Fugue For Flute And Cello Please give feedback

I hope my fugal writing has improved, hope you like it

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First of all, the subject is very creative !

yould make more passages that imitate the subject, and if you want add a third voice to increase the diversity of the piece.

This is a big step up from the last contrapuntal compositions I've heard of yours.

Pragmatically, I think the subject is slightly too long, but the counterpoint's interesting. It improves as the piece progresses. There are a few stylistic errors (mainly in melodic shaping), but over time these will probably be ironed out. I also think it's more of an invention than a fugue; two-voice fugues need to be incredibly well crafted in order to sound like fugues, and I think this sounds like more of an invention - perhaps fugato or fughetta as a halfway house.

In the age if samplers why on earth would someone wanna compose with midi sounds??

here's your thing to get the idea:

zSHARE - fugue in d for flute and cello.mp3

why on earth would someone wanna compose a baroque fugue that's a different question. nice piece by the way!

one more thing: you exceed flute range at one point with a D6. the highest note that the flute can play is C6 !!!

Thank you fellas, this is old works, but thanks for comment!

the sort of thing you did in the penultimate measure (the last measure before your final chord) of this piece is the sort of counterpoint/harmony error I've noticed you do awful lot of.

You have on the last beat of the penultimate measure the bass part going:

A - G - F - C --- to the final D

What is the harmony on that last beat?

It seems to imply D minor 2nd inversion.

But you pop in a C natural? why?

Besides, why have a D minor chord as the chord leading into a... D minor chord??? Why not an actual cadential chord? A7 maybe?

How do you justify the C# rubbing at the same time as the C natural?

Even if we ONLY look at the cello and flute parts: how do you justify F against C#? what chord is that supposed to be? Would that TRULY be a cadential chord?

The D minor implication you have in that last chord of that measure is the sort of harmonic appogiatura I was talking about earlier. You do a lot of that. It's bad, m'kay? Don't do that.

You really need to be doing some straight-forward counterpoint and harmony exercises. (particularly before arguing against John Cage)

Thank you QcC ill work on that

OK. First off, yeah, this isn't a fugue. It's barely near an invention, and much more like a simple imitation with sequences.

I found that having a harpsichord here was really really weird. I thought it was just for Flute and Cello!

A harpsichord if this were a fugue would be treated like at least 2 more independent voices, never as a doubling instrument even if we're taking about cyphered bass (basso continuo.) Moreover, doubling at the octave like that is very strange altogether. I'd understand doing this in an orchestral piece, and such other cases, but here in what is essentially chamber music, it sounds really unnecessary.

I rather have this piece without the harpsichord, it works much better. Plus, like QCC said there are some rather strange errors like the natural C before the last chord.

Also, he never exceeds the flute range, as far as I can tell. It's just REALLY uncomfortable to play that high. When writing this sort of thing you can't just treat the instruments as if they can play their entire register evenly and uniformly. There are some things which are a lot harder to play than others, specially if you want to get any sort of meaningful sound out of it.

Though, I think the counterpoint itself isn't bad, the subject is really really long, and I wouldn't recommend something like unless you've had plenty of experience beforehand. Again, like QCC, this stuff can't be tackled from the get-go properly if you don't have groundwork for the above reasons. Plus, you need to really know what the instruments are capable of and how to write for them, even if you're doing something Baroque.

Another thing, is the flute here supposed to be a recorder? Or a traverse flute? If it's "in-style" it'd have to be a recorder, and there you'd fly out of range really quickly.

The flute range is from middle C up three octaves. no matter how hard one blows it, it won't make that D6.

The flute range is from middle C up three octaves. no matter how hard one blows it, it won't make that D6.

Not to start any arguments here, but:

there IS a fingering for that high D, so it is technically PART of the flute's range, albeit the extreme.

And the low range CAN extend to a B just below middle C if you have the "patte de si" extension.

However, the point here being that the extreme high note isn't being approached in a realistic fashion, and in strictly "baroque" terms, it is not part of the flute register.

The flute range is from middle C up three octaves. no matter how hard one blows it, it won't make that D7.

D7 is definitely within the range of the flute, but I wouldn't recommend writing it for anyone less than a professional... it's extremely difficult to get the note out.

Personally, I can play up to an E7, but I immensely dislike doing so. Eb7 and E7 are a full order of magnitude harder to play than the D7. The D7 (and C#7) are much more difficult than the C7.

As a rule of thumb, C7 should be the upper limit unless you a) know the flutist, b) are a flutist yourself, or c) can truly justify having to exceed the practical range of the flute (i.e., it's part of the line or it fits the music)

EDIT: I entered the wrong octave indicators... fixed.

To follow up:

I just played along with the MIDI file in Finale and the flute part is fine. The jump from A6 to D7 is slightly awkward but playable. As QC indicated, it's not particularly idiomatic to "baroque" music.

I would like to see more rhythmic deviation. I realize you're working on fugue technique, but I'd like to see more interesting figurations and even pauses.

Keep it up!

EDIT: I entered the wrong octave indicators... fixed.

D6 is definitely within the range of the flute, but I wouldn't recommend writing it for anyone less than a professional... it's extremely difficult to get the note out.

Personally, I can play up to an E6, but I immensely dislike doing so. Eb6 and E6 are a full order of magnitude harder to play than the D6. The D6 (and C#6) are much more difficult than the C6.

As a rule of thumb, C6 should be the upper limit unless you a) know the flutist, b) are a flutist yourself, or c) can truly justify having to exceed the practical range of the flute (i.e., it's part of the line or it fits the music)

allright i was exaggerating. all i wanted to say that it exceeds the OFFICIAL flute range. i'm a cellist and i can squeak up to high violin range but i wouldn't compose anything there....

With this thread as inspiration, I've updated the Young Composer's Wiki article on the Flute.

Flute

Thanks Flint - and thanks for letting me know for definite that my recent changes wiki thing isn't working. *wonders off, calling for Mike*

:D

Your counterpoint has improved a lot! Remember to close some phrases (cadences) throughout your contrapunctal composition. It really helps to stop and start back up when it comes to these subject and answer pieces.

I have noticed a lot of your baroque forms lately, and I think you should try your hand at passacaglia some time.

Thank you John! yes i will do that but i dont know how to make one? can you help me?

On that note, this is rather interesting courtesy of Zetetic

Passacaglia & Fugue BWV 582

i like this piece but it doesn't seem like a fugue so much to me either, i think more voiced particullary 4 would make it more like a fugue.