Prelude & Fugue C major for harpsichord

Im nothing compared to Bach, but I hope you like it

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Hi SimenN,

You seem to have a certain feel for 2-part writing. Your immediate inspiration seems to be the C sharp major Prelude from Book 1 of the WTC.

However, I think you need to be more aware of, and free with, your harmonic movement. I like your modulation to the V at :19. But then, despite some sequence activity, the harmony remains fairly static until you suddenly jump back to the C tonic at :48.

The problem is that you have not really presented the G (the V of C, to which you modulated) as dominant functioning, so it sounds like a tonic-to-tonic. At least back at :18, just before you moved to G, you had one fleeting beat of a D-based implied harmony, which functioned as the secondary dominant and led naturally to your G... just as Bach does on D sharp before the C sharp prelude moves to G sharp (where the left hand first takes the sixteenths).

Your prelude is static again until you suddenly adopt the vi (a minor) as a new tonic, via a weak V6 to vi cadence. All these key changes should be better set up, rather than jumped to.

The augmented chord on E resolving to d minor (at 1:09) is made more awkward by your jumping up a seventh in the bass, from E to D. Your arrival in C at 1:46 is a "non-arrival", as it was not really set up.

Look what Bach does after he reaches G sharp. He again uses a fleeting secondary dominant on A sharp and moves to d sharp minor. Then he does it AGAIN on e sharp and moves to a sharp minor! Meanwhile, he has not altered the music (theme-wise) at all since the first 8 measures!!

But he's not through yet... while utilising only the closing melodic material of his theme, he telescopes his harmonic movement and moves to B sharp, which is another major second shift (to secondary dominant), then resolves to e sharp minor after only one measure, then resolves that after another single measure to dominant functioning A sharp, then one more measure to d sharp.... etc etc etc.

There is much more to observe in this wonderful Bach prelude that seems to have inspired you , so while you may yet be "nothing compared to Bach", you can have him as your teacher!

Your fugue opens with a nice subject, with the slow "mordent" motive, followed by the turning sixteenth notes. But I'm not sure if the higher mordent statement that closely follows is part of the first voice exposition, or second voice. I hear no distinctive countersubject. In other words, the material is not presented clearly, if this is not my fault as a listener, which may be the case! Then you soon abandon the part writing for the main part of the fugue. This is a discipline that requires a mastery of the harmonic implications of melody. Better to meet the challenge than avoid it!

As I mentioned, you have a very nice feeling for 2-part movement. Keep at it, and expand your theoretical background so you can make good use of your gifts!

Thank you for a good feedback, I have not studiet composition so I dosent realy know how to write a fuge, the c sharp major prelude was acutaly not my inspiration, but it may be sertain simmularitys. Thank you!