"So you want to write a fugue?"

So You Want to Write a Fugue

So you want to write a fugue?
You've got the urge to write a fugue,
You've got the nerve to write a fugue.
So go ahead and write fugue.
You've got the nerve to write a fugue.
So come along and write a fugue.
Go ahead, write a fugue.
Oh, come along and write a fugue that we can sing.
Go ahead; write a fugue that we can sing.
Write a good fugue, one that we can sing.
And write a good fugue, one that we can sing.
Come along; write a fugue that we can sing.
Write a good fugue, one that we can sing.
Come, write a fugue, come write a fugue for singing.
Come, write a fugue, come along and write a fugue for singing.
Come, write a good fugue.

Give no mind to what we've told you.
Give no heed to what we've told you.
Pay no mind to what we've told you.
Just forget all that we've told you and the theory that you've read.
Pay no mind; give no heed to what we've told you.
Oh, give no mind to what we've said.
For the only way to write one is to plunge right in and write one.
So just forget the rules and write one.
Have a try, have a try, have a try.
Plunge right in, have a try. Try to write one.
Yes, try to write fugue.
Have a try, plunge right in and write one.
Yes, write a fugue that we can sing.
Yes, just forget all that we've told you.
For the only way to write one is to plunge right in and write one.
Yes, plunge right in, have a try.
Oh yes!
Why don't you?
Why don't you write a fugue?
For the only way to write one is to plunge right in and write one.
Just ignore the rules and try.

And the fun of it will get you,
And the joy of it will fetch you,
It's a pleasure that is bound to satisfy, so why don't you try?.
For the only way to write one is to plunge right in.
And the fun of it will get you,
And the joy of it will fetch you.
You'll decide that John Sebastian must have been a very personable guy.

But never be clever for the sake of being clever,
For a canon in inversion is a dangerous diversion.
And a bit of augmentation is a serious temptation,
While a stretto diminution is an obvious solution,
While a stretto, stretto, stretto diminution is a very, very obvious
solution.
So never be clever for the sake of being clever, for the sake of showing
off.
Never be clever for the sake of showing off!

So you want to write a fugue?
But never be clever for the sake of showing off.
You've got the urge to write a fugue. You've got the nerve to write a
fugue.
So go ahead and try to write one, try to write one.
No, never be clever for the sake of being clever.
But do try to write a fugue that we can sing.
Write us a good fugue, one that we can sing.
Oh, come and try.
Oh, why don't you try?
Oh, won't you try and write one we can sing.
So write a fugue that we can sing.
Now, why don't you try to write one?
Yes, come, let's try.
Write us a fugue that we can sing. Now come along.

It's rather awesome, isn't it?
And when you've finished writing it I think you'll find a great joy in it.
(Hope so.)
Well, nothing ventured nothing gained, they say.
But still it is rather hard to start.
Well?
Let us try.
Right now?
Yes. Why not?
Now we're going to write a fugue.
We're going to write a good one.
We're going to write a fugue
right now.

It's a fun song. Gould recorded the first nine of fifteen fugues from Bach's great treatise on fugue composition, The Art of the Fugue in 1962 on the organ of All Saints's Church at Kingsway, Toronto which established him as somewhat of an expert in this area.

So You Want To Write a Fugue was conceived as the finale to a 1963 Canadian Broadcasting Corporation television show entitled "The Anatomy of Fugue." The following year the standard version was recorded and appeared in the form of a flexible film record in a special edition devoted to Baroque music in the magazine Hi-Fi Stereo Review. (That would be a nice piece of Gouldinailia.) It was published in 1964 by G. Schirmer in New York for piano or string accompaniment. The song was reissued on The Glenn Gould Silver Jubilee Album of 1980.

Bach composed The Art of the Fugue during the last two years of his life and died before completing it 1750. The Art of the Fugue tries to teach by example some of the basic precepts of fugal composition. The organ was somewhat an uncharacteristic instrument for Gould although he studied it since his childhood. His recording of The Art of the Fugue using and organ, and his composition of this song using fugue motifs highlights an on-going academic question about whether or not Bach's Art of the Fugue was developed with keyboard instruments in mind or whether it was more general than that.

The song is in the form of a fugue and uses fugue devices in its composition. The theme on which the fugue is constructed, in this case "So you want to write a fugue" is the subject. The fugal answer, where the subject is repeated with different emphasis, is the imperative "So write a fugue that we can sing." The counter-answer, the continuation of the original subject are heard in new stanza's sung behind the answer.

Four traditional devices for composers to add interest to a fugue are mentioned in it. Inversion refers to a device where the composer repeats a phrase in the fugue, but inverts the notes - where the listener expects a note to go up two tones, it goes down two tones and so on for each note in the phrase. The rhythm stays the same. The result is a theme which is unfamiliar but familiar. Diminution is doubling the playing speed of a section while augmentation is halving the speed of a section. Stretto means to start the answer before the subject is finished, that is, to begin the echoing response of the original fugue theme or subject, before that subject is finished.

So You Want to Write a Fugue is sung in a madrigal-type round with four singers all repeating small variations of the base lyrics. The careful listener of the polyphony can likely pick out variants to the above lyrics as the singers repeat and repeat again their lyrics. It's another example of his multiple layered "voiced-over" pieces where the listener is expected to follow two or three lines of sound at once.

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