Young Composers' Fugue Challenge

Just try one out... the only thing that's poisoning the air is other composers' negativity, as usual! =)

Would it be "poisoning the air with negativity" to guide a new piano student into learning Minuet in G by Bach as opposed to a difficult Hungarian Rhapsody by Franz Liszt?

Or would it simply be prudent?

Perhaps you've never had students leave music simply because they've been pushed to hard too fast. I'd reckon all but a few people on here can do this - but all could do it if they worked on simpler music first. Basic harmony, voice leading and 2 part writing.

Hahah holy crap, this is officially the hardest thing I've ever done composition wise, even with 5 years of music theory behind me.

I'm gonna keep trying though, it's so much fun

Here's my exposition on the C minor one.
I'm really open to critics and I think there's enough stuff to criticize, lol!

Well I'm new to writing fugues myself, but maybe my comments can be helpful anyway...

First of all for terminology's sake I think you have more than an exposition there. An exposition basically ends when the last voice enters.

Your entrances seem to be coming in good pitch order (Tonic-dominant-Tonic-Dominant), so that's good.

From what I know of fugues though, I think they should come in with each entrance in in outer voice, so that the entrance is clear. Your order is alto-soprano-bass-tenor, but IMO the tenor voice gets a little lost. I would change it to alto-soprano-tenor bass.

As far as the harmony, I'm having a hard time figuring out what your progression is. The dificulty with counterpoint is to keep each voice melodically independent while bringing them together for a clear, functional harmony. Make sure that you have a clear harmonic progression planned out. My greatest successes so far have been when I let one voice develop itself melodically and use that voice to suggest the harmony.

My biggest struggle so far in my attempts has been to write a good, complimentary counter-subject. I think your might be improved on as well. Mainly because I don't think it presents a really clear harmony (see point above) and also because it seems to get a little lost and muddled. I think the counter-subject has to have a really high melodic content. As I said before I suck at that part, so take this comment as empathy, not arrogance. You may want to try to make it very motivically solid.

I think you have a good start. Keep working on it, with or without my suggestions. I'm sure you will do fine.
By the way, if you haven't read J. Lee Graham's crash course yet, you should. It's very useful. http://www.youngcomposers.com/forum/A-Cras...gues-t4302.html

Wether or not my attempts sound good, I had a great time trying this exercise, and am glad to see others trying it. Good luck!

Actually, the order of the voices really doesn't matter. I do make sure that the final entry, regardless of the number of voices, is always in the tonic key, but I think that's more a matter of my own preference.

Two very well-known examples start in the middle voices. The third movement of Bach's fourth Brandenburg is a fugue that starts in the tenor voice (viola) and the first movement of the double violin concerto (BWV 1043) starts in the alto (second violins).

I guess this may not really be a big deal, but I did read in a theoretical text somewhere that the entrances should be in the outer voices at the time. What I mean is that if the alto voice enters first, then the next should be tenor or soprano, or else if the bass comes in, then the tenor will be lost in its entrance. Another "bad" sequence would be B T S A. The Alto wouldn't be prevalent enough. I haven't checked out Bach's stuff to see if this is indeed the case, but I'm sure I did read it and it seems to make sense....

Hahahaha, okay, here is my hilarious first attempt at an exposition (although the ending of the exposition is obviously not finished)

http://www.freewebs.com/emmdoubleew/FugueThema6.mid

Suggestions and Criticisms before I continue?

For the record, I have never once commented negatively on anyone's specific pieces, and I am SURE if I did that my comments would not be appreciated as you expect your/his comments to be.

Actually, I can't really imagine improving without constructive criticism, so it's welcome here.

Also, I really enjoyed your fugue. Great work. I'd love it if you could find some aspects to improve in my fugue.

Hahahaha, okay, here is my hilarious first attempt at an exposition (although the ending of the exposition is obviously not finished)

http://www.freewebs.com/emmdoubleew/FugueThema6.mid

Suggestions and Criticisms before I continue?

For some reason my browser doesn't want to download this file. Can you attach it directly?

OK, I've composed this over the last 2 days (1.5 hrs each) but I haven't been on the forum nor seen the crash course, so I'm going on what little of counterpoint I know already.

To be honest, after the exposition I tried to "explore tonal space" by just outlining the tonalities. So I haven't used much of the subject except to "comment" on the progression of the music.

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