Fugue
/ˈfyɡ/ noun, verb
noun, verb ·Uncommon ·College level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A contrapuntal piece of music wherein a particular melody is played in a number of voices, each voice introduced in turn by playing the melody.
- 2 a musical form consisting of a theme repeated a fifth above or a fourth below its first statement wordnet
- 3 Anything in literature, poetry, film, painting, etc., that resembles a fugue in structure or in its elaborate complexity and formality.
"Jacobsen's theory about the empty storehouse is still valid, for a myth never has one meaning only; a myth is a polyphonic fugue of many voices."
- 4 a dreamlike state of altered consciousness that may last for hours or days wordnet
- 5 A fugue state.
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- 6 dissociative disorder in which a person forgets who they are and leaves home to create a new life; during the fugue there is no memory of the former life; after recovering there is no memory for events during the dissociative state wordnet
Verb
- 1 To improvise, in singing, by introducing vocal ornamentation to fill gaps etc.
- 2 To spend time in a dissociative fugue state. intransitive
"And most of them women, and these only stayed in a fugue state for a relatively short time, like a couple of hours or a couple of days. As far as we know Malenov fugued for close to twenty years."
Example
More examples"During my sabbatical, I composed a fugue and domesticated a robin."
Etymology
Borrowed from French fugue, from Italian fuga (“flight, ardor”), from Latin fuga (“act of fleeing”), from fugiō (“to flee”); compare Ancient Greek φυγή (phugḗ). Apparently from the metaphor that the first part starts alone on its course, and is pursued by later parts. Doublet of fuga.