Fuga quinta

Simon Lohet (c. 1550–1611) — Fuga quinta for organ

Despite its brevity, this fugue has several unusual characteristics, including its Renaissance dance-like spirit and its use of repeated chords (and parallel harmonies). Its character shows a conscious movement away from the more sober ricercar style.

Simon Lohet (c. 1550–1611) was a Flemish composer and organist active in Germany. He was active in the Würtemberg court of Stuttgart, where he taught Adam Steigleder (father of Johann Ulrich Steigleder), among others. Lohet is widely considered to have written the earliest examples of the keyboard fugue. His 20 surviving fugues show the form in transition from the ricercar, and are usually monothematic (in contrast to the very long multi-section ricercars of his contemporaries). They began to introduce devices such as stretto, diminution, and other contrapuntal techniques that would become a significant part of the better-known fugal vocabulary of the later baroque.