# What are the most emotionally powerful fugues you know?



## deflatcb (Jul 8, 2015)

Let's face it, fugue writing can sometimes be an academic and dry subject. It takes real skill to write a fugue that has emotional power and weight. What are some of the most moving fugues you know?

Some examples of what I'm talking about:

Beethoven - Große Fuge, op. 133
Max Reger - Fantasia and Fugue on BACH Op 46 at around the 9 minutes mark


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## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

The fugue at the end of Saint-Saens' Organ Symphony.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

The triple fugue from Bach's _Prelude and Fugue in Eb, "St. Anne," BWV 552,_ has always been overwhelming to me. I first heard it played by a college friend who died many years ago of AIDS, which only adds an extra layer of poignancy to this magnificent work.


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## isorhythm (Jan 2, 2015)

Almost all of Bach's organ fugues and fugues in his major choral works.

The fugues in Brahms' German Requiem.


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## Gaspard de la Nuit (Oct 20, 2014)

Ravel was a great fugue-writer, he wrote one in open score in f major that I thought was good for a fugue. The le tombeau de couperin fugue is great, albeit unassumingly so.


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

Woodduck said:


> The triple fugue from Bach's _Prelude and Fugue in Eb, "St. Anne," BWV 552,_ has always been overwhelming to me. I first heard it played by a college friend who died many years ago of AIDS, which only adds an extra layer of poignancy to this magnificent work.


That would be my selection as well, especially the first section.


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## Le Peel (May 15, 2015)

Beethoven's Große Fuge is pretty wrenching.


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## GioCar (Oct 30, 2013)

Beethoven's _In gloria dei patris_ (Gloria) and _Et vitam venturi saeculi_ (Credo) from the Missa Solemnis

Bach's _Nun ist das Heil und die Kraft_, BWV 50.


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## tdc (Jan 17, 2011)

The fugue in c sharp minor from Bach's WTC book I.


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## musicrom (Dec 29, 2013)

Some that I like:

Mozart's Adagio and Fugue (the fugue begins at 4:11)
Franck's Prelude, Chorale, and Fugue
the Double Fugue at the end of Reger's String Quartet Op. 109 (begins at 23:55)


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## superhorn (Mar 23, 2010)

The finale of the Bruckner 5th is a miracle of counterpoint and the entire movement is just plain overwhelming in a first rate performance .


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## Richannes Wrahms (Jan 6, 2014)

The Kyrie of Ligeti's Requiem. Maybe the first movement of Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta; depending on what you consider emotional, I think it's quite calm despite the dramatic sections.


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

The one that moves me the most is Contrapunctus XIV from The Art of the Fugue when it's played as written and just quits abruptly. I've rarely heard a more profound statement.

But I love almost all fugues. I think they are all loaded with emotion, far from being dry.


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## motoboy (May 19, 2008)

I don't know if these count but the second movement of Beethoven's Seventh and the mini fugue in the finale of Mahler's First do it for me.


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## isorhythm (Jan 2, 2015)

Also: the first movement of Beethoven's C# minor quartet.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

isorhythm said:


> Also: the first movement of Beethoven's C# minor quartet.


A beautiful change from some of the more...um..._enthusiastic _fugues of Ludwig's late life.  Wagner said this was the saddest music ever written. I don't hear that.


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## Gaspard de la Nuit (Oct 20, 2014)

tdc said:


> The fugue in c sharp minor from Bach's WTC book I.


Haven't listened to it in a while and not sure how much it spoke to me on an emotional level, but I remember being astounded by how advanced it was....the harmonies almost sound like something from a late Bruckner work.


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## SeptimalTritone (Jul 7, 2014)

KenOC said:


> A beautiful change from some of the more...um..._enthusiastic _fugues of Ludwig's late life.  Wagner said [the first movement of the 14th quartet] was the saddest music ever written. I don't hear that.


I agree. To me, it's much more about resoluteness and inner confidence than sadness and melancholy.


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## QuietGuy (Mar 1, 2014)

It's off the beaten path, I know, but I really like this:
Michel Legrand's fugue from the Go Between


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## PierreN (Aug 4, 2013)

Bach: Dona Nobis Pacem, concluding the Mass in B minor.





Beethoven: Fuga, Allegro ma non troppo, concluding the Piano Sonata No. 31 in A-Flat Major, Op. 110.




(For fun, compare the motivic material with Bach's WTC, Book 2, Fuga XVIII in G sharp minor)

Mozart: Fugue for two pianos, Fugue in C minor for two pianos K. 426





Bach: Ricercar a 6 from the Musical Offering


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

PierreN said:


> Beethoven: Fuga, Allegro ma non troppo, concluding the Piano Sonata No. 31 in A-Flat Major, Op. 110... (For fun, compare the motivic material with Bach's WTC, Book 2, Fuga XVIII in G sharp minor)


Swafford notes that Beethoven was the first composer (other than the Bach boys) to be raised on Bach, and specifically on the WTC. He knew those pieces well and was in demand in his early days in Vienna to play them. He'd often be "invited" (commanded more like it) to come by Van Swieten's place, where in his words he'd play "until my fingers bled."


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## PierreN (Aug 4, 2013)

KenOC said:


> Swafford notes that Beethoven was the first composer (other than the Bach boys) to be raised on Bach, and specifically on the WTC.


It's a bit strange to hear that. I knew about Beethoven and the WTC, but I've also often read that both Haydn and Mozart were familiar with it from early on, though I don't know if it's only Book 1 or both books. Of course, both Mozart and Beethoven widened their knowledge of Bach (and also Händel) later in their careers.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

PierreN said:


> It's a bit strange to hear that. I knew about Beethoven and the WTC, but I've also often read that both Haydn and Mozart were familiar with it from early on, though I don't know if it's only Book 1 or both books. Of course, both Mozart and Beethoven widened their knowledge of Bach (and also Händel) later in their careers.


Haydn and Mozart became familiar with Bach's works of course. But Beethoven was literally raised on them, playing the WTC from childhood on not-very-successful tours organized by his father.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

KenOC said:


> Haydn and Mozart became familiar with Bach's works of course. But Beethoven was literally raised on them, playing the WTC from childhood on not-very-successful tours organized by his father.


Have you seen reviews of those tours? I just wonder whether people commented on expressiveness, or just on technique.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

The most emotional fugues I know are in Gustav Leonhardt's Harmonia Mundi Art of Fugue.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

SeptimalTritone said:


> I agree. To me, it's much more about resoluteness and inner confidence than sadness and melancholy.


What this little discussion shows is that the meaning of the music isn't in the score.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Mandryka said:


> Have you seen reviews of those tours? I just wonder whether people commented on expressiveness, or just on technique.


Mostly what I've read was that Beethoven wasn't as lovable as cute little Mozart. Daddy collected some nice watches as pay, which were difficult to turn into cash. Nothing about technique or expressiveness.


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## Il_Penseroso (Nov 20, 2010)

Shostakovich: Fugue VIII (Prelude and Fugue in F# minor)

Shostakovich: Fugue XIV (Prelude and Fugue in Eb minor)


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## Bastian (Jul 12, 2015)

Il_Penseroso said:


> Shostakovich: Fugue VIII (Prelude and Fugue in F# minor)
> 
> Shostakovich: Fugue XIV (Prelude and Fugue in Eb minor)


I love Shostakovich's Prelude and Fugue No. 8 I can't help hearing it as question that keeps repeating obsessively.


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## Il_Penseroso (Nov 20, 2010)

For a joyous lively Fugue you may get into Verdi's Falstaff finale when they all sing together: Tutto nel mondo è burla! (Everything in the world is a joke)


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Bastian said:


> I love Shostakovich's Prelude and Fugue No. 8 I can't help hearing it as question that keeps repeating obsessively.


A YouTube comment: "Like Bach on acid."


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## Bastian (Jul 12, 2015)

Of course, there is also the Große Fuge. Maybe, I should have mentioned this one first. I've discovered it one night, when I woke up around two o'clock and I couldn't fall back asleep. I've taken the iPod and headsets and I've ended up playing it. I knew from the very start that it was the wrong music for those circumstances, but it had such a power over me that I couldn't do anything but listen passively with a feeling of awe. After that I thought about Rudolph Otto's _mysterium tremendum et fascinans_. This is numinous music and, like the music of Mahler and Bruckner, it's best experienced if you forget about yourself and just let it happen to you.


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## Azol (Jan 25, 2015)

Fugue at the end of Rossini's Petite Messe Solennelle.
Also agree with above suggestion - Finale of Bruckner's Fifth Symphony.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

I was just about to mention Brian Ferneyhough's The Doctrine of Similarity but I'm not sure they're Fugues - the piece "Cannot Cross" for example.


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## Avey (Mar 5, 2013)

Ah, can we get an American in here?!

Charles Ives, from the Third Symphony. A movement to piece together the simplicity *there*, in the work itself, and *there*, in his memories of something formal and solemn amongst all that chaos.


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## Norse (May 10, 2010)

Another American (sort of): Ernest Bloch's fugue from Concerto Grosso no.1. It's neoclassicism/baroque at it's most straightforward and tonal, but I still find it catchy and fresh, and uplifting with its turn to Major and all. But lighter than a lot of the entries in this thread, I'm sure.


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## jacob (Jun 2, 2014)

mozart k.426 fugue for two pianos


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## Heliogabo (Dec 29, 2014)

Mozart's strings arrangements of some Bach's fugues. Marvelous.


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## Guest (Jul 24, 2015)

Shostakovich's 24th Prelude and Fugue.


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## aeschylus (Jun 25, 2015)

The fugal finale of Beethoven's Hammerklavier piano sonata op106 takes some beating.


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## Vasks (Dec 9, 2013)

Don't laugh, but I find the Fugue from "Schwanda the Bagpiper" very exciting with a powerful ending.


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## sabrina (Apr 26, 2011)

I love Bach double violin concerto...it looks, at least partly it has fugue technique...


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## Picander (May 8, 2013)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jf6BtOtThU#t=41m25s


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## manyene (Feb 7, 2015)

Off the beaten track perhaps, Hummel's Prelude and Fugue in C Minor, a work comes close to JS Bach in quality


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## Pawelec (Jul 14, 2015)

Time for the big stuff: fugues from Mozart's _Requiem_ are all incredible. I think I prefer _Quam olim Abrahae_ over _Kyrie_ (which is a double fugue BTW), but that's a very close match. Levin's proposition of _Amen_ fugue is also great.


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