Johann Pachelbel was a German composer, organist, and teacher who brought the south German organ schools to their peak. He composed a large body of sacred and secular music, and his contributions to the development of the chorale prelude and fugue have earned him a place among the most important composers of the middle Baroque era.
St. Sebaldus Church, Nuremberg, which played an important role in Pachelbel's life
Predigerkirche, the Erfurt church, where Pachelbel worked for 12 years, starting in 1678
Pachelbel's letter
Pachelbel's tomb at the St. Rochus Cemetery in Nuremberg
In classical music, a fugue is a contrapuntal, polyphonic compositional technique in two or more voices, built on a subject that is introduced at the beginning in imitation, which recurs frequently throughout the course of the composition. It is not to be confused with a fuguing tune, which is a style of song popularized by and mostly limited to early American music and West Gallery music. A fugue usually has three main sections: an exposition, a development, and a final entry that contains the return of the subject in the fugue's tonic key. Fugues can also have episodes—parts of the fugue where new material is heard, based on the subject—a stretto, when the fugue's subject "overlaps" itself in different voices, or a recapitulation. A popular compositional technique in the Baroque era, the fugue was fundamental in showing mastery of harmony and tonality as it presented counterpoint.
The six-part fugue in the "Ricercar a 6" from The Musical Offering, in the hand of Johann Sebastian Bach
Example of a tonal answer in J.S. Bach's Fugue No. 16 in G minor, BWV 861, from the Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1. The first note of the subject, D (in red), is a prominent dominant note, demanding that the first note of the answer (in blue) sound as the tonic, G.
The interval of a fifth inverts to a fourth (dissonant) and therefore cannot be employed in invertible counterpoint, without preparation and resolution.
Visual analysis of J.S. Bach's Fugue No. 2 in C minor, BWV 847, from the Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1 (bars 7–12)