in that each phrase of the text had a different subject which was introduced and worked out separately, whereas a fugue continued working with the same subject or subjects throughout the entire length of the piece.

===Baroque era===

It was in the [[Baroque music|Baroque period]] that the writing of fugues became central to composition, in part as a demonstration of compositional expertise. [[Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck]], [[Girolamo Frescobaldi]], [[Johann Jakob Froberger]] and [[Dieterich Buxtehude]] all wrote fugues.<ref>{{harvnb|Walker|2000|p=165}}</ref>

Fugues were incorporated into a variety of [[musical genre]]s, and are found in most of [[George Frideric Handel]]'s [[oratorio]]s. Keyboard [[suite (music)|suites]] from this time often conclude with a fugal [[gigue]]. [[Domenico Scarlatti]] has only a few fugues among his corpus of over 500 harpsichord sonatas. The [[French overture]] featured a quick fugal section after a slow introduction. The second movement of a [[sonata da chiesa]], as written by [[Arcangelo Corelli]] and others, was usually fugal.

The Baroque period also saw a rise in the importance of [[music theory]]. Some fugues during the Baroque period were pieces designed to teach contrapuntal technique to students.<ref>{{cite book | first = David | last = Schulenberg | title = Music of the Baroque | location = New York | publisher = Oxford University Press | year = 2001 | page = 243 }}</ref> The most influential text was [[Johann Joseph Fux|Johann Joseph Fux's]] ''[[Gradus ad Parnassum|Gradus Ad Parnassum]]'' ("Steps to [[Parnassus]]"), which appeared in 1725.<ref>{{harvnb|Walker|2000|p=316}}</ref> This work laid out the terms of [[Species counterpoint|"species" of counterpoint]], and offered a series of exercises to learn fugue writing.<ref>{{harvnb|Walker|2000|p=317}}</ref> Fux's work was largely based on the practice of [[Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina|Palestrina]]'s modal fugues.<ref>{{harvnb|Mann|1960|p=53}}</ref> [[Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart|Mozart]] studied from this book, and it remained influential into the nineteenth century. [[Joseph Haydn|Haydn]], for example, taught counterpoint from his own summary of Fux and thought of it as the basis for formal structure.

Bach's most famous fugues are those for the harpsichord in ''[[The Well-Tempered Clavier]]'', which many composers and theorists look at as the greatest model of fugue.<ref>{{harvnb|Walker|2000|p=2}}</ref> ''The Well-Tempered Clavier'' comprises two volumes written in different times of Bach's life, each comprising 24 prelude and fugue pairs, one for each major and minor key. Bach is also known for his organ fugues, which are usually preceded by a [[prelude (music)|prelude]] or [[toccata]]. [[The Art of Fugue|''The Art of Fugue'', BWV 1080]], is a collection of fugues (and four [[canon (music)|canons]]) on a single theme that is gradually transformed as the cycle progresses. Bach also wrote smaller single fugues and put fugal sections or movements into many of his more general works. J.S. Bach's influence extended forward through his son [[Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach|C.P.E. Bach]] and through the theorist [[Friedrich Wilhelm Marpurg]] (1718–1795) whose ''Abhandlung von der Fuge'' ("Treatise on the fugue", 1753) was largely based on J.S. Bach's work.

===Classical era===
During the [[Classical period (music)|Classical era]], the fugue was no longer a central or even fully natural mode of musical composition.<ref name="Graves-1962-p64">{{harvnb|Graves|1962|p=64}}</ref> Nevertheless, both [[Joseph Haydn|Haydn]] and [[Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart|Mozart]] had periods of their careers in which they in some sense "rediscovered" fugal writing and used it frequently in their work.

==== Haydn ====
Joseph Haydn was the leader of fugal composition and technique in the Classical era.<ref name="Ratner-1980-p263"/> Haydn's most famous fugues can be found in his [[String Quartets, Op. 20 (Haydn)|"Sun" Quartets]] (op. 20, 1772), of which three have fugal finales. This was a practice that Haydn repeated only once later in his quartet-writing career, with the finale of his [[String Quartets, Op. 50 (Haydn)|String Quartet, Op. 50 No. 4]] (1787). Some of the earliest examples of Haydn's use of counterpoint, however, are in three symphonies ([[Symphony No. 3 (Haydn)|No. 3]], [[Symphony No. 13 (Haydn)|No. 13]], and [[Symphony No. 40 (Joseph Haydn)|No. 40]]) that date from 1762 to 1763. The earliest fugues, in both the symphonies and in the [[Baryton trios (Haydn)|Baryton trios]], exhibit the influence of Joseph Fux's treatise on counterpoint, ''Gradus ad Parnassum'' (1725), which Haydn studied carefully.

Haydn's second fugal period occurred after he heard, and was greatly inspired by, the [[oratorio]]s of Handel during his visits to London (1791–1793, 1794–1795). Haydn then studied Handel's techniques and incorporated Handelian fugal writing into the choruses of his mature oratorios ''[[The Creation (Haydn)|The Creation]]'' and ''[[The Seasons (Haydn)|The Seasons]],'' as well as several of his later symphonies, including [[Symphony No. 88 (Haydn)|No. 88]], [[Symphony No. 95 (Haydn)|No. 95]], and [[Symphony No. 101 (Haydn)|No. 101]]; and the late string quartets, Opus 71 no. 3 and (especially) Opus 76 no. 6.

==== Mozart ====
[[File:Jupiter finale.png|thumb|400px|Fugal passage from the finale of Mozart's Symphony No. 41 (''Jupiter'')[[File:Mozart Symphony 41, finale, fugal passage.wav]]]]
The young Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart studied counterpoint with [[Padre Martini]] in Bologna. Under the employment of [[Hieronymus von Colloredo|Archbishop Colloredo]], and the musical influence of his predecessors and colleagues such as [[Johann Ernst Eberlin]], [[Anton Cajetan Adlgasser]], [[Michael Haydn]], and his own father, [[Leopold Mozart]] at the Salzburg Cathedral, the young Mozart composed ambitious fugues and contrapuntal passages in Catholic choral works such as [[Mass in C minor, K. 139 "Waisenhaus"]] (1768), [[Mass in C major, K. 66 "Dominicus"]] (1769), [[Mass in C major, K. 167 "in honorem Sanctissimae Trinitatis"]] (1773), [[Mass in C major, K. 262 "Missa longa"]] (1775), [[Mass in C major, K. 337 "Solemnis"]] (1780), various litanies, and vespers. Leopold admonished his son openly in 1777 that he not forget to make public demonstration of his abilities in "fugue, canon, and contrapunctus".<ref>{{cite book |chapter-url=http://mrc.hanyang.ac.kr/wp-content/jspm/20/jspm_2006_20_10.pdf|chapter=On ancient languages: the historical idiom in the music of Wolfgang Amadé Mozart|page=236|year=2008|author=[[Ulrich Konrad]]|translator=Thomas Irvine (this chapter)|title=The Century of Bach & Mozart|editor1=[[Thomas Forrest Kelly]]|editor2=Sean Gallagher|isbn=9780964031739|location=Cambridge, Massachusetts|publisher=Harvard University Department of Music}}</ref> Later in life, the major impetus to fugal writing for Mozart was the influence of Baron [[Gottfried van Swieten]] in Vienna around 1782. Van Swieten, during diplomatic service in Berlin, had taken the opportunity to collect as many manuscripts by Bach and Handel as he could, and he invited Mozart to study his collection and encouraged him to transcribe various works for other combinations of instruments. Mozart was evidently fascinated by these works and wrote a set of five transcriptions for string quartet, K. 405 (1782), of fugues from Bach's ''[[Well-Tempered Clavier]]'', introducing them with preludes of his own. In a letter to his sister [[Nannerl Mozart]], dated in Vienna on 20 April 1782, Mozart recognizes that he had not written anything in this form, but moved by his wife's interest he composed one piece, which is sent with the letter. He begs her not to let anybody see the fugue and manifests the hope to write five more and then present them to Baron van Swieten. Regarding the piece, he said "I have taken particular care to write ''andante maestoso'' upon it, so that it should not be played fast – for if a fugue is not played slowly the ear cannot clearly distinguish the new subject as it is introduced and the effect is missed".<ref>{{Cite book |title=Letters of Mozart|publisher=Dorset Press|year=1986|location=New York|page=195}}{{full citation needed|date=January 2022}}</ref> Mozart then set to writing fugues on his own, mimicking the Baroque style. These included a fugue in C minor, K. 426, for two pianos (1783). Later, Mozart incorporated fugal writing into his opera ''[[Die Zauberflöte]]'' and the finale of his [[Symphony No. 41 (Mozart)|Symphony No. 41]].


The parts of the [[Requiem (Mozart)|Requiem]] he completed also contain several fugues (most notably the Kyrie, and the three fugues in the Domine Jesu;<ref>{{harvnb|Ratner|1980|p=266}}</ref> he also left behind a sketch for an [[Amen]] fugue which, some believe{{Who|date=January 2018}}, would have come at the end of the Sequentia).

==== Beethoven ====
[[File:Beethoven Op 131.png|thumb|400px|Beethoven, Quartet in C{{music|sharp}} minor, Op. 131, opening fugal exposition. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlFYC1U5viw Listen]]]
[[Ludwig van Beethoven]] was familiar with fugal writing from childhood, as an important part of his training was playing from ''[[The Well-Tempered Clavier]]''. During his early career in [[Vienna]], Beethoven attracted notice for his performance of these fugues. There are fugal sections in Beethoven's early piano sonatas, and fugal writing is to be found in the second and fourth movements of the ''[[Symphony No. 3 (Beethoven)|Eroica Symphony]]'' (1805). Beethoven incorporated fugues in his sonatas, and reshaped the episode's purpose and compositional technique for later generations of composers.<ref>{{harvnb|Graves|1962|p=65}}</ref>

Nevertheless, fugues did not take on a truly central role in Beethoven's work until his late period. The finale of Beethoven's [[Piano Sonata No. 29 (Beethoven)|''Hammerklavier'' Sonata]] contains a fugue, which was practically unperformed until the late 19th century, due to its tremendous technical difficulty and length. The last movement of his [[Cello Sonatas Nos. 4 and 5 (Beethoven)#Sonata No. 5.2C Op. 102.2C No. 2|Cello Sonata, Op. 102 No. 2]] is a fugue, and there are fugal passages in the last movements of his Piano Sonatas in [[Piano Sonata No. 28 (Beethoven)|A major, Op. 101]] and [[Piano Sonata No. 31 (Beethoven)|A{{music|flat}} major Op. 110]]. According to [[Charles Rosen]], "With the finale of 110, Beethoven re-conceived the significance of the most traditional elements of fugue writing."<ref>[[Charles Rosen|Rosen, Charles]] (1971) ''[[The Classical Style]]'', p. 501. London, Faber.</ref>

Fugal passages are also found in the ''[[Missa Solemnis (Beethoven)|Missa Solemnis]]'' and all movements of the [[Symphony No. 9 (Beethoven)|Ninth Symphony]], except the third. A massive, dissonant fugue forms the finale of his [[String Quartet No. 13 (Beethoven)|String Quartet, Op. 130]] (1825); the latter was later published separately as Op. 133, the ''[[Große Fuge]]'' ("Great Fugue"). However, it is the fugue that opens Beethoven's [[String Quartet No. 14 (Beethoven)|String Quartet in C{{music|sharp}} minor, Op. 131]] that several commentators regard as one of the composer's greatest achievements. [[Joseph Kerman]] (1966, p.&nbsp;330) calls it "this most moving of all fugues".<ref>[[Joseph Kerman|Kerman, Joseph]] (1966), ''The Beethoven Quartets''. Oxford University Press</ref> [[J. W. N. Sullivan]] (1927, p.&nbsp;235) hears it as "the most superhuman piece of music that Beethoven has ever written."<ref>[[J. W. N. Sullivan|Sullivan, J. W. N.]] (1927) ''Beethoven''. London, Jonathan Cape</ref> [[Philip Radcliffe]] (1965, p.&nbsp;149) says "[a] bare description of its formal outline can give but little idea of the extraordinary profundity of this fugue ."<ref>Radcliffe, P. (1965) ''Beethoven's String Quartets''. London, Hutchinson.</ref>

===Romantic era===
By the beginning of the [[Romantic music|Romantic era]], fugue writing had become specifically attached to the norms and styles of the Baroque. [[Felix Mendelssohn]] wrote many fugues inspired by his study of the music of [[Johann Sebastian Bach]].

Johannes Brahms' ''Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel'', Op. 24, is a work for solo piano written in 1861. It consists of a set of twenty-five variations and a concluding fugue, all based on a theme from George Frideric Handel's ''Harpsichord Suite No. 1 in B♭ major'', HWV 434.
[[File:Liszt B minor sonata fugue subject.png|thumb|400px|Liszt Piano Sonata fugue subject [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwXtuavTed0 Link to passage]]]
[[Franz Liszt]]'s [[Piano Sonata in B minor (Liszt)|Piano Sonata in B minor]] (1853) contains a powerful fugue, demanding incisive virtuosity from its player:

[[Richard Wagner]] included several fugues in his opera ''[[Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg]]''. [[Giuseppe Verdi]] included a whimsical example at the end of his opera ''[[Falstaff (opera)|Falstaff]]''<ref>{{cite book |last1=Shaw |first1=Bernard |title=The Great Composers: Reviews and Bombardments |date=1978 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-03266-8 |page=223 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BmQTU3WvxSYC&pg=PA223 |language=en}}</ref> and his setting of the [[Requiem (Verdi)|Requiem Mass]] contained two (originally three) choral fugues.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Budden |first1=Julian |title=Verdi |date=December 2015 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-027398-9 |page=340 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tsQ2DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA340 |language=en}}</ref> [[Anton Bruckner]] and [[Gustav Mahler]] also included them in their respective symphonies. The exposition of the finale of Bruckner's [[Symphony No. 5 (Bruckner)|Symphony No. 5]] begins with a fugal exposition. The exposition ends with a chorale, the melody of which is then used as a second fugal exposition at the beginning of the development. The recapitulation features both fugal subjects concurrently.{{Citation needed|date=April 2018}} The finale of Mahler's [[Symphony No. 5 (Mahler)|Symphony No. 5]] features a "fugue-like"<ref>[[Constantin Floros|Floros, Constantin]]. (1997, p. 135) ''Gustav Mahler: The Symphonies'', trans. Wicker. Amadeus Press.</ref> passage early in the movement, though this is not actually an example of a fugue.

===20th century===
Twentieth-century composers brought fugue back to its position of prominence, realizing its uses in full instrumental works, its importance in development and introductory sections, and the developmental capabilities of fugal composition.<ref name="Graves-1962-p64"/>

The second movement of [[Maurice Ravel]]'s piano suite ''[[Le Tombeau de Couperin]]'' (1917) is a fugue that [[Roy Howat]] (200, p.&nbsp;88) describes as having "a subtle glint of jazz".<ref>Howat, R. (2000) "Ravel and the Piano" in Mawer, D. (ed.) ''The Cambridge Companion to Ravel''. Cambridge University Press.</ref> 
[[File:Bartok - Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta interval expansion.png|thumb|400px|Example of [[interval expansion]], Bartók: ''Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta'' movement I, mm. 1–5 and movement IV, mm. 204–209.<ref>{{cite book| author = Michiel Schuijer| title = Analyzing Atonal Music: Pitch-Class Set Theory and Its Contexts| date = 2008-11-30| publisher = University Rochester Press| isbn = 978-1-58046-270-9| page = 79 }}</ref>]]
[[Béla Bartók]]'s ''[[Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta]]'' (1936) opens with a slow fugue that [[Pierre Boulez]] (1986, pp.&nbsp;346–47) regards as "certainly the finest and most characteristic example of Bartók's subtle style... probably the most ''timeless'' of all Bartók's works – a fugue that unfolds like a fan to a point of maximum intensity and then closes, returning to the mysterious atmosphere of the opening."<ref>Boulez, P. (1986) ''Orientations''. London, Faber.</ref> The second movement of Bartók's [[Sonata for Solo Violin (Bartók)|Sonata for Solo Violin]] is a fugue, and the first movement of his [[Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion]] contains a fugato.

''Schwanda the Bagpiper'' (Czech: Švanda dudák), written in 1926, an opera in two acts (five scenes), with music by Jaromír Weinberger, includes a ''Polka'' followed by a powerful ''Fugue'' based on the Polka theme.

[[Igor Stravinsky]] also incorporated fugues into his works, including the [[Symphony of Psalms]] and the [[Concerto in E-flat (Dumbarton Oaks)|Dumbarton Oaks]] concerto. Stravinsky recognized the compositional techniques of Bach, and in the second movement of his Symphony of Psalms (1930), he lays out a fugue that is much like that of the Baroque era.<ref>{{harvnb|Graves|1962|p=67}}</ref> It employs a double fugue with two distinct subjects, the first beginning in C and the second in E{{music|flat}}. Techniques such as stretto, sequencing, and the use of subject incipits are frequently heard in the movement. [[Dmitri Shostakovich]]'s [[24 Preludes and Fugues (Shostakovich)|24 Preludes and Fugues]] is the composer's homage to Bach's two volumes of [[The Well-Tempered Clavier]]. In the first movement of his [[Symphony No. 4 (Shostakovich)|Fourth Symphony]], starting at rehearsal mark 63, is a gigantic fugue in which the 20-bar subject (and tonal answer) consist entirely of semiquavers, played at the speed of quaver = 168.

[[Olivier Messiaen]], writing about his ''[[Vingt regards sur l'enfant-Jésus]]'' (1944) wrote of the sixth piece of that collection, "''Par Lui tout a été fait''" ("By Him were all things made"): {{Blockquote|It expresses the Creation of All Things: space, time, stars, planets&nbsp;– and the Countenance (or rather, the Thought) of God behind the flames and the seething&nbsp;– impossible even to speak of it, I have not attempted to describe it ... Instead, I have sheltered behind the form of the Fugue. Bach's ''[[Art of Fugue]]'' and the fugue from Beethoven's Opus 106 (the ''[[Hammerklavier sonata]]'') have nothing to do with the academic fugue. Like those great models, this one is an anti-scholastic fugue.<ref>Notes to ''Vingt Regards sur l'Enfant Jésus''. Translator not indicated. Erato Disques S.A. 4509-91705-2, 1993. Compact Disc.</ref>}}

[[György Ligeti]] wrote a five-part double fugue{{Clarify|date=January 2016}}<!--Are "canon" and "fugue" just two different terms for the same thing? From this description, that would seem to be the case, and nowhere else in the article is a clear distinction made.--> for [[Requiem (Ligeti)|his ''Requiem'']]'s second movement, the Kyrie, in which each part (SMATB) is subdivided in four-voice "bundles" that make a [[canon (music)|canon]].{{Failed verification|date=January 2016}}<!--This is just a recording of the piece, which cannot verify anything about its construction.--> The melodic material in this fugue is totally [[Diatonic and chromatic|chromatic]], with [[melismatic]] (running) parts overlaid onto skipping intervals, and use of [[polyrhythm]] (multiple simultaneous subdivisions of the measure), blurring everything both harmonically and rhythmically so as to create an aural aggregate, thus highlighting the theoretical/aesthetic question of the next section as to whether fugue is a form or a texture.<ref>Eric Drott, "Lines, Masses, Micropolyphony: Ligeti's Kyrie and the 'Crisis of the Figure{{'"}}. ''[[Perspectives of New Music]]'' 49, no. 1 (Winter 2011): 4–46. Citation on 10.</ref> According to [[Tom Service]], in this work, Ligeti

{{Blockquote|text=takes the logic of the fugal idea and creates something that's meticulously built on precise contrapuntal principles of imitation and fugality, but he expands them into a different region of musical experience. Ligeti doesn't want us to hear individual entries of the subject or any subject, or to allow us access to the labyrinth through listening in to individual lines… He creates instead a vastly dense texture of voices in his choir and orchestra, a huge stratified slab of terrifying visionary power. Yet this is music that's made with a fine craft and detail of a Swiss clock maker. Ligeti's so-called '[[Micropolyphony|micro-polyphony]]': the many voicedness of small intervals at small distances in time from one another is a kind of conjuring trick. At the micro level of the individual lines, and there are dozens and dozens of them in this music...there's an astonishing detail and finesse, but the overall macro effect is a huge overwhelming and singular experience.<ref>[[Tom Service|Service, Tom]]. (26 November 2017) [https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07jhvgp "Chasing a Fugue]", [[BBC Radio 3]]</ref>}}

[[Benjamin Britten]] used a fugue in the final part of ''[[The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra]]'' (1946). The [[Henry Purcell]] theme is triumphantly cited at the end, making it a choral fugue.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://goodmorningbritten.wordpress.com/2013/10/18/listening-to-britten-the-young-persons-guide-to-the-orchestra-op-34/ |title=Listening to Britten – the Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra, Op.34 |website=goodmorningbritten.wordpress.com |date=18 October 2013}}</ref>

Canadian pianist and musical thinker [[Glenn Gould]] composed ''[[So You Want to Write a Fugue?]]'', a full-scale fugue set to a text that cleverly explicates its own musical form.<ref>{{cite book |last=Bazzana|first=Kevin |title=Wondrous Strange: The Life and Art of Glenn Gould |url=https://archive.org/details/wondrousstrangel00bazz |url-access=registration |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York |year=2004 |isbn=0-19-517440-2 |oclc=54687539}}</ref>

===Outside classical music===
Fugues (or fughettas/fugatos) have been incorporated into genres outside Western classical music. Several examples exist within [[jazz]], such as ''Bach goes to Town'', composed by the Welsh composer [[Alec Templeton]] and recorded by [[Benny Goodman]] in 1938, and ''[[Concorde (album)|Concorde]]'' composed by [[John Lewis (pianist)|John Lewis]] and recorded by the [[Modern Jazz Quartet]] in 1955.

In "[[Fugue for Tinhorns]]" from the Broadway musical [[Guys and Dolls]], written by [[Frank Loesser]], the characters Nicely-Nicely, Benny, and Rusty sing simultaneously about hot tips they each have in an upcoming [[Horse racing|horse race]].<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAIlVCStp3c | title=Fugue for Tinhorns - Guys and Dolls (1955) - YouTube |website=[[YouTube]] | date=2 December 2016 }}</ref>

In "[[West Side Story]]", the dance sequence following the song "Cool" is structured as a fugue. Interestingly, [[Leonard Bernstein]] quotes Beethoven's monumental "Große Fuge" for string quartet and employs Arnold Schoenberg's twelve tone technique, all in the context of a jazz infused Broadway show stopper.

A few examples also exist within [[progressive rock]], such as the central movement of "[[Trilogy (Emerson, Lake & Palmer album)#Track listing|The Endless Enigma]]" by [[Emerson, Lake & Palmer]] and "[[Free Hand#Track listing|On Reflection]]" by [[Gentle Giant]].

On their EP of the same name, [[Vulfpeck]] has a composition called "Fugue State", which incorporates a fugue-like section between Theo Katzman (guitar), Joe Dart (bass), and Woody Goss (Wurlitzer keyboard).

The composer [[Matyas Seiber]] included an atonal or twelve-tone fugue, for flute trumpet and string quartet, in his score for the 1953 film ''Graham Sutherland''<ref>{{cite book | first = Hans | last = Keller | title = Film Music and Beyond | location = London | publisher = Plumbago Books | year = 2006 | page = 167}}</ref>

The film composer [[John Williams]] includes a fugue in his score for the 1990 film, ''[[Home Alone]]'', at the point where Kevin, accidentally left at home by his family, and realizing he is about to be attacked by a pair of bumbling burglars, begins to plan his elaborate defenses. Another fugue occurs at a similar point in the 1992 sequel film, ''[[Home Alone 2: Lost in New York]]''.

The jazz composer and film composer, [[Michel Legrand]], includes a fugue as the climax of his score (a classical theme with variations, and fugue) for [[Joseph Losey]]'s 1972 film ''[[The Go-Between (1971 film)|The Go-Between]]'', based on the 1953 novel by British novelist, [[L. P. Hartley|L.P. Hartley]], as well as several times in his score for [[Jacques Demy]]'s 1970 film ''[[Donkey Skin (film)|Peau d'âne]]''.