Fugax Contrapunctus

The basic framework for this canon has been in the works for more than a month now, as the technique I employed in the latest one in order to have all voices enter in every diatonic transposition of the same motif turned out to be contrapuntally insufficient. This time, in order to account for more viable ranges both in instrumental and choral settigs, I reduced the number of voices to 6, even though the core parameters still remain: every voice enters one fifth below the previous one, and instead of diatonic transpositions being treated as though in the same key, every transposition is essentially a real answer throughout, with the integrity of the main theme's melodic intervals kept intact. This entire setup (alongside certain variations when it comes to the disposition and order of entry of each voice so as to accommodate for the instrumental and vocal ranges of the woodwinds and the choir respectively) gives rise to a distinctly chromatic environment of constant modulation leading to a 2nd iteration of the same canon one tritone higher, at which point it keeps rising to meet the octave above and every voice alternates a divisi to prevent the melodies from climbing even higher and thus, yielding a perpetual canon (with a coda at the end for good measure). Lastly, the lyrics in Latin sung by the choir are intended as placeholders with thematic and allegorical significance towards the spirit of the canon itself. YouTube video link:

As stated in the title, this perpetual canon follows all diatonic intervals of the key of B-flat major, as every entry begins on a different degree of the major scale as a tonal transposition of the canon's theme. Since every voice enters while alternating between strong and weak beats as displaced accents, this canon could also be described as "per arsin et thesin", so to speak. Enjoy! YouTube video link:

Precisely because of the issues presented by the MuseScore 4 soundbanks I had to remove the cello's initial staccato. It made that single quarter note sound way too strong and became unwieldy when trying to get the playback functionalities to work properly. In any case, thank you kindly for all your feedback, including that which you gave for my other relatively recent compositions.

Much to my wholehearted agreement, you already pointed this out in your review of my other dodecaphonic canon: "Although I have read from Taruskin's Music History book that counterpoint without tonality would be not too meaningful without the rules for dissonances and its resolution, but it is clearly not correct here. Given your ultimate care for preventing clashing dissonances, I find this one actually quite melodious and even tonal, or at least pan-tonal." In any case I don't find Taruskin's assessment entirely correct, just as you pointed out, since care for the clashing and resolution of dissonances need not necessarily be strictly derived from the rules of tonality, but instead out of the composer's own stylistic preference. One of the greatest things I have thus far found true for the dodecaphonic tone row system is that it allows for an immense amount of diversity when it comes to compositional approaches, which is specially true for stylistic notions of what works and doesn't in any given work according to the composer's own intrinsic judgement. In many regards I believe my usage and deployment of contrapuntal techniques to be the polar opposite of Schönberg's in terms of the treatment of dissonance, as in coining the term "emancipation of dissonance" so as to refer to his own proclivity towards unprepared and unresolved dissonances he was so proudly fond of, I believe he essentially stopped hearing dissonances as "ill-sounding" or unpleasant to the ear. For better or worse, my own particular stylistic preferences remain fairly attached to the etymologically quintessential definition of dissonance I just provided, independent of a tonal context. As such, my reticence towards unsing certain intervals has little to do with the standards conventions of tonal preparations and resolutions thereof, but with my own tendency towards finding intervals like minor 2nds and major 7ths quite distasteful to hear in clashing (though slightly more toolerable in suspensions), and also difficult to handle contrapuntally with my current bare-bones approach towards the general treatment of tone rows in my latest canons.

That's certainly interesting. I actually find the piano version less enjoyable due to how mechanical the tempo ended up making it sound. Though the tempo change between both versions was intentional, I found it hard to slow it down even more lest the overall character of the piece turned way too stagnant for most preferences. Indeed, the moral tonal-sounding final cadence was supposed to generate both a sense of conclusiveness and overal contrast as a sort of referential "wink" towards tonality, much like the ones Alban Berg tended to include in many of his own dodecaphonic pieces. Lastly, thank you for your feedback as always. It's certainly quite refreshing to find out about other pespectives differing from my own on what my compositions may bring to mind this way, without the contrivances and condescending language I have rather occasionally had to endure from other users in this forum less accustomed to the basic etiquette constructive criticism usually demands. Thanks for everything.

Unfortunately, given how short this piece already is, such textural density isn't just merely accidental, but a properly deliberate design choice. Should the composition in question reach up to more than 3 minutes or so, as is the case for other compositions of such duration among my works, perhaps I would consider temporarily suppressing one or more of the given voices. Otherwise, unprompted rests in the middle are out of the question for me. Fixed, and thank you for your kind words, as well as your constructive feedback.

The name of the program in question is Cantāmus (https://cantamus.app/), a music rendering website originally intended for vocal rehearsals, but which serves my purpose of setting my vocal works with actually "sung" lyrics well enough, so to speak. Better yet, it doesn't even work with MIDI, as it reads the score directly once uploaded to the site as a .musicxml file (which I find rather optimal, given my own bad experiences and failures in trying to get MIDI exports of my compositions to be relatively decent). I also often tend to overlay the final recording of the Cantāmus rendering with the audio file for my composition as sung by the MuseScore 4 MuseSounds Choir soundbank afterwards using Audacity, so as to grant the otherwise crisp and dry timbre of the Cantāmus voices a softer, more mellow sound and a greater sense of reverb.

A slightly more Romantic-sounding fugue than usual, whose theme's chromatic nature I chose to exploit with a string quartet setup for greater expressive intensity. The subject itself was originally somewhat experimental in nature but quickly developed into a full-fledged exposition, and the rest was hours upon hours of trying to deal with its rather unwieldy nature as best I could. Enjoy! YouTube video link:

Comprendo, perdón por el malentendido. Gracias por todo, Luis.

I'm not entirely sure what kind of connotations you're asigning to such a term, which I am familiar with, though with a meaning which isn't exactly very positive, so to speak. To me, "dejado" means something on the lines of "lazy", "careless", "unattentive", etc., so I don't quite understand whether that's what you actually meant here or I might be misinterpreting your words. In any case, thank you for your kind words. My mother ended up quite liking this little composition, so I'm quite glad dedicating it to her as a gift actually payed off this well.

Probably the shortest canon I have ever written in terms of duration, as I found most suitable to dedicate it as a gift to my mother both on account of this year's Mother's Day and her own birthday falling by the end of the month. Enjoy! YouTube video link:

A religious motet I began writing this afternoon and have finished composing in under five hours. I didn't initially think of the text when I first started, as is usually customary for me, but instead found the rhythms suitable for the text afterwards, and as such, took it from the passage of the Vulgate where the crucifixion of Christ under the connivence of Pontius Pilatus is mentioned, and then added a a reference to His resurrection at the end. Admittedly, this motet would have been more suitable for Late Easter, but alas, I guess only now have I managed to compose anything of the sort. Enjoy! YouTube video link:

A revisited, revamped and restored version of a little fugue I first composed back in mid December 2019. Given I had only started composing a few months prior to that point, this one was previously riddled with contrapuntal flaws and mistakes of all sorts, the vast majority of which have all hopefully been fully corrected or at least starkly mitigated after this revision. Enjoy! YouTube video link:

It's actually quite funny how this person couldn't be bothered to read between the lines and as such your comments' whole point flew right over their head. Really amusing how they have essentially exposed themselves by trying to expose me, like calling them out in private for these immature tactics they're displaying at any point warranted any kind of convincing response. Moreover, playing the victim card by accusing me of "toxic masculinity" or whatever for defending myself and pointing out what they're doing is pretty low, specially coming from someone repeatedly showing this kind of behaviour. Anyway, not much else to be said about this person, by their actions it should be fairly evident by now that they are clearly ill-intentioned and ostensibly incapable of taking criticism or self-reflection. Thank you for your help nontheless, Henry, as I would have otherwise lost my temper and wasted my time and energy all by my own on someone who plainly does not deserve either of those.

Buenos días, Luis. Thank you very much for your kind words. As for the picardy third, its usage here isn't merely just a stylistic preference, it's also intended to be symbolic in nature, as the piece is sort of meant to evoke the feeling of a raging storm finally coming to a standstill, and that picardy third at the end represents the final glimpses of sunlight amidst the dark clouds, as well as the enlightenment that befalls a period of great pain, confusion and soul-searching. A subtly fleeting glimmer of hope, the omen of a rainbow as the ever-creeping conflict suddenly comes to an end. Muchas gracias por todo. 🙂