Faà di Bruno, Giovanni Matteo [Horatio, Orazio] 83

Fugue d’école

(Fr.: ‘school fugue’).

A prescriptive model for writing fugue developed within the Paris Conservatoire in the 19th and 20th centuries. Important contributions to the writing of fugue were made by Fétis (1824), Cherubini (1835) and Dubois (1901), but André Gédalge’s Traité de la fugue (Paris 1901; Eng. trans., 1965) is acknowledged as the classic text. As enumerated by Gédalge, the structural components of the fugue d’école, generally translated into English as the ‘scholastic fugue’ or ‘school fugue’, are eight in number: (1) the subject, (2) the answer, (3) one or more countersubjects, (4) the exposition, (5) the counter-exposition, (6) the episodes (in French, développements or divertissements), (7) the stretto, and (8) the pedal point. This model follows the main outlines of the ‘classic’ fugue as outlined in Fugue, §1, but the prominence of a counter-exposition and of pedal point are far beyond their actual presence in fugal repertories of the past. Although Gédalge urged every modern composer to undertake the study of fugue, he readily acknowledged that the ultimate goal was not ‘expressly to write fugues, but to acquire the technical mastery that only fugal writing can bring’. It is widely though not universally understood, therefore, that Gédalge’s treatise, while deriving much of its detail and many of its musical examples from fugal writing of the past, is not primarily intended as a guide to the study and analysis of that repertory. The list of 20th-century composers who learnt this model while studying at the Paris Conservatoire includes most French composers since 1900.

PAUL WALKER

Fuguing tune [fugue tune].

See Fuging tune.

Führer, Robert (Jan Nepomuk)

(b Prague, 2 June 1807; d Vienna, 28 Nov 1861). Czech composer and organist. While still a chorister at Prague Cathedral he was taught by Vitásek (1817–24). From 1823 he was assistant organist at the cathedral and in 1826 became second organist; after Vitásek’s death in 1839 he succeeded him, giving up his organ post at the Strahov Monastery, which he had held since 1829. In 1830 he became one of the first teachers at the Prague Organ School, but his irregular life caused his dismissal in 1845. He then settled in Salzburg as an organist and theatre conductor (1846–9) and lived briefly in Munich (1849), Braunau am Inn (1851), Gmunden (1853–5) and other German and Austrian towns. He also toured Austria and Hungary with the violinist Gärtner and competed with Bruckner at the Mozart celebrations in Salzburg in 1856. He stayed longer in Aspach and Ried, where he wrote many compositions. After his imprisonment in Ried and Garsten (1859–60) he went to Vienna, where he lived for the rest of his life in penury.

Führer was a prolific composer and wrote over 400 works, mostly sacred. The finest include his Mass in A (1843), the Requiem in G (1846) and the oratorio Christus im Leiden und im Tode. He also wrote many secular cantatas, songs and organ works. The extensive publication of his works (in Prague, Munich, Augsburg, Vienna and Innsbruck) and the appealing early Romantic lyricism of his style account for his wide popularity during his life; his works can still be heard in Bohemian and Austrian churches. His writings include three books all published in Prague in 1847: Der Rhythmus, Die Tonleitern der Griechen, and Praktický návod, jak psáti skladby pro varhany [Practical instructions on how to write pieces for the organ].

BIBLIOGRAPHY

ČSHS

MGG1 (F. Haberl) [incl. work-list and further bibliography]

Obituaries: E.A. Meliš, Dalibor, iv (1861), 279, 288; NZM, lv (1861), 223 only

O. Kamper: ‘Robert Führer’, HR, v (1912), 16–18

B. Kolowrat: Robert Führer: jeho život a dílo [Life and works] (Prague, 1912) [incl. thematic catalogue]

JOHN TYRRELL

Führer Orgelbau.

German firm of organ builders. Alfred Führer (b Wilhelmshaven, 8 Nov 1905; d Wilhelmshaven, 27 May 1974) was first apprenticed as a cabinet maker (1920–24) and then trained as an organ builder with P. Furtwängler & Hammer, Hanover, between 1924 and 1927. He worked as a journeyman with companies in Switzerland and the USA (1929–30) and again with Furtwängler & Hammer (1931–3). In 1933 he set up an organ workshop in Wilhelmshaven, restoring, rebuilding and repairing organs, mainly in the district of Oldenburg-Wilhelmshaven, the former duchy of Oldenburg. After the war the business gained great prestige in northern Germany, particularly in the northern part of Lower Saxony and Bremen. During his lifetime Führer built 760 instruments. In 1974 his nephew Fritz Schild (b Bohlenbergerfeld, 18 Aug 1933) became managing director. He had served his apprenticeship with Führer and then worked in the Netherlands, France and the USA from 1958 to 1959, returning to work with Führer as a voicer between 1960 and 1974.

Organs built by Führer include Wilhelmshaven-Bant (1953/1967); Pauluskirche, Bielefeld (1957); St Ansgarii-Kirche, Bremen (1958); St Marien, Delmenhorst (1961); Jever (1966), and St Lamberti, Oldenburg (1972). His most important restorations were to the 1697 Kayser organ in Waddewarden (1933/1966), the 1699 Schnitger organ in Ganderksee (1934/1966) and the 1698 Schnitger organ in Dedesdorf (1947/1957). Schild’s organs include those at St Viktor, Damme (1975); Bunde (1979); Christengemeinschaft, Bremen (1981); Totentanz-Orgel, Marienkirche, Lübeck (1986); Staatliche Hochschule für Musik, Hamburg (1992), and Seoul, Korea (1994). He is best known for his restorations of organs by Huess (1650) in Langwarden (1974/1976); Busch (1739) in Jade (1977); Kayser (1694) in Hohenkirchen (1974/1977); Fürtwangler (1858–9) in Buxtehude (1979); Klepmeyer (1766) in Hammelwarden (1969/1992); and Berner (1767) in Sillenstede (1967/1994).

Alfred Führer built organs with slider chests and tracker action in accordance with the principles of the Orgelbewegung. From 1933 onwards he carried out major restoration work on historic organs in northern Germany. Fritz Schild has continued the firm’s traditions whilst improving the quality and scope of its restoration work; the firm has worked on Baroque and 19th-century instruments, including those employing historical temperaments.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

A. Führer and F. Schild: Firmeninformationen (Wilhelmshaven, 1958–96)

L. Führer and F. Schild: Fünfzig Jahre Orgelbau Führer (Berlin, 1983)

UWE PAPE