fugue

[ fyoog ]

noun

1. Music. a polyphonic composition based upon one, two, or more themes, which are enunciated by several voices or parts in turn, subjected to contrapuntal treatment, and gradually built up into a complex form having somewhat distinct divisions or stages of development and a marked climax at the end.
2. Psychiatry. a period during which a person experiences loss of memory, often begins a new life, and, upon recovery, remembers nothing of the amnesic phase.

fugue

/ fjuːɡ /

noun

1. a musical form consisting essentially of a theme repeated a fifth above or a fourth below the continuing first statement
2. psychiatry a dreamlike altered state of consciousness, lasting from a few hours to several days, during which a person loses his or her memory for his or her previous life and often wanders away from home

Derived Forms

• ˈfugueˌlike, adjective

Other Words From

• fugue·like adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of fugue¹

First recorded in 1590–1600; from French, from Italian fuga, from Latin: “flight”

Word History and Origins

Origin of fugue¹

C16: from French, from Italian fuga , from Latin: a running away, flight

Example Sentences

Martin’s character, veteran TV actor Charles-Haden Savage, plays a constable investigating the murder of the triplets’ mother — and one story thread in the season is whether he can get through the intricate song without going into a wild fugue state onstage.

From Los Angeles Times

That’s less true of its rendition of “The Fugue,” a classic Tharp piece from 1970.

From New York Times

In uniform, Mr. Merkel started experiencing strange fugue states, where he would be awake but barely responsive and would retain little memory afterward of what had happened.

From New York Times

In 1966 he wrote of overcoming his dissatisfaction with two takes of a fugue from Book 1 of Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier, one take he considered “rather pompous” and the other overly jubilant — and both “monotonous.”

From Los Angeles Times

He solved the problem by using the first for the fugue’s opening and conclusion, and splicing in the second for the midsection, producing a version “far superior to anything we could at the time have done in the studio.”

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• exodus