Preludio e fuga

It wasn’t until the 1940s that I began to learn about dodecaphonic music. At the time, this technique of composition was slowly beginning to spread in Hungary. I believe to have been the first Hungarian composer to use it. The opportunity came, as was so often the case, in writing incidental music.

I composed my “Preludio e fuga” between 1944 and 1947. In the twelve-tone theme of the fugue, I did not use Schoenberg’s orthodox model but a softer form, more euphoric, with a rounder and more attractive sonority - I am thinking of works by Luigi Dallapiccola or “Le vin herbé” by Frank Martin that I discovered at that time.

— Ferenc Farkas