Young Composers' Fugue Challenge

Fuga a 3 voce
in d minor
Brandon Homayouni


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Fuga a 3 voci (Updated)
in d Minor
Brandon Homayouni

I used the "Bowed Glass" MIDI sound, which sounds great on my Mac, but I am not sure how it will sound on PC. Let me know.

Hey, aren't these fugue subjects yours?

Also I like your recently posted fugue. The bowed glass sound is nice. There are a couple of odd notes though, I'll open it up on finale and take a look. Like at :37

Um exactly which notes are odd? I'll find the ones in your fugue that I think are odd too.

Please please don't start this again.
Brandon post a disclaimer with your pieces or something.
E.g.

"Please do not criticize" or "Please do not review"

As you can see, otherwise, people do review, and criticize. They aren't beating down on you, it's just a habit they've got into, because they do it elsewhere on the sight.

Please no more fighting.

Um exactly which notes are odd? I'll find the ones in your fugue that I think are odd too.

Please do so. I have fugue on the cminor subject and one on the aminor subject posted. I'm always ready to improve.

I haven't opened yours on finale yet, so I'm not quite sure yet.

*edit* got it. Measure 16, highest voice. The G on the & of 1 and the C on beat 2 sound a little odd to me. They are not wrong, I guess, just sounds slightly odd in context. To me...

It goes with the harmony.

Now, look from your earlier post, you sounded a bit defensive. I was not attacking you in any way. As a matter of fact, my post in response to your piece stated that I liked your fugue. In addition, my very first posts, when I put up my first attempt (c minor) praise your subject construction. So, that being said...
I will only further analyze this because I want to show that I'm not just putting a "sounds good" or "sounds bad" or "capable of better" post. Those notes do work with the harmonic progression and they are fine, yet when I listened to the midi, they seemed to me to jump out of the texture. Looking at it closely, I guess it's because of the alteration of nonharmonic tones. On the & of 1, there is a G D F structure which is dissonant, and on the next sixteenth note there is a G & E. Now in my mind that didn't make immediate sense. This is probably WAY over analyzing, but I was just sharing how I experienced the piece when I listened to it.
I'm sure my pieces have tons of much more awkward moments, and I maintain that I would be glad to have those pointed out to me.

in the spot you are mentioning, a G, F, and D make up an incomplete G7 chord (there is no B), which works as I am modulating into the Key of C. Then the F and D continue to climb step wise G, E... then A, F with the upper C makes it a sub dominant chord, then resolving back to C. Modulating from D minor to G Major (G7) to C is a fundamental way of creating an episodic passage characteristic of baroque-style pieces. I have listened to the measure you have pinpointed several times and I fail to see how it is anything less than coherently graceful.

Um exactly which notes are odd? I'll find the ones in your fugue that I think are odd too.
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It goes with the harmony.
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Brandon, I would not (and I expect the same applies for cmajchord) bother to comment on your work if I felt it had no value. We both appreciate your talent and the amount of work you have put into this piece. But your comments make it sound as if you are unappreciative of the time that cmajchord put into commenting on your work and worse, that you are planning a retribution of sorts. If you don’t agree with his assessment, that’s fine. If you feel an obligation to defend your decisions, you’d better come up with something better than “It goes with the harmony” - Oh wait, it looks as if you did.

in the spot you are mentioning, a G, F, and D make up an incomplete G7 chord (there is no B), which works as I am modulating into the Key of C. Then the F and D continue to climb step wise G, E... then A, F with the upper C makes it a sub dominant chord, then resolving back to C. Modulating from D minor to G Major (G7) to C is a fundamental way of creating an episodic passage characteristic of baroque-style pieces. I have listened to the measure you have pinpointed several times and I fail to see how it is anything less than coherently graceful.

I agree with cmajorchord’s assessment. It sound a bit awkward in measure 17. The arrival at the sub dominant chord at beat two has both implied parallel octaves and fifths. B-C in the top voice. G to A (yes, a seventh, but a second inverted (and, yes a fourth, not a fifth) - and because you bring it right back up it is almost as if you had kept it up) in the middle voice - and finally E - F in the lower voice. While it may not be technically egregious, it is certainly not graceful to my ears.

I am no expert on this subject - but I trust my ears, as I'm sure you do as well. Rules are of course only rules, and you should certainly stand your ground if after careful consideration of others’ thoughts, deem that there is nothing wrong with what you have written. We are merely giving you feed-back from our perspective. But you will not make many friends here if you cop a tude every time someone suggests that there might be room for improvement with your work, and especially the few on this site that are articulate and knowledgeable enough to address matters with any technical specificity. Most of us, in turn, appreciate the same sort of productive criticism from others. Even when it is off the mark a bit, there is usually something to be gleaned from the comments of many of the folks that post here.

As Daniel mentioned, if you don’t want anything but smiley happy encouraging assessments of your work, then simply ask for it - and for that only. It is best not to attack the reviewer unless you think that they have it in for you. Better to simply defend your position or gracefully acknowledge or ignore the post.