Fugato as a form and means of polyphonic development

Abstract

The relevance of the study. Fugato is both a form (mostly not an independent part of another structure) and a means of presentation similar to a fugue exposition (translated from Italian as “fugue-like”). Fugato is still popular with composers today. However, there are no special works that would study the regularities of this form, neither in Ukrainian nor in European musicology. In general, there is very little information about fugato.

The main objective of the study is to examine fugato in detail, i.e. to clarify the etymological meaning of the concept, to explore the structural configurations of this form, to trace the evolution of fugato and to identify the peculiarities of its functioning in the music of Ukrainian composers. Historical, polyphonic, and theoretical (holistic) methods of analysis form are the methodological basis of this study.

Results and conclusions. Fugato is both a certain structural formation and a means of imitative development (based on the principle of fugue exposition) for any section of the musical form: expository, developmental (mainly) or final. Based on the analysis of artistic examples, the author reveals an attributive property of modern fugato — the openness of their construction, of which adapts to any structural conditions of a larger musical work. Thanks to this mobility, fugato does not lose its popularity among composers today, and at the same time forms many stylistic manifestations.

The evolution of fugato from independent works of the Baroque period to the present is traced. It is noted that the complete identity of the fugato with the fugue can be found not only in Bach’s compositions, but even in contemporary composers. It is emphasized that L. Beethoven’s innovative interpretation of a purely polyphonic fugal language opens a new stage in the development of fugato, which continues to this day. The difference between the fugato of the Viennese classics is highlighted: Mozart (concentrated in a polyphonic vertical) and Beethoven (with thematic arches in time). The vector of development of the post-Beethoven fugato in the music of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries is recorded.

From the broad context of the use of fugato in the works of Ukrainian composers (which cannot be covered within the framework of this article and has never been analyzed in the chosen perspective), the modern stage (the second half of the twentieth — twenty-first century) is singled out. Since this study is the first of its kind in Ukrainian musicology, it is a scientific novelty and a significance for music science. A rare case of fugato as an independent structure (created by the outstanding Ukrainian polyphonist and composer I. B. Pyaskovsky as a stylization, a structural “algorithm” of M. Berezovsky’s polyphony) and artistic examples of fugato fragments in symphonic works by leading representatives of Ukrainian symphonism — composers S. Liudkevych, B. Liatoshynsky and Y. Stankovych — are analyzed, because it is in this music that fugato occurs most often. For all selected composers fugato becomes an active means of dynamizing the musical form and has a unique individual appearance. The perspectives of fugato development in the direction of strengthening individual structures and renewing thematicism is depicted.