Flying Fugue

You're clearly very clever and creative, and your fugue breathes with a unique life.

That being said, if these are still your early attempts at fugue, I'd recommend sticking closer to the classical formula. The whole idea of a fugue is generally to introduce the same theme in as many tonalities as you see fit. I didn't ever get the sense of being clearly within a tonality, or being taken anywhere in particular. Now, perhaps I'm just thick. I am after all a church musician accustomed to working with very conservative harmonies, and I certainly don't have a college-trained ear. In addition, the transcription my notation software produced of your midi was nearly indecipherable. It is certainly more intuitively organised on your end.

That being said, if you asked me:

1) Choose a more clarion subject. Something that will not only catch my ear (yours certainly did), but which will boldly declare its tonality. Try to choose a subject that is tightly-packed, but sensitive to changes in modality. Thirds and sixths are magnificent for this.

2) Try a more conservative approach to the exposition. Again, it could be a notation problem, but I didn't get the feeling that the fugue was written for a particular number of voices. I've seen fugues of this kind before, relying more on varied texture and a somewhat fugal approach to entering the subject, with very free episodes, but, once again, if this is a "beginner's fugue," I'd stick to the basics rather than experimenting as freely as you seem to have.

3) I wasn't really feeling a countersubject, or any material other than the subject that was developed throughout the piece. Once again, I have little or no notation to work off of, so you may well have done this and I've just missed it. But I suppose that's the point: my ear didn't pick up all that intuitively on anything but the re-entry of the subject. A good countersubject that really "mates" with the subject and compliments it, but which has a unique rhythmic character of its own I've always found best.

Again, a very clever, fun piece. Nevertheless, fugue, as to its origins, is a development of vocal polyphony. Perhaps restricting yourself to something playable, or, more to the point, to actual vocal lines which are singable, will prove at least a useful exercise in discipline, and that self-imposed limitation may jog your creativity.

Thank you for your commentary and advice Nihil Nomins, it is greatly appreciated.

Actually it is always my intention to stick to something formulaic, but unfortunately, since I am not classically trained or proficient at reading/writing notation, I rely more on my ear; that would explain why there is a lack of ‘definition’ in my piece, especially when it comes to ‘thematic writing’ and tonality; I can’t even tell you with certainty what key I’m in

As for notation, actually I use fruityloops which has a midi input piano roll, I have used sibelius but it is just more time consuming for me to use that application.

My biggest setback is a weakness in writing thematic material; I don’t know, I find it very difficult to write memorable lines, themes that shape the character of a piece; the stuff I write sounds mostly like improvisational sketches, this explains why you couldn’t perceive a clear subject/counter subject (I thought the syncopated stuff above the second appearance of “the subject” was the counter subject, but now I can see that it’s not very clear.

Again when you say stick to something playable, well that’s sort of difficult cuz I can’t play any instruments. I know my way around the keyboard, ask me how to play any chord and I’ll figure it out, but I lack the dexterity to play anything coherent.

I have a very good understanding of music theory; I understand everything from ‘scale degrees’ to Neapolitan chords, secondary dominants, first second inversions, motivic variation techniques, passing tones, neighbor tones, sus, etc. and I know how a fugue should be ‘theoretically’ written, but I am still at a stage where I am trying to get a grasp on putting what I know into practice, and the result is this ‘beginners fugue’.

Btw I enjoy church music, one of my favorite composers is Anton Bruckner, an organist; his symphonies sound very much like organ music. I will give your music a listen sometime soon.

Isdnman

Very cool. It was a noble and daring first attempt, whatever the case.

A way to pull off thematic writing in tonal counterpoint is to make a subject that calls out its key. The first scale degree, the tonic, of any key will orient you into that key and its mode. Expressing "tonality" is to express that tonic. A subject which contains the root and the third, for instance, will do that powerfully. Think of Bach's Little Fugue in G minor, and the first three crochets of his subject. G - D - Bb, with the tonic (G) and the third (Bb) stated powerfully on the accented beats; it is quite clear from the first three notes that we are in g minor.

Then, when back wants to introduce the same subject again in a different key, say d minor, the ear catches onto a feels that motion. D - A - F. What's especially cool about a subject involving the third is that you can play with major and minor modality, rather than just tonality. Bach, then, could introduce his theme in Bb major, Bb - F - D, and the ear would pick up that we have left a minor key and entered a major key. That will add excitement and interest.

In crafting the countersubject, your thought doesn't need to be as much to stating the new key (although the codetta should lead into whatever key the next entrance will be in), since your clarion subject will be doing that for you. Instead, contrast with the character of the subject and independence are your watchwords for crafting the countersubject.

You should use the episodic material, as I'm sure you know, to lead just as frankly into your new keys. Use the leading tone to do just that. If you have moved from G to D, make sure that there's a C# somewhere close to the statement of the subject to alert your listeners to that fact.

"Sticking to something playable" was actually not the best advice for writing beginning counterpoint. What I should have said was, stick to something singable. Not only is all music rooted in song, and (I think) musicality judged by its affinity to song, but most especially the art of counterpoint is derived from vocal polyphony, and those lines are generally most successfully written which are most singable.

Prefer steps to leaps, don't make double leaps, try to keep your voices in the confines of an octave or so, &c.

In writing versatile contrapuntal lines, I am finding that it can be helpful to begin with strict canons, forcing yourself to write three lines of equal length which can be played simultaneously, and which all work well as the top, middle, and bottom voice.

sounds great! really nice work. Keep it up!

Joe.

A charming little fugue! Love those little jazzy progressions like 24 secs. The key change at 1.04 is awesome. The way you use the piano register and the angular rhythms just seems to create something really satisfying. The piece has a distinct character of its own which I find is sometimes lost in a bad fugue when concentrating too much on making the different lines work. For a beginner's fugue this is a unique effort and I look forward to hearing more of them.

I really enjoyed this. Great attempt at a fugue writing. I think NihilNominis hit it pretty much right on the head with the suggestions. The only thing I wanted to add what that I was noticing areas where the notes are so spread apart that this would only be possible on an organ. If organ was your intended instrument then its fine, but if you were planning on piano, the player would have to be able to easily and accurately reach an octave and a half.

On the whole though I love the concept. It is very pleasant to my ears. Thank you for sharing.