# Top 5 Fugues - Not from baroque era



## ojoncas (Jan 3, 2019)

So, I’m looking to expand my repertoire, I need your help to do so. 

I’m interested not necessarily for Fugue pieces only, but also work with great fugual passages within them.

I’ve listened to enough fugues from Bach**, I need a little change, something fresher!
I’m wondering what would be in your top Top 5, I didnt dare ask for top 10, I’m not sure people could fill it easily.

**Lies, one could never have listened to Bach enough.


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## Bwv 1080 (Dec 31, 2018)

Beethoven
133
131
106
110
125

then

Mozart - Symphony 41
Liszt - Bm Sonata
Reger - Variations & Fugue on a theme by Mozart
Bartok - Music for Strings, Percussion & Celeste
Stravinsky - Symphony of Psalms


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

Weinberger: Polka and Fugue from Schwanda, the Bagpiper
Franz Schmidt: "earthquake" fugue from The Book with Seven Seals
Tchaikovsky: finale of Symphony 3


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

The closing Amen section from Handel's Messiah.


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## BrahmsWasAGreatMelodist (Jan 13, 2019)

Listen to Brahms's op. 24 "Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel". The fugue in that is epic and the whole piece is perfect! Perahia does a fantastic job.

I'll also advertise Beethoven op. 106 (mvt 4 after intro), 110 (mvt 3 after intro), 131 (mvt 1, the whole piece is a good contender for "greatest piece ever written" and all that jazz), 133, and, of course, 125 (in mvt 4), as well as Mozart 41 (end of mvt 4) and from the Liszt b minor sonata (around 20 minutes in).

Also check out the fugue from Ravel's "Tombeau de Couperin" (it's too bad he never provided an orchestral version of this movement).

And Franck's "Prelude, Chorale, and Fugue" (iirc I like Richter a lot for this one) - absolutely epic!


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## vtpoet (Jan 17, 2019)

ojoncas said:


> So, I'm looking to expand my repertoire, I need your help to do so.
> 
> I'm interested not necessarily for Fugue pieces only, but also work with great fugual passages within them.
> 
> ...


That's tough. Complete fugues were increasingly few and far between. I notice Mozart's 41st symphony being mentioned, thought that really isn't a fugue, though it has fugal elements. Reicha was a prolific writer of fugues, though he dispensed with the dominant/subdominant stricture as far as the main subject's reappearance was concerned. The first pieces that occurred to me were actually Shostokovich's preludes and fugues. If you're open to his soundscape?

How about counterpoint after the baroque era? Does it have to be a fugue?


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

I'll choose from ones that haven't been mentioned here yet








both contain the subject from Handel's 'And With His Stripes' and Bach's WTC book II A minor Fugue


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)




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## Alfacharger (Dec 6, 2013)

One of my favorites, Roy Harris 6th Symphony 4th movement "Affirmation".






Another favorite of mine "Lo Body and Soul this Land" from Hindemith's Requiem. (Starts at 23:16 on the video below.)






The grand daddy of fugues, Bruckner's 5th Symphony 4th movement.


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## EdwardBast (Nov 25, 2013)

The first and final movements of Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra have wonderful fugal passages, not to mention the opening movement of his Music for Strings, Percussion and Celeste.

Shostakovich Symphony 8/i

The finale of Rachamninoff's Third Symphony. And the scherzo of his Symphony no. 2 has a good fugato section.

Adding to Bwv 1080's list: Beethoven's Sonata in A, op. 101 is a contrapuntal masterpiece throughout, with a fugal finale.


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## Olias (Nov 18, 2010)

Beethoven 5th Symphony - 3rd movement trio and 9th Symphony - 4th movement right after the Turkish march section.


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)




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## fluteman (Dec 7, 2015)

ojoncas said:


> So, I'm looking to expand my repertoire, I need your help to do so.
> 
> I'm interested not necessarily for Fugue pieces only, but also work with great fugual passages within them.
> 
> ...


Ernst Toch, Geographical Fugue
Frank Loesser, Fugue for Tinhorns (Guys and Dolls)
Glenn Gould, So You Want To Write A Fugue?
Leonard Bernstein, Prelude, Fugue and Riffs
Bud Powell, Tempus Fugue-It (OK, that one doesn't really count. Sue me.)


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## tdc (Jan 17, 2011)

The Brahms and Bartok fugues mentioned are also favorites of mine, also the fugue movement from Ives Symphony No. 4 and the fugue from Rodrigo's Passacaglia.


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## 13hm13 (Oct 31, 2016)




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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Beethoven, "et vitam venturi sæculi" from the Credo of the Missa Solemnis...a knockout.


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## BrahmsWasAGreatMelodist (Jan 13, 2019)

There's a fugue at the end of the first movement of Mahler's 8th.

A much lesser known, but awesome piece, is Maurice Durufle's op. 7 "Prelude et fugue sur le nom d'Alain"

ELP's "The Endless Enigma" contains a fugue. I'm not even much of a fan of the band but I think that piece is really cool, check it out.


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## Dima (Oct 3, 2016)

*Anton Rubinstein's remarkable fugue from op.53 No.1:*






And also try to listen his last movement of op. 88 (Theme and variations).


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## premont (May 7, 2015)

Any fugue from Ludus Tonalis.


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## Tchaikov6 (Mar 30, 2016)

Shostakovich's Preludes and Fugues.


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## Bluecrab (Jun 24, 2014)

premont said:


> Any fugue from Ludus Tonalis.


And the 4th movement from his Piano Sonata 3. IMO a really underrated composer of piano music.


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## DeepR (Apr 13, 2012)

The Prélude and Fugue in G minor (1909) by Alexei Stanchinsky. I like his piano music. Seems fairly modern for a fugue. Starts @ 3:42.


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## ojoncas (Jan 3, 2019)

Hm, thanks all you guys for your amazing examples.

Though, I certainly find this one to be the best...............


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## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

The conclusion to Verdi's _Falstaff_ - "Tutto nel mondo è burla"






Vaughan Williams' Piano concerto - Fuga chromatica


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## Mattbalfe (9 mo ago)

Bwv 1080 said:


> Beethoven
> 133
> 131
> 106
> ...


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## Mattbalfe (9 mo ago)

We'll go with some non Bach one's because there are simply too many.








Fugue starts at 8:48








begins at 2:37


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## Mattbalfe (9 mo ago)

fugue starts at about the 5 minute mark




not a fugue but cool invertible counterpoint


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

Ernest Bloch: fugue ending his Concerto Grosso #1. Wonderful piece of music.


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## Philidor (11 mo ago)

My favorite fugues after baroque era:

Beethoven op. 133
Schumann: Six Fugues for organ op. 60 (in particular Nos. 1, 5, 6)
Reger: Fugue from "Symphonic Fantasy and Fuge D minor op. 57 for organ"

I'm a little strict with the term "fugue".
In the finale of Mozart's symphony 41 there are sections that are written similar to a fugue, but the finale as a whole is not a fugue.
Same for Bruckner 5, which is in my opinion a synthesis from sonata form, fugue and choral setting.
In the 2nd act of Wagner's "Meistersinger", it will be quite difficult to prove even simple aspects that every scholar's fugue easily fulfills. It sounds like a fugue, and it is often called "Prügelfuge = brawl fugue (?)", but it isn't.
THe ending of Verdi's Falstaff could be a candidate.


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## mikeh375 (Sep 7, 2017)

For sheer exhilaration and bravura in the writing and scoring, I love the fugue at the end of Britten's 'Young person's Guide..." That and pretty much any fugue from the 'Well Tempered Clavier'.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

I can enjoy any number of fugues by Max Reger as his name was almost a by-word for the form. He's been namechecked twice on this thread already, and rightly so, but one fugue of his which pleases me in particular is from the _Introduction, Passacaglia and Fugue_ for organ op.127, not least because, as the name of the work states, it follows a nice, chewy passacaglia - another of Reger's specialities.


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## RobertJTh (Sep 19, 2021)

Szymanowski - ending of Symphony no. 2, a piece clearly influenced by Strauss and Reger.


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## Monsalvat (11 mo ago)

Anton Reicha's 36 Fugues! Published in 1804. There are some really cool things in this set. (I would have a hard time picking five from this collection, to be more precise with the title of this thread.)


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## Norse (May 10, 2010)

Strange Magic said:


> Ernest Bloch: fugue ending his Concerto Grosso #1. Wonderful piece of music.


I'm not good at choosing "favorites", but this is a very accessible piece of neo-classicism/neo-baroque. The liveliness and increasing focus on major tonalities makes it wonderfully uplifting. Not sure what the best recording is though, some of the ones I've heard are so-so..


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## Fredrikalansson (Jan 29, 2019)

Amen of Credo in Beethoven's _Missa Solemnis_ has been mentioned, but Amen of Gloria is also a cracking big fugue. Lots of fugato work throughout the_ Missa._

Sanctus in Verdi's _Requiem._

Fugues in Dvorak's _Stabat Mater _and _Requiem_

Not sure if they're full fledged fugues, but fugal passages occur in Berlioz's _Requiem, Te Deum _and _L'Enfance du Christ. _Interesting, because Berlioz isn't a composer normally associated with fugues.

Off the beaten path: the sunrise scene in Nielsen's _Saul and David._

Most of the instrumental and orchestral fugues I can think of have been mentioned, but Hindemith's _Mathis der Maler _has a fugal section just before the final Alleluia in the brass.


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

2:40




1:00





*Missa sti. Hieronymi** (1777)*
"Leopold Mozart had attended the first performance and wrote a glowing report to his son: "I enjoyed it immensely; the grouping of six oboes, two bassoons, three double basses and organ was so evocative of the human voice (...). It all seemed too short, although the work was superbly written. Everything flowed, and the fugues are the work of a master.""


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