36 Fugues (Reicha)


36 Fugues, sometimes assigned opus number 36, is a cycle of fugues for piano composed by Anton Reicha. It was first published by the composer in 1803 and served as an illustration of a nouveau système Reicha invented for fugue composition. This system involved, among other things, extensive use of polyrhythms, derived from traditional music, and fugal answers on any and all scale degrees, rather than just the dominant, which was standard at the time.

Historical background

Reicha most probably started composing the fugues during his short stay in Hamburg. In 1799 he moved to Paris and soon published a collection of twelve fugues there, all of which were subsequently included in 36 Fugues. By 1802 Reicha moved to Vienna, but the same year two more works that would later be included in the collection were published in Paris. These were a fantaisie from Etude de transitions et 2 fantaisies, Op. 31, and a fugue on a theme by Domenico Scarlatti, Op. 32.
The complete cycle was published in 1803 in Vienna under the French title Trente six fugues pour le pianoforte, composées d'après un nouveau système. The collection was dedicated to Haydn, whom Reicha knew since the early 1790s, and included a dedicatory poem by Reicha, in French and German. The fugues were preceded by extensive textual notes, in which Reicha defended his methods, particularly polyrhythm, for which he cites numerous examples from traditional music of Switzerland, Alsace, Greece and western France around the Bay of Biscay.
The second edition was published in Vienna in 1805 and included a short theoretical text, Über das neue Fugensystem, in which Reicha explains the theoretical basis of the fugues in form of a polemic against the numerous opponents of his ideas. These included Ludwig van Beethoven, who dismissed Reicha's method for turning the fugue into something that is no longer a fugue, and Robert Schumann. Also mentioned in Reicha's text are the circumstances that led to the composition of some of the fugues with borrowed themes: apparently, his Parisian friends had chosen several themes and asked Reicha to compose fugues on them using the new method.

General information

In Über das neue Fugensystem Reicha outlines his idea of the fugue as a form. To him, the characteristics required were the following:
The standard rule of answering the subject at the dominant did not matter to Reicha, and he argues that any scale degree can be used. He also dismisses limitations on the nature of the fugue's subjects, such as obligatory non-periodic structure and a maximum span of a ninth. Finally, in some fugues of the cycle, Reicha experiments with the structure of the form by adding introductory sections or alternating between two different forms of texture.
Although most fugues employ a single subject, some are different: six fugues employ two subjects, fugue number 30 has three and fugue number 15 has six. Of the 36 fugues, 6 use subjects from other composers. These are the following:
World premiere recording of the complete cycle.
Includes fugues nos. 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11–13, 20, 22, 23–26, 28–33.
Performed on a period instrument, fortepiano Anton Walter 1790.