Definition of Fugue

1. Noun. Dissociative disorder in which a person forgets who they are and leaves home to creates 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.

Exact synonyms: Psychogenic Fugue
Generic synonyms: Dissociative Disorder

2. Noun. A dreamlike state of altered consciousness that may last for hours or days.

3. Noun. A musical form consisting of a theme repeated a fifth above or a fourth below its first statement.

Definition of Fugue

1. n. A polyphonic composition, developed from a given theme or themes, according to strict contrapuntal rules. The theme is first given out by one voice or part, and then, while that pursues its way, it is repeated by another at the interval of a fifth or fourth, and so on, until all the parts have answered one by one, continuing their several melodies and interweaving them in one complex progressive whole, in which the theme is often lost and reappears.

Definition of Fugue

1. Noun. 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 ¹

2. Noun. Anything in literature, poetry, film, painting, etc., that resembles a fugue in structure or in its elaborate complexity and formality. ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Definition of Fugue

1. to compose a fugue (a type of musical composition) [v FUGUED, FUGUING, FUGUES]

Medical Definition of Fugue

1. A condition in which an individual suddenly abandons a present activity or lifestyle and starts a new and different one for a period of time, often in a different city; afterward, the individual alleges amnesia for events occurring during the fugue period, although earlier events are remembered and habits and skills are usually unaffected. Origin: Fr. Fr. L. Fuga, flight (05 Mar 2000)

Lexicographical Neighbors of Fugue

fugitives
fugits
fugle
fugled
fugleman
fuglemen
fugles
fuglier
fugliest
fugling
fugly
fugos
fugs
fugu
fugu poison
fugue (current term)
fugue state
fugued
fuguelike
fugues
fuguing
fuguist
fuguists
fugus
fugutoxin
fuhgedaboudit
fuhgedaboutit
fuhgeddaboud
fuhgeddaboudit
fuhgeddaboutit

Literary usage of Fugue

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. Elson's Music Dictionary: Containing the Definition and Pronunciation of by Louis Charles Elson (1905)
"fugue (fug.) A term derived from the Latin word fuga, a flight. It is a composition in the strict style, in Which a subject is proposed by one part and ..."

2. A Dictionary of Musical Terms: Containing Upwards of 9,000 English, French by Theodore Baker (1895)
"fugue in similar motion, the answer ascending and descending like the subject. ... a fugue having the answer in contrary motion to the subject. ..."

3. Music and Musicians by Albert Lavignac (1903)
"Then the composition is sometimes called a fugue with three or with four subjects; but this designation is improper, a fugue having never more than the ..."

4. A Dictionary of Musical Terms: Containing Upwards of 9,000 English, French by Theodore Baker (1895)
"fugue in similar motion, the answer ascending and descending like the subject. ... a fugue worked throughout in double reversible counterpoint, ..."

5. Pronouncing and Defining Dictionary of Music by William Smythe Babcock Mathews, Emil Liebling (1896)
"fugue. This word is derived from the Latin fuga, flight, and a certain kind ... The word fugue had not always the same meaning as in our time and since the ..."

6. The Appreciation of Music by Thomas Whitney Surette, Daniel Gregory Mason (1907)
"As is suggested by the derivation of the word "fugue," from the Latin "fuga," a flight, the characteristic peculiarity of the form is the entrance, ..."

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