Little Fugue in G minor, BWV 578
Encyclopedia
Theme (music) In music, a theme is the material, usually a recognizable melody, upon which part or all of a composition is based.-Characteristics:A theme may be perceivable as a complete musical expression in itself, separate from the work in which it is found . In contrast to an idea or motif, a theme is... |
Fugue in G minor, BWV 578, "Little", is a piece of organ music
Organ repertoire
The organ repertoire consists of music written for the organ. Because it is one of the oldest musical instruments in existence, written organ repertoire spans a time period almost as long as that of written music itself. The organ's solo repertoire is among the largest for any musical instrument...
written by Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...
sometime around his years at Arnstadt
Arnstadt
Arnstadt is a town in Ilm-Kreis, Thuringia, Germany, situated on the Gera River. It is one of the oldest towns in Thuringia and is nicknamed Das Tor zum Thüringer Wald, The Gate to the Thuringian Forest....
(1703–1707).
A common misconception is that the Little fugue
Fugue
In music, a fugue is a compositional technique in two or more voices, built on a subject that is introduced at the beginning in imitation and recurs frequently in the course of the composition....
in G minor
G minor
G minor is a minor scale based on G, consisting of the pitches G, A, B, C, D, E, and F. For the harmonic minor scale, the F is raised to F. Its relative major is B-flat major, and its parallel major is G major....
is Little in importance, but editors titled or subtitled the work Little to avoid confusion between this piece and the later Great Fantasia and Fugue in G minor, BWV 542
Great Fantasia and Fugue in G minor, BWV 542
The Great Fantasia and Fugue in G minor, BWV 542, is an organ prelude and fugue by Johann Sebastian Bach. It acquired that name to distinguish it from the earlier Little Fugue in G minor, which is shorter...
, which is longer in i like music tokowski]] arranged
Arrangement
The American Federation of Musicians defines arranging as "the art of preparing and adapting an already written composition for presentation in other than its original form. An arrangement may include reharmonization, paraphrasing, and/or development of a composition, so that it fully represents...
for orchestra. This arrangement has been recorded in 2006 by José Serebrier
José Serebrier
José Serebrier is a Uruguayan conductor and composer. He married American soprano Carole Farley in 1969.- Youth :Serebrier was born in Montevideo, and first conducted an orchestra at the age of eleven, while at school. The school orchestra toured the country, which meant he was able to notch up...
and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra
The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra is an English orchestra. Originally based in Bournemouth, the BSO moved its offices to the adjacent town of Poole in 1979....
for Naxos
Naxos Records
Naxos Records is a record label specializing in classical music. Through a number of imprints, Naxos also releases genres including Chinese music, jazz, world music, and early rock & roll. The company was founded in 1987 by Klaus Heymann, a German-born resident of Hong Kong.Naxos is the largest...
.
Score
The fugue's four-and-a-half measureBar (music)
In musical notation, a bar is a segment of time defined by a given number of beats of a given duration. Typically, a piece consists of several bars of the same length, and in modern musical notation the number of beats in each bar is specified at the beginning of the score by the top number of a...
subject is one of Bach's most recognizable tunes. The fugue is in four voices. During the episodes, Bach uses one of Arcangelo Corelli
Arcangelo Corelli
Arcangelo Corelli was an Italian violinist and composer of Baroque music.-Biography:Corelli was born at Fusignano, in the current-day province of Ravenna, although at the time it was in the province of Ferrara. Little is known about his early life...
's most famous techniques: imitation between two voices on an eighth note
Eighth note
thumb|180px|right|Figure 1. An eighth note with stem facing up, an eighth note with stem facing down, and an eighth rest.thumb|right|180px|Figure 2. Four eighth notes beamed together....
upbeat figure that first leaps up a fourth
Perfect fourth
In classical music from Western culture, a fourth is a musical interval encompassing four staff positions , and the perfect fourth is a fourth spanning five semitones. For example, the ascending interval from C to the next F is a perfect fourth, as the note F lies five semitones above C, and there...
and then falls back down one step
Steps and skips
In music, a step, or conjunct motion, is a linear or successive interval between two pitches which are consecutive scale degrees. Any larger interval is called a skip , or disjunct motion...
at a time.
Appearances in media
- A version of this piece appears on StyxStyx (band)Styx is an American rock band that became famous for its albums from the late 1970s and early 1980s. The Chicago band is known for melding the style of prog-rock with the power of hard rock guitar, strong ballads, and elements of American musical theater....
's 1973 album Styx IIStyx IIStyx II is the second album by Styx, and was released in 1973 . After Styx moved to A&M Records and achieved national success in the United States, the album was reissued in 1980 by their prior label, Wooden Nickel, under the title Lady with new artwork—which is not to be confused with a Styx...
. - The music is used and remixed as the theme music of Mega Man Juno, the final boss of the 1998 video game Mega Man LegendsMega Man Legends (video game)Mega Man Legends, known in Japan as , is an action role-playing game released by Capcom. It is the first game in the Mega Man Legends sub-series of Mega Man games from Capcom, and the first major 3D polygonal Mega Man title released in the franchise. It was released on the PlayStation in 1997 in...
. - The music is remixed as the theme song, Mission (FUGA), for the anime Area 88Area 88is a Japanese manga series by Kaoru Shintani serialized between 1979 and 1986. The story is about a young pilot named Shin Kazama and his experiences at Area 88, a mercenary air force base secluded in the desert of a war torn country...
. - The music is remixed as the theme song for the anime NazcaNazca (anime)is an anime series. It is about a group of people who are reincarnations of ancient Inca warriors who have returned to re-enact a civil war that resulted in the fall of the Inca Empire....
. - The music is remixed as part of "Rumpel's Party Palace" in the 2010 movie Shrek Forever AfterShrek Forever AfterShrek Forever After, taglined as The Final Chapter, is a 2010 animated fantasy-comedy film, and the fourth and final installment in the Shrek film series, produced by DreamWorks Animation. The film was released by Paramount Pictures in cinemas on May 20, 2010 in Russia, and on May 21 in the United...
. - Yngwie Malmsteen uses an arrangement of this piece for two guitars on his album Unleash the FuryUnleash the FuryUnleash the Fury is an album by guitarist Yngwie Malmsteen's Rising Force, released in 2005 on Spitfire Records. It generally adheres to Malmsteen's trademark sound and the occasional classical cover...
. The song is titled "Fuguetta". - The X JapanX Japanis a Japanese heavy metal band founded in 1982 by Yoshiki and Toshi. Originally named X , the group achieved their breakthrough success in 1989 with the release of their second album Blue Blood...
song "Rose of Pain" on the Blue Blood album uses this as an intro. - An a cappellaA cappellaA cappella music is specifically solo or group singing without instrumental sound, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. It is the opposite of cantata, which is accompanied singing. A cappella was originally intended to differentiate between Renaissance polyphony and Baroque concertato...
version by The Swingle SingersThe Swingle SingersThe Swingle Singers are a mostly a cappella vocal group formed in 1962 in Paris, France by Ward Swingle with Anne Germain, Jeanette Baucomont, Jean Cussac and others. Christiane Legrand, the sister of composer Michel Legrand, was the group's lead soprano through 1972. Until 2011 the group...
is featured in the movie Thank You for Smoking. - The main character in the 2008 drama ElegyElegy (film)Elegy is a 2008 drama directed by Spanish director Isabel Coixet and based on a Philip Roth novel, The Dying Animal. Staring Penélope Cruz and Ben Kingsley. The film is set in New York City, but was filmed in Vancouver.-Plot:...
plays this piece on the piano in a key scene of the movie. - The theme is the basis of ChiptuneChiptuneA chiptune, also known as chip music, is synthesized electronic music often produced with the sound chips of vintage computers and video game consoles, as well as with other methods such as emulation. In the early 1980s, personal computers became cheaper and more accessible than they had previously...
/GabberGabberGabber , is a style of electronic music and a subgenre of hardcore techno. "Gabber" is a slang word of Yiddish origin that means "mate", "buddy" or "friend"....
musician DJ Scotch Egg'sDJ Scotch EggDJ Scotch Egg is a Japanese producer of chiptune/gabba music based in Brighton, England.He has released music on the Wrong Music label, Adaadat and was signed to Load Records after Lightning Bolt was impressed by his music.)...
song "Scotch Sundance". - The fugue appears in G majorG majorG major is a major scale based on G, with the pitches G, A, B, C, D, E, and F. Its key signature has one sharp, F; in treble-clef key signatures, the sharp-symbol for F is usually placed on the first line from the top, though in some Baroque music it is placed on the first space from the bottom...
(rather than G minorG minorG minor is a minor scale based on G, consisting of the pitches G, A, B, C, D, E, and F. For the harmonic minor scale, the F is raised to F. Its relative major is B-flat major, and its parallel major is G major....
) as part of Japanese electronic musician CorneliusCornelius (musician)Cornelius is a Japanese recording artist and producer.-Career:Oyamada's first claim to fame was as a member of the pop duo Flipper's Guitar, one of the key groups of the Tokyo Shibuya-kei scene...
's piece "2010" from his 1997 album FantasmaFantasmaFantasma is a 1997 album by Japanese musician Cornelius.The track "Star Fruits Surf Rider" was released as a single on November 2, 1998 and was covered by Mitsuki Aira for her 2008 double A-side single, "Darling Wondering Staring"/"Star Fruits Surf Rider"...
. - The music is featured in the movie The Paper Chase.
- The music is played in the introduction of the Apple IIApple II seriesThe Apple II series is a set of 8-bit home computers, one of the first highly successful mass-produced microcomputer products, designed primarily by Steve Wozniak, manufactured by Apple Computer and introduced in 1977 with the original Apple II...
game Diamond Mine. - A rock version of the fugue appears in the Catherine (video game)Catherine (video game)is a horror puzzle-platformer adventure game developed by Atlus Persona Team and published by Atlus for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The game is Atlus' first internally-developed game for seventh-generation consoles in high definition, and is described as an "adult-oriented" title by the game's...
by AtlusAtlusis a Japanese computer and video game developer, publisher, and distributor based in Tokyo, Japan, best known for developing the console role-playing game franchise Megami Tensei. The first Megami Tensei was a Nintendo Entertainment System video game published by Namco based on a trilogy of...
. - This piece is used as opening title in Ermanno Olmi's masterpiece L'albero degli zoccoli.
External links
- Free download of BWV 578, recorded by James KibbieJames KibbieJames Kibbie is an American concert organist, recording artist and pedagogue. He is Professor of Organ at the University of Michigan.- Biography :James Kibbie was born in 1949 in Vinton, Iowa, USA...
on the 1755 Gottfried SilbermannGottfried SilbermannGottfried Silbermann was an influential German constructor of keyboard instruments. He built harpsichords, clavichords, organs, and fortepianos; his modern reputation rests mainly on the latter two.-Life:...
/Zacharias HildebrandtZacharias HildebrandtZacharias Hildebrandt was an organ builder, born in Münsterberg, Silesia. In 1714 his father, a cartwright master, apprenticed him to Gottfried Silbermann in Freiberg. In 1721 Hildebrandt finished his masterpiece, the organ of the Nikolaikirche Langhennersdorf...
organ in the Katholische HofkircheKatholische HofkircheThe Katholische Hofkirche is a Roman Catholic Cathedral, located in the 'Altstadt' in the heart of Dresden, in Germany. Previously the most important Catholic parish church of the city, it was elevated to cathedral of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Dresden-Meissen in 1964.-Overview:The Hofkirche...
, Dresden, Germany