fugue (music)

In music, a contrapuntal form where two or more (usually four) parts or voices (principal melodies for voices or instruments) are woven together. The voices enter one after the other in strict imitation of each other. They may be transposed to a higher or lower key, or combined in augmented form (larger note values). The fugue is the highest form of contrapuntal composition as heard in works such as Johann Sebastian Bach's Das musikalische Opfer/The Musical Offering (1747), on a theme of Frederick II of Prussia, and Die Kunst der Fuge/The Art of the Fugue published in 1751, and Ludwig van Beethoven's Grosse Fuge/Great Fugue for string quartet (1825–26).