Ricercare and fugue differences?
Ron Zuckerman
I was recently listening to the Musical Offering by Bach. Some of the
movements were called Ricercare. To me they sounded exactly like a
fugue. What is the difference between a Ricercare and a Fugue?
Regards,
--
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Clelia Bonelli/Dino Motta
>Hi,
>I was recently listening to the Musical Offering by Bach. Some of the
>movements were called Ricercare. To me they sounded exactly like a
>fugue. What is the difference between a Ricercare and a Fugue?
The difference is only that the fugue is an evolution of the
ricercare, bath both are based on the imitation.
The Ricercare, in general, not in the Bach's work, is a instrumental
composition write to research (ricercare) the possibility of some
musical idea in a contrappunctistic way.
These form became from mottetto of the first half of XVI century, but
the language is instrumental, with interval non vocal. The style is
even the imitation (as fugue) but, i think, more free, and without a
particular attention to the melody, in fact many ricercare are based
on stereotypated melody, based on the Gregoriano, the armony don't was
so rich as in fugue, it was a solemn composition. The ricercare is the
father (or mother if you prefere) of the fugue: in fact at the end of
the XVII, or in the beginnig of the XVIII century the history of
ricercare end, and the technical and stylistical experience flow in
the fugue . In France, England, Naetherland, the ricercare was called
fantasia, with an evolution of this form, that became an autonome
form. The Fugue is the Ricercare's evolution, and is formed by the
Soggetto (the theme), the risposta (answer) what is the subject at
the dominant (with some rules), the controsoggetto, another theme wich
accompany the subject, (with some rule i.e. double contrappunctus),
the coda ecc. The ricercare and the fugue (but also the canone) seems
similar because they are all based on the principle of imitation, but
if the canone is the most simple form of imitation (principally
vocal), throug the ricercare, the fugue is the higgest form of the
contrappuntistic technique,
Excuse for my bad english, I hope that someone may be more precise
than me.
Dino Motta
clbonel...@iol.it
Matthew H. Fields
it's pretty reasonable to go with the following distinction, which
has already been mentioned here by somebody:
1) Bach's "Ricercares" were fugues.
2) Ricercares are pieces built in immitation.
3) Fugues resemble ricercares but also usually have episodes, and the
immitative sections---expositions---are built on a small number of motifs.
In other words, in ricercares, the first immitative melody may never be
heard again after all voices have sounded it; drama may develop without
the kind of motivic unification that we know from fugal styles.
Furthermore:
4) Ricercares came into vogue before fugues did. By the time Bach named
the opening and closing fugues of Musikalische Opfer "Ricercar", ricercar style
had been out of fashion and largely forgotten, so his titles were not
"erroneous" as much as "evocative", in much the same way that today you
might title your piece for clarinet and flute "symphony".
Rick
Thanks,
Rick St. Clair