Evil Kramer's Theory Corner

My, that was lovely brie. Hand delivered by Pierre Androulet, himself, that cheecky French monkey. Now, let me think. How does one explain such delights? How does one express the anticipation, tension and release that is the experience one calls brie? Perhaps... with a music metaphor. Brie and fugue, while sounding nothing alike, have similar flavor, texture and substance. Being, at once, explosive and expansive yet contained and subtle.

The fugue, from Latin, meaning "flight", is commonly separated into three parts. First, a musical theme is developed in one voice. That is followed by other voices, in close succession, imitating the theme, alternating between the tonic (or root note e.g. C) and the dominant (or fifth scale degree, in the case of C, a G). This whole section is called an exposition. Often times a second exposition will take place, followed by a third, which, of course, closely resembles the first. It is the second exposition that we find interesting in this month's column. For it is in this section that the fugue will often modulate, or change key signature. One might even think of this in the more common, verse/chorus - bridge - verse/chorus pop song idiom. Let us assume you are in the key of C and you have a progression that is stated thus:

(Each chord gets one measure of 3/4 time unless otherwise noted. Think waltz, medium tempo for maximum enjoyment)

Verse: Cmaj / Amin / Gmaj / Cmaj (play this progression four times)
Chorus: Fmaj x 2 / Gmaj x 2 / Cmaj x 4

Play this progression on your instrument of choice. Get it in your head the way the anticipation of a martini after a long game of cricket with your chums will. The chord choice is more bland than unflavored gelatin, as I am sure you are well aware. I suggest you embellish its rhythm the way one would enhance grilled halibut with a chardonnay. Create an interesting melody that you can play over it. Now, hold onto your strudel. Upon reaching the end of the chorus (which ends with four bars of C major), modulate the key signature by playing a Cmin chord for four measures. Doing this will maneuver the key of C to the key of Eb Major. Presto! Instant Rice!! I mean bridge! Now play:

Ebmaj / Bbmaj / Dbmaj / Abmaj (play this progression four times)
Then switch to an Amin6 x 4

Now go back to the original verse/chorus progression and finish the song. There, you see. Painless, for the most part. This is the beauty of the fugue. Its simplicity is mind boggling as is its endless possibilities. Kind of like, uh, brie. I guess we'll have to get to that next column. Now, go away, so I can finish the last chapter of my book.

-EK