I've just finished writing a
Fantasy and Fugue for String Quartet, composed in a neoclassical style. The whole piece is derived from a single motif, which later manifests itself as the subject of the fugue - it was given to me by my composition tutor to force me to compose in a more modern style.
The composition is littered with symbolism, which hopefully you'll have fun detecting; my intention was to combine baroque shapes, form and style with a handful of more modern elements to create a distinctly 21st-century composition - not to write a pastiche. Having said that, the fugue employs solely traditional methods of development. In order these are; the exposition, a counterexposition of inversion, a 4-part canon of the rectus at the third, a set of middle entries in unrelated keys and finally 4-part canon of the rectus at the octave and unison. I'm in the process of writing a short brief
pro forma about the composition (which is, hopefully, being submitted as part of my school music portfolio), but I thought that in the mean time some of you might enjoy listening to the composition.
I'm open to criticism (provided it's not substantially destructive) for the next few days, after which the composition will need to be finalised so I can get parts to players for a performance.
P.S. I got GPO today, so I've been experimenting with various audio outputs. I've still not quite worked out how best to integrate it with Sibelius (it's incredibly fiddly!), so here are some links to silly mixdowns, complete with fake ambient sound:
String Mixdown (WMA)
Organ mixdown (with ridiculously powerful registration) (WMA)