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

He started playing piano at the age of two and, at just 17, gave a remarkable two-and-a-half-hour concert featuring the 24 preludes and fugues by composer Dmitri Shostakovich.

From BBC

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

The first half of the Met Orchestra’s concert included a somewhat bumpy reading of a fugue from Bach’s “Musical Offering,” in an instrumentation by Anton Webern.

From New York Times

He made the claim again just the other day and his ecstatic followers practically went into a collective fugue state and began speaking in tongues they were so thrilled.

From Salon

Related Words

• exodus