You know, the kind of song, a fugue as in toccata and fugue? Was just wonderin cuz i really like em 
Anyway, I looked up a definition and only got confused. So, anyway, can anybody plz shed some light on this and explain it in terms that I would understand.
Thanks
Isn’t it a song with a tune that cycles back to the beginning.
Row Row Row Your Boat (sung in the proper way) is a fugue isn’t it? please correct me if I am wrong FD as I am mainly guessing.
(I hope this catches on) FD - Fellow Dopers.
No, that’s called a round.
I don’t know. I’ve read that a round and a fugue are basically the same thing, only a round is sung and a fugue is played.
A round is always a fugue, but a fugue isn’t always a round.
?
A fugue is essentially a piece in which there are multiple voices that “converse”. In the classical period, the music was mostly homophonic- there was one voice (the melody) with accompaniment. Typical of the Baroque period, a fugue contains two or more voices that share the theme in an imitative “call and response” way. When two or more melodic lines are combined, it is called counterpoint and the piece can be described as contrapuntal. JS Bach was a master of this- if you enjoy fugues I highly recommend listening to his Concerto for Two Violins in D minor or some of his organ music. On the otherhand, a round is a piece in which each voice has the same melody, but enters at a different time. Both fugues and rounds can either be sung or played on intruments. Hope this helps.
A fugue sounds to me to be “variations on a theme” - the same melody repeated in different keys, ranges, by different instruments (or voices?).
So a simple round, if the parts were played/sung in different registers (female vs. male, for instance) could be called a fugue.
Will now await a musician to come along and correct me.
From m-w’
I like that definition best. 
Peace,
mangeorge
Listen to the * Brandenburg Concertos ** by Bach and then listen to *Row, Row Your Boat *. Hear the difference?
Damn. the “b’s” and “i’s” have become indistinguishable this time of night.
Ack. How could I forget the Brandenburgs? The first movement of #6 is especially fugue-ish… and enjoyable.
Ah, now the snob appeal comes along…
I seem to recall Hesse having something to say about those who would differentiate between the “great” music and the forget-next-week pop variety.
All music is sacred.
Counterpoint - two or more melodies played at the same time.
Canon - the same melody played against itself, usually offset by a few beats or bars. A round is a simple canon, because the melody is unchanged… more complex canons have the melody came in at a higher pitch or play upside down, backwards, twice as fast, half speed, or combinations thereof!
Fugue - sigh, it’s complicated (as Jpeg’s link will show you) but as a generalization it’s like a canon, but the first half of the theme is called the subject, the second half is called the countersubject. When the countersubject starts, the next voice comes in with the subject (just like a canon), but this is called the answer. There are special key relationships between the subject and answer.
A third/fourth voice (or more) will continue to come in with further subject/answers. This first part where all the voices state the subject/answer and countersubject(s) is called the exposition. After that it usually alternates between episodes (free development of subject/countersubject fragments, or totally new material) and entries, where the subject/countersubject/answer are entwined together. These middle entries are never the same key and voicing as the exposition.
For a particularly famous Canon, there’s a midi file of Pachelbel’s Canon and Gigue in D Major down the bottom of this page. There’s also a bunch of Palchelbel fugues on that page. Read K364’s description then play the Canon and then one of the fugues and see if it makes sense after that