A '''fugue''' (from Italian "fuga," or flight) is often described as "a movement of continuity" or a piece that focuses on both musical technique and musical texture. Generally speaking, the fugue is not considered a musical structure because it is infinitely variable. It is rather a style or method of [[counterpoint|contrapuntal]] writing which may or may not be distinguished into finite sections. The fugue is not simply an exercise in advanced contrapuntal technique. To the composers in the 18th century, especially [[J.S. Bach]] and [[Handel]], the fugue was a means of expressing the most heightened forms of emotion. Later composers, notably [[Beethoven]] in his late works and [[Dmitri Shostakovich]], used the fugue within larger works in the same manner. | A '''fugue''' (from Italian "fuga," or flight) is often described as "a movement of continuity" or a piece that focuses on both musical technique and musical texture. Generally speaking, the fugue is not considered a musical structure because it is infinitely variable. It is rather a style or method of [[counterpoint|contrapuntal]] writing which may or may not be distinguished into finite sections. The fugue is not simply an exercise in advanced contrapuntal technique. To the composers in the 18th century, especially [[J.S. Bach]] and [[Handel]], the fugue was a means of expressing the most heightened forms of emotion. Later composers, notably [[Beethoven]] in his late works and [[Dmitri Shostakovich]], used the fugue within larger works in the same manner. |