Ornament your Christmas worship with delightful fughettas using Christmastide Fughettas! This large collection of fourteen hymn-based fugal settings by Donald Rotermund is creative and inventive. Having optional repeats throughout and designed for flexibility, these pieces could be used as solo organ stanzas; as preludes, voluntaries, or postludes; and as introductions or interludes using excerpts.
Fughetta literally means “little fugue.” What, then, is a fugue? A fugue is a compositional structure in music in which a melodic theme (called a “subject”) enters and appears in various places throughout the composition. As the opening subject unfolds, the subject will enter at another interval, and the subjects will progress simultaneously. This simultaneous and successive development of independent melodic lines in music is called “counterpoint.” The word fugue comes from the Latin verb fugare, which means “to chase.” In a fugue, the subjects “chase” one another around, as each statement of the subject begins at different times and intervals.
A fughetta, then, is a shorter version of a fugue. In other words, the subject is restated only a few times in a fughetta. For compositions based on hymn tunes, this makes sense. Each fughetta in this collection features the entire hymn tune melody, and organists should find these fughettas with limited use of the pedal to be accessible during the busy Christmas season. Fugues are a delight to listen to and a pleasure to play, and they are an excellent exercise for organists as they require careful attention to articulation, tempo, and phrasing.
Rotermund’s fughetta on the carol “Sing We Now of Christmas” features the subject—the carol’s melody—in both the treble and bass clefs as well as the pedal line. After two measures of a bright, descending motif in the treble clef, the first subject—the melody’s opening phrase—is first stated in the tenor octave. The subject is then restated at two higher intervals in the treble octave before the pedal line takes up the subject.
The descending motif provides a brief interlude before the secondary subject—the melody’s second distinct phrase—is developed in the same fashion: first in the tenor octave, then twice at higher intervals in the treble octave, and finally in the pedal. Just as the carol’s melody repeats the first phrase at the end, the fughetta states the primary subject once more as the composition concludes. An optional repeat is included that could extend the fughetta, providing organists flexibility depending on how they choose to employ the piece in services.
Rotermund’s fughetta on the carol “Gentle Mary Laid Her Child” also employs the carol’s melody as the subject, this time exclusively in the treble octave. The organist may use two different manuals to create an echoing effect between the statements of the subject and the interluding portions.
This fughetta’s subject is lightly ornamented, meaning the carol’s melody is embellished with neighboring notes and modified rhythms. The ornamentation is not excessive, however, and the carol’s melody is still distinctive—especially with a solo stop or combination—throughout the fughetta. You can imagine the delicate ornamentation illustrating gentle Mary singing a lullaby to the newborn Christ as she laid Him in swaddling clothes in His manger.
Rotermund’s fughetta on the marvelous hymn “O Rejoice, Ye Christians, Loudly” employs the tune’s different phrases as subjects throughout the composition in both the treble and bass clefs as well as the pedal line. As the fughetta develops, the score indicates manual and registration changes to give the composition a sense of gathering momentum.
The fughetta’s building momentum is fitting for the hymn and tune, as each stanza invites the Christian to ponder the wonder of Christ’s incarnation before it bursts open into each exuberant refrain: “Joy, O joy, beyond all gladness, Christ has done away with sadness! Hence, all sorrow and repining, For the Sun of Grace is shining!”
Use these fughettas at your church’s Christmas services by ordering the collection below.