The word “fugue” lives a dual life, figuratively and literally. The lesser-known, second definition provided by Merriam Webster, is “a disturbed state of consciousness in which the one affected seems to perform acts in full awareness but upon recovery cannot recollect the acts performed.” I discovered this quite by accident in the process of researching a possible title for the work.

I had also decided that a “prelude and fugue” — a type of music composition very common from the Baroque period (and well beyond — I’ve used fugues several times already) — would be the over-arching form of the piece. I decided to search ‘Re-Fugue” as a title, and the “…disturbed state…” definition was the first hit to emerge. The irony of that definition, in the context of our seeming collective delusion over climate change and the tools available to us to address it, was decidedly not lost on me. Since I’d already started writing the piece, a simple renaming is all this discovery required.

Form

I’ve used no specific musical devices to represent the science of renewable energy here, just a general feel for the ideas. The prelude was written as a series of broad splotches of color, representing the renewable sources of energy that our planet has always had — our sun, our bodies of water, our natural subterranean heat sources. The fugue itself attempts to illustrate how these resources can be induced to emerge, serving our needs without much help from us, and avoiding the collateral damage that consuming non-renewable substances tend to give us. My fugue starts out quite traditionally — a theme which is repeated in different keys, and with a counter melody appearing first during the first repeat of the main fugue theme, as is traditional. The fugue statement and repeats are then followed by the use of some of the musical ideas underlying it (see “Tonality” below), and a melodic theme which first appears in the prelude, carried by the trumpets there. All of the motific content is very much related to each other.

I didn’t stick with my original intent to make this piece fit Baroque fugue standards. The entire piece owes much to “fugue,” but it isn’t rigid in that approach.

Tonality

I started writing the fugue first, intending to use motivic materials appearing there to build the prelude afterward. The main fugue theme, first played by the violas, uses a series of key centers starting with D, rising by whole steps through the entire whole-tone scale to C, before falling back two half-steps to B♭. In typical fugue form, the theme is repeated exactly by a new voice (second violins), starting with this new key center. A second repeat (starting with F♯, by first violins) delivers us back to the original D. Although the fugue repetition continues (starting with bassoons and trombones initially), it shifts to new melodic material first appearing in the prelude, but leveraging much of the motific and tonal characteristics. As is my wont, my approach is very mathematical, but melody and motif provide lots of more traditional musical values.

Ensemble

I’m using two each of flutes (piccolo included), oboes, clarinets, bassoons, trumpets, and trombones. I’ve added a bass trombone as well. There are four French horns, two percussionists plus a timpanist, and full strings. (This is very close to the ensemble I used for “September.”) As always, I’ve attempted to include a few new “faces” – besides the bass trombone, I’ve added a vibraphone to the percussion list. I write, I learn!

As of this writing (September 22, 2026), I’ve just started. I’ll link excerpts as they come available.