Fantasy and Fugue

A paired composition consisting of a free-form fantasy (or fantasia) followed by a fugue. The fantasy section allows for dramatic harmonic exploration, improvisatory passages, and rhetorical gestures, contrasting with the strict contrapuntal discipline of the fugue.

The fantasy-and-fugue pairing grew out of the Baroque tradition of alternating free and strict styles within a single work. Bach's Fantasia and Fugue in G minor (BWV 542) is among the most celebrated examples, with its rhapsodic fantasia preceding one of the most tightly constructed fugues in the organ literature. Mozart, Liszt, and Reger continued the pairing into later centuries.