About this work:
BOBS FUGUE is my attempt at dipping my toe into the deep waters of a very serious musical subject. The fugue is a masterful and difficult concept, not to be trifled with, but I’ve trifled with it anyway. This piece is not to be confused with serious fugue-ing.
It’s a bit of a pop fugue (if there is such a thing). The fugue subject is a simple, happy, major key figure that implies a bit of a syncopated rock feel. Everything bounces along at a steady and perky tempo.
After the initial statement and responses by the whole group, we experience a quick upward modulation and a solo statement in the first violin, clearing the way for the arrival of the cello, who drives the proceedings aggressively forward with the inverted subject played in its lowest and most powerful register. Growing out of this, a set of chiming bell tones eventually leads us to a quirky contrary motion figure played by the violins.
The next round starts up from scratch again with the violins on the original subject, dancing over what rock guitar players would call power chords, played in the viola and cello. The fugue builds and weaves, until an insistent bass figure played in octaves grows and moves us forward to a full-blast tutti statement of the main theme, and then to the end.