fugue (fug)

[F., temporary; occasional: said of compositions, later ones as they enter; and the melody added by the generally short, written for some pa ing occasion or purpose. IMG:content-1922.png:[blocks in formation] 5. In zoöl. and bot., same as fugacious. - Fugitive colors, in pigments, those colors which fade or are more or le destroyed by the action of light, air, and atmospheric heat and moisture; in dyes, those which fade under the action of the same agents, and also of dilute acids or alkalis, and of weak hypochlorite or soap solutions, as in washing. Fugitive-slave laws, in U. S. hist., two acts of Congre pa ed, one in 1793, and a more stringent one in 1850, in pursuance of the provisions of Art. IV., Sect. II., cl. 3, of the Constitution of the United States, to secure the recovery of slaves fleeing from one State into the jurisdiction of another State. The latter formed part of the "Omnibus Bill" (see omnibus ), and was repealed in 1864, after the abolition of slavery. II. n. 1. One who flees; a runaway; a deserter; specifically, one who has fled from duty, danger, or restraint to a place of safety or of concealment: as, a fugitive from the battlefield; a fugitive from justice. He is like a fugitif that rennythe to seyntwarie [sanctu ary] Lydgate, Minor Poems, p. 167. For drede of hangyng. first voice to the answer in the second is often contrived in double counterpoint with it, so as to serve throughout the fugue as a counter-subject or foil for the original theme. The character of the theme gives the name to the fugue; a diatonic fugue having a diatonic subject, a chromatic fugue a chromatic subject, a Doric fugue a subject in the Doric mode, etc.: the character of the subject generally determines the character of the develop A real fugue is one in which the answer imi ment. tates the subject, note for note, usually at the fifth or fourth; while a tonal fugue is one in which the answer contains such slight alterations of the subject as shall adjust it exactly to its different tonality. A fugue by inver sion is one whose answer is the inversion of the subject; so fugue by augmentation, by diminution, at the sixth, etc. The order in which the voices shall enter, and the exact relations of the answer to the subject, are both regulated by rules. A double fugue has two subjects, a triple fugue three subjects, etc. A fugue in two parts is one for two voices only, etc. A free part is sometimes added to those e ential to the contrapuntal development of the fugue. the development, the subjects, answers, and coun ter-subjects are used repeatedly, either wholly or in part, in different keys, under varying treatment, so as to unfold their entire contrapuntal capacity. The succe ive sections should have an increasing contrapuntal interest and intricacy, and should be closely bound together; though episodes or diversions from the orderly treatment of the principal themes may be inserted between the sections for contrast. (c) In the conclusion, the theme is fugue usually presented by all the voices in turn, as in the exposition, but frequently so rapidly that the entries overlap. nection with this, and usually as the final section, a pedal point is often introduced. The fugue is the consummate form of the polyphonic style of composition, requiring for its succe ful production a mastery of all the devices of counterpoint, as well as a very high grade of inventive and constructive genius. The greatest writers of fugues are J. S. Bach (1685-1750) and G. F. Handel (16851759). Such an overlapping section is called the stretto. In con His volant touch Instinct through all proportions, low and high, Fled and pursued transverse the resonant fugue . Milton , P. L., xi. 563. fugued (fügd), a. In music , constructed wholly or in part in the style of a fugue. fuguing (fü'ging), a. [ fugue + -ing2 .] Same as fugued .