I've been trying to remember a word for a piece or a section that starts out sounding like a fugue, but doesn't really follow the rules of a fugue. Â You can hear two or three voices starting in sequence, and then the piece relaxes back into more ordinary counterpoint or harmony.
Online sources give fughetta, but I'm pigheadedly convinced that I've read or heard a different and more appropriate word. Â Maybe something like fugaloid, or something with -oid on the end???
Most likely I'm just manufacturing the memory.
Ricercar?
Hmm. Â That does hit the proper meaning. Â But I'm senilely convinced that there's another word, related to fugue but not fughetta.
It might be the New York nepenthean musical form: the fughetaboudit.
Are you thinking of canon? At its simplest it's a round- as in Frere Jacques, or Row, Row, Row Your Boat. A fugue is a related form. A discussion of the two is at: Â http://www.earsense.org/Earsense/WTC/Vocabulary/canon.html