The Lady Gaga Fugue and other incredible Baroque-inspired arrangements of pop songs

24 May 2017, 16:35 | Updated: 24 May 2017, 16:40

Subjects, answers, countersubjects, and top 10 hits have (possibly) never sounded better....

Ed Sheeran Fugue

Here's the proof the Vivaldi wasn't the only flame-haired virtuoso who could withstand a healthy dose of Baroque counterpoint. Here's 2017's biggest hit with a whole heap of irresistible countermelody.


Lady Gaga Fugue

Bach doesn't care how many Twitter followers you have - if you steal his fugues, the grandfather of counterpoint will come back to haunt you. Lady Gaga used an eight-second snippet of music from the Well-Tempered Clavier in her 2009 hit, Bad Romance; now she's being owned by this Bach-inspired stretto-fest.


We have a feeling that Ms. Gaga herself is a fan of this one:

Miley Cyrus Fugue

Harmonic mastermind Giovanni Dettori has somehow turned a song about a naked pop star writhing on demolition apparatus into a piece of mournful four-part counterpoint. Though you might still need a cold shower after that Tierce de Picardie.


Britney Spears Counterpoint

This isn't *strictly* a fugue, where you'd hear the tune (the subject), then hear it ratcheted up a fifth in another part (the answer) while the first part plays something new (the countersubject). But that doesn't mean you can't indulge in the squirmingly chromatic contrapuntal treatment of Britney's… profound… lyrics.

Teenage Dream Fugue

Katy Perry's 2010 hit gets the contrapuntal treatment in this delicate fugue for piano. I kissed a harmony & counterpoint professor, and I liked it. 

Call Me Maybe Fugue

"Good morning. I have only recently made your acquaintance, and this is most unusual. Here, however, is my correspondence address. Write to me, perhaps?" Or, at least, we're pretty sure that's what Bach might have said had he happened upon Ms Carly Rae Jepsen in the 1700s, before writing a jaunty fugue-based improvisation on the matter.