Hypertext Webster Gateway: "fugue"
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
Fugue \Fugue\, n. [F., fr. It. fuga, fr. L. fuga a fleeing,
flight, akin to fugere to fiee. See {Fugitive}.] (Mus.)
A polyphonic composition, developed from a given theme or
themes, according to strict contrapuntal rules. The theme is
first given out by one voice or part, and then, while that
pursues its way, it is repeated by another at the interval of
a fifth or fourth, and so on, until all the parts have
answered one by one, continuing their several melodies and
interweaving them in one complex progressive whole, in which
the theme is often lost and reappears.
All parts of the scheme are eternally chasing each
other, like the parts of a fugue. --Jer. Taylor.
From WordNet (r) 1.7 (wn)
fugue
n 1: dissociative disorder in which a person forgets who who they
are and leaves home to creates a new life; during the
fugue there is no memory of the former life; after
recovering there is no memory for events during the
dissociative state [syn: {psychogenic fugue}]
2: a dreamlike state of altered consciousness that may last for
hours or days
3: a musical form consisting of a theme repeated a fifth above
or a fourth below its first statement
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