Modern Fugue Composers

Who are now considered very good living composer of the fugal form by the professional composer community?

Can some fugues you can refer me to which are written in the past few decades and is now part of the standard reportoire.

I think this is a hard question. And it raises more questions than will answer:

• Considered by whom?
• What is modern?
• Is a fugue (strictly speaking) a form? (maybe, but it is used more as a texture as well)

So if you are looking for living composers I cannot really help you. Maybe there are living composers that write fugues like Hindemith, Shostakovich, and Barber did. Do you consider that modern?

I know there's a living woman in USA who writes fugues in dodecaphonic system. Unfortunatelly, I can't remember her name at all!

Unfortunatelly, I can't remember her name at all!

You're probably not the only one.

Fugues is dead, mister.

nah... :)

http://www.youngcomposers.com/music/19/fuga/

here's a nice modern fugue for you http://johnsonsrambler.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/fugue-in-b-with-title-and-prelims.pdf'>http://johnsonsrambler.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/fugue-in-b-with-title-and-prelims.pdf

here's a nice modern fugue for you http://johnsonsrambler.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/fugue-in-b-with-title-and-prelims.pdf

That dude should probably work on his counterpoint. I spotted quite a lot of consecutives and awkward dissonances.

I personally cannot name a significant composer specialised in fugues. The Finnish composer Kalevi Aho used triple fugue as a form of his Second Symphony. for example.

To the OP:

What you are asking is quite confusing... do you want a MODERN fugue? Or do you want a CONTEMPORARY fugue. I can give you 200 examples of modern fugues. But not so much on the contemporary side. Remember that modernism refers to certain types of music composed during the modern era, which has passed a long time ago. We're probably past the whole post-modern shtick now also... Just use the word contemporary next time.

I'm not going to slam you over the use of the word "modern" or "contemporary", but provide you with an example of a terrific fugue, and a stunning performance of it. :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ga_280If08A

Haha, never heard Barber quite like that =P  Thanks

yeah, that barber piece is fugueing amazing (bad pun). The whole sonata is, actually: the 3rd movement is really impressive sad piece with an huge outburst (love to play it), the 2nd movement is a cute quirky piece, and the 1st mov it just huge. Go listen

Dear all,

I'd like to refer you to a very detailed account in an article by composer David Matthews:

http://www.david-matthews.co.uk/writings/article.asp?articleid=42

Do read it - it's fascinating and very good!

There is a real diversity of contemporary composers who are writing works under the name 'fugue.'  However, just like poets constantly rethinking what a poem really is, these composers are constantly thinking about what 'fugue' means and how they can reinterpret the basic elements of it in a way that's relevant today.  Some of the pieces described in Matthews' article would not be easily recognisable to us as fugues. 

Like someone said earlier in this thread, 'fugue' is not so much a form as a way of composing, or else a texture.  That's not only true in contemporary music - think of the fugue in Strauss's 'Also Sprach' as an example to show how the form can be taken wherever you want it to. 

Personally, I find the whole idea of polyphony and counterpoint really exciting.  The world (human or natural) is full of a multitude of voices, a multitude of happenings, characters, threads, etc., and I love music that reflects this.  I am working on a set of three fugues for piano at the moment, and counterpoint in various different guises has been a regularly recurring feature in my music. 

Who else loves weaving polyphonic threads of simultaneous ongoings into their music?

Dear all,

 

I'd like to refer you to a very detailed account in an article by composer David Matthews:

http://www.david-matthews.co.uk/writings/article.asp?articleid=42

Do read it - it's fascinating and very good!

 

There is a real diversity of contemporary composers who are writing works under the name 'fugue.'  However, just like poets constantly rethinking what a poem really is, these composers are constantly thinking about what 'fugue' means and how they can reinterpret the basic elements of it in a way that's relevant today.  Some of the pieces described in Matthews' article would not be easily recognisable to us as fugues. 

Like someone said earlier in this thread, 'fugue' is not so much a form as a way of composing, or else a texture.  That's not only true in contemporary music - think of the fugue in Strauss's 'Also Sprach' as an example to show how the form can be taken wherever you want it to. 

 

Personally, I find the whole idea of polyphony and counterpoint really exciting.  The world (human or natural) is full of a multitude of voices, a multitude of happenings, characters, threads, etc., and I love music that reflects this.  I am working on a set of three fugues for piano at the moment, and counterpoint in various different guises has been a regularly recurring feature in my music. 

 

Who else loves weaving polyphonic threads of simultaneous ongoings into their music?

Yes, great article. I direct listeners and friends to this article when describing fugue.

I know Ryan Benoist writes and is actively publishing modern Fugues 

 https://youtube.com/user/TornadoIsland2