fugue

American  

[fyoog] / fyug /

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.

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fugue British  

/ 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

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Other Word Forms

• fuguelike adjective

Etymology

Origin of fugue

First recorded in 1590–1600; from French, from Italian fuga, from Latin: “flight”

Example Sentences

“He’s the Rock of Ages of music,” says Carpenter, who particularly loves the fugue nicknamed “St. Anne” and the Toccata and Fugue in D Minor.

From Los Angeles Times

In 2023, he released a new album, “Seven Psalms,” an elliptical, gracious invocation for the arc of his life, drawing on biblical imagery and intertwined guitar fugues.

From Los Angeles Times

With every passing episode, Carrie slips further into her fugue state, becoming more difficult to reach.

From Salon

That time spent getting the headboard, for example, was frankly spent in a sort of grim fugue state, wordlessly drifting from place to place in exhausted resignation.

From Salon

More than 100 renderings by artists as grand as David Hockney delivered fugue variants in form and material.

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• exodus