(Ger. Choralfuge).
(1) A short organ composition in which the first line (occasionally the first two lines) of a chorale is treated as the subject of a fugue. Chorale fugues were composed mainly by late 17th-century central German composers, among them Pachelbel and several of Bach’s ancestors, notably Johann Christoph. Their function, like that of the chorale prelude, was to introduce the congregational singing of the chorale.
(2) A synonym for Chorale ricercare.
See Chorale settings.
ROBERT L. MARSHALL