Harry's Fugue

Flute Quartet

A Foot-stomping, Finger-clicking, Four-part Fugue

Program note:

This fugue is kind of C major, but not very much. It starts and finishes there, but spends most of its time trying out as many other keys as it possibly can. It runs a long way from home and even threatens to become atonal. But eventually it makes it back in one piece.

It is called Harry’s Fugue because it was originally intended as a birthday present for Harry. I wrote a Harry- sounding theme, which felt like it wanted to become a fugue. I tried writing it for Harry’s instrument (flute) and piano, but it just wouldn’t work. So I wrote it for four saxophones instead. Then, nearly ten years later, I suddenly realised that it might work for flutes after all... if there were four of them.


© David John Lang 2014

Harry’s Fugue: for flute quartet was first performed by Coruscalia Collective on 17th February 2023 at the Migration Museum, Adelaide, SA, Australia.

Duration: 3 minutes
Difficulty: Advanced

Instrumentation
Piccolo
Flute
Alto Flute
Bass Flute

this piece also exists in a version for saxophone quartet