Junior Fugue Night

Jake Rubin ’22|July 19, 2021

Lil Henny Spittin Performance

Every year the Ramaz Junior grade performs their fugues on Fugue Night, this year was different. We had students performing their fugues in the auditorium during the test and lunch period with a livestream for parents to tune in. The fugue topics ranged from the coronavirus, to meals, and TikTok dancers.

Fugues are not like ordinary songs; they are based on subjects and counter-subjects which are developed and altered but maintain the same ideas. There are lyrical fugues where students develop a subject such as “Lil’ Henny Spittin” and the counter subject “Pulling up in the scooter.” Another fugue had the subject “I want to go downtown to see New York” and it used alterations in the tempo and the sentence structure to create a piece that was rhythmic and musical.

All of the fugues had several voices, two were students and Mr. Henkin was the third, with one exception of a trio of students.

Of all of the fugues, the most impressive ones were the melodic fugues. Students who composed melodic fugues first had to create a subject (motif) and then a countersubject using musical notation rather than words. One melodic fugue was played on the piano, and the other one was played on electric and acoustic guitars. Each fugue took about 2 minutes to perform, and with 18 total fugues the assembly ran into lunch, so the 11th grade got to enjoy a free 5th period as well.

Overall Fugue Day was a great time for the 11th grade to relax and enjoy the product of their quarter semester of work in music class.

These were the fugues:

New York, New York by Jordan Mittler and Caleb Rosenfeld

Corona Fugue by Cy Aminzadeh and Emmet Ades

Getting Ready by Jared Harnick and Jake Rubin

Cereal Killers by Corey Title and Eric Kalimi

Time To Munch by Jonah Hornblass, Julius Rubinsten, and Norma Tawil

601 Fugue by Nicole Hirschkorn and Ben Rosen

Rev in D Major by Zev Woldenberg and Ron Alweiss

Bed Making Blues by Arlette Gindi and Ozzie Kremer

TikTok Dancers by Jonathan Zahavi and Ethan Davidovitch

Poker Fugue by Joe Kaplan and Raphael Silver