8th Grade
Music and Visual Interpretation of a Fugue

A fugue is a musical form that is usually monothematic, where the subject, or melodic theme, is stated and then re-stated in different voices. Fugues can have as few as two or as many as six voices, but for our purposes we chose a four voice fugue.

The intricacy of the four voices creates a dense musical texture. Students made the connection that the musical voices are woven together, similarly as the weaving together of fibers in a cloth. Furthermore, students realized that musical texture is a compositional design element in music, just as visual texture is an element of design in the visual arts.

The project began with a discussion of J.S. Bach, and listening to Fugue VII in E-flat major from the Well Tempered Clavier, Book II. After listening to the fugue several times, students were able to identify the subject of the fugue and the entrances of the subject in each of the four different voices. Students were able to hear the intricacy of the musical texture of the piece. Next, we discussed fugues in more general terms, and the four most common compositional possibilities regarding the subject.

Typically there are four types of compositional possibilities regarding the treatment of the subject of a fugue: 1) Augmentation – an enlargement of (i.e. quarter notes would become half notes); 2) Diminution – to make smaller (i.e. quarter notes would become eighth notes); 3) Inversion – a mirror image of the subject; 4) Retrograde – playing the theme backwards (not as common in the fugues of Bach, but used in contemporary classical music).

Students divided into four groups, with each group being in charge of drawing line stencil, the size of the mural board, to demonstrate the movement of one of the thematic entrances of the subject, based on the aforementioned compositional possibilities. Students enlarged, reduced, inverted, and reversed the subject in visual terms, just as a composer would have done in musical terms. In essence, the students illustrated what they heard. This was a very interesting and different project that exposed the students to different ways of thinking, listening and creating, while giving them an opportunity to listen to some of the greatest music that has ever been written.