Fugue in d minor

[Mat]

This is one of the first fugues I wrote. 3-voiced, with a stretto at the end and with respect to all the classical rules. Unlike the fugue I posted here some time ago which is closer to romantic period, this one is supposed to have a baroque sound. Constructive criticism appreciated.

[jhnbrbr]

Hi Mat. I'm certainly no fugue expert, but I've enjoyed listening to this (and your other fugue) and they both sound great to me. (I'm so jealous of people who can compose). Quite unusual to hear a "Hammond fugue" ! but this one is obviously recorded with more conventional pipe organ sound which i prefer, but still (I think) with a single keyboard, which probably doesn't bring out the bass line to the best advantage. Still sounds good though, so congratulations!

[wljmrbill]

Sounds good to me.. and I would say it is barogue style composition. enjoyed it

[Krummhorn]

Hi Mat,

I too enjoyed this wonderful composition of yours. Definitely baroque styled ... fugues just have to be one of the toughest things to write - so glad for you that you have this talent.

[musicalis]

Hi Mat
For a first fugue it is a real good job, very pleasant to listen, with nice episodes . But I have been surprised by the coda of the subject that seems to end on the IV° degree and by the respons which does not bring back the tonality to the I° degree (D minor) but 2 semitones highter.
In fact a deep analyse shows that your subject seems to be a subject in G-moll, starting with a D. In this case the end of the subject is correct, but the fugue is not in D minor.
If you want to show me the score, i'll study it and make some friendly criticisms.
Bravo !
jean-Paul

[Mat]

I'm sending you the score, Jean-Paul. It'll be much easier to discuss if I know which bars you're referring to.

Oh, and thanks for the other comments, guys.

[musicalis]

Hi Mat

Some comments about your fugue

mesure 1
The subject has a good ambitus (D to c) but sounds like a subject in G minor because, with a F# inside, it contains a modulation to Gm that is not resolved, I mean : followed by a come back to D m.
Your subject starts in Dm but finishes in Gm
A solution could be to make the subject longer. For instance, followed by F, E,D.
Using this solution, you could also replace F# by F.

mesure 2
The repons is not good because all the notes must not be the same than the subject a 4th highter,
some notes should be lowered by 2 semitones (mutation), or add few notes (c,Bb,A) so as to the repons ends in the tonality of D minor.

mesure 5
the 3rd voice enters here. it must be in the tonality of D minor; exactly the same notes than the subject mesure 1 but one octave lower.
Your 3rd voice starts in A minor and ends in Dm.

I miss time and your hand written score is not easy to read for me, so i stop analysing here.

Your music is nice, pleasant to hear, your counterpoint sounds good, but your music is not in the form of a classical fugue.

May I suggest you to look at :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fugue

and practice the following method : http://www.wikihow.com/Write-a-Fugue

Your friend Jean-Paul

[Mat]

Hello Jean-Paul,

I'm not saying I'm an expert in the field of composing fugues (and not only fugues), but I wrote this piece according to the knowledge that I'd been given by my lecturer sometime ago.

mesure 1
The subject has a good ambitus (D to c) but sounds like a subject in G minor because, with a F# inside, it contains a modulation to Gm that is not resolved, I mean : followed by a come back to D m.
Your subject starts in Dm but finishes in Gm

I did it on purpose. Since we're on that - One can "overlay" three chords in the background of this particular subject. For the first 4 notes it's Dm, for next 4 it's Gm, and for last 4 it's D7 (which, by the way, leads to the key of the next voice's entrance - that is Gm). Aa far as I know, there are two types of subject: non-modulating and modulating. I used the latter.

mesure 2
The repons is not good because all the notes must not be the same than the subject a 4th highter,
some notes should be lowered by 2 semitones (mutation), or add few notes (c,Bb,A) so as to the repons ends in the tonality of D minor.

I don't quite understand what you meant here... So I will just say that the first (highest) voice fluently turns into an episode which modulates to the next voice's key - A minor.

mesure 5
the 3rd voice enters here. it must be in the tonality of D minor; exactly the same notes than the subject mesure 1 but one octave lower.
Your 3rd voice starts in A minor and ends in Dm.

Again, it is not what I was told. You're right, the 3rd voice is in A minor. Exactly how I intended it to be.

Thanks for your input. And yes, my handwritting might be hard to make out...


The terminology I used in this post may differ from what you (native speakers) are used to because I translated the terms freely from Polish.

[musicalis]

Dear Mat

in any case your music is very nice. i am not a teacher too, only a self made composer like you and my first fugues were not so plesant to listen as yours.
so, go on composing for our joy.
The best teacher is Bach himself.
i'll send show soon my latest fugue in C, designed with a bach's fugue as a model. For you I have used a blue color for each entry of the subjet or its repons.
So you will see the 4 voices entering and the following entries, then the re-exposition, the use of the relative Am (with repons in Em), the sub-dominante (IV°) F major, then the II° D minor that leads to the dominante (V°) G major, the 3 bars pedal and the end in C.
friendly
JP