A Crash-Course In Writing Fugues

I think this should be moved to the lessons forum.

Hi, for some reason the pdf does not show.

Has it been moved?

Originally Posted by Gregorious

Hi, for some reason the pdf does not show.

Has it been moved?

The originator of the thread has left and apparently the files that were posted via his account went with him. With moderator permission, I'll post his lesson, since he made it publically available already - and has indicated in this thread that he had no problem with it being shared even outside this forum (with students etc)

How come he left? His compositions were easily the best here.

Originally Posted by Zetetic

How come he left? His compositions were easily the best here.

That's unclear. J. Lee apparantly has acceptance issues. I thought he took things way too personally, especially regarding his music. It wasn't good enough that a many people here liked it. Maybe that's overstating things. But he does mention elsewhere that his feelings were hurt when people express disapproval for composing in the idioms of earlier eras. Why he needed to care that everyone agreed is beyond me.

I told him early on in a pm when he said he was contemplating leaving that I thought that insofar as music was concerned, he was an asset to the board and should stay.

Originally Posted by PaulPoehler

That's unclear. J. Lee apparantly has acceptance issues. (...) his feelings were hurt when people express disapproval for composing in the idioms of earlier eras.

I for one disagree with those who think writing music in the style "of the past" is stupid.

I recently had a discussion with a teacher at the Conservatory who was regretting that Barber's Adagio for strings was written so late in time and not 50 - 60 years earlier. His argument was that it was "easier" to write this piece knowing what had been written before and so that there was less "inventiveness" in the piece.

I replied to him that I was viewing things completely differently: to me it was more important that this beautiful piece existed at all. I don't care if it was written at a "later time" in the overall music evolution history. I'm glad Samuel Barber found the inspiration to write this Adagio.

We had to agree on our disagreement, unfortunately, but that does not mean anyone is wrong. There is no truth in the matter. Music lives because there are composers writing music. If you think (as I do) that the style of the past is great and deserves to be used again, then by all means, follow your inclinations and beliefs.

Originally Posted by PaulPoehler

The originator of the thread has left and apparently the files that were posted via his account went with him. With moderator permission, I'll post his lesson, since he made it publically available already - and has indicated in this thread that he had no problem with it being shared even outside this forum (with students etc)

That would be great.

Saying it's 'easier' to write in the styles of the past is clearly untrue. Anything people write now qualifies as music of the present. Music is made challenging by boundaries and restrictions, and composers of all ages have felt it necessary to imitate the past in order to 'prove' themselves due to the difficulty of convincing imitation, rather than to blindly barge on in furthering musical language.

Just think of all the fugues which composers since the Baroque era have felt compelled to include in their works!

For anyone previously seeking the original tutorial files, Mike has posted them back to Lee's original post

Hi J. Lee.

Very impressive fugue and informative commentary - I was just wondering, has anybody put a post up about writing regular countersubjects in invertible counterpoint? Two terms ago we did fugue as one of our degree course modules, and it soon became clear that writing invertible counterpoint (and particularly triple invertible counterpoint as my tutor required) is probably the most difficult thing about writing Baroque fugue. If not, perhaps I'll put a few examples up...