Baroque Fugue

I have been working on this on and off for a year - partly as it is was my first fugue and I had other compositions to complete. I got a great start with SSC who coached me with this fugue. Yes, it is a Baroque fugue that bends the rules here and there but I think the style is still intact.

Anyway it was a great exercise. I learned much about form and harmony. I hope to do a few more exercises.

Fugue in F minor.pdf

Hey this is very nice :thumbsup:

Thanks Gisli! Check out my 16th century counterpoint threads over in Advice and Techniques.

The picardi third at the end is ridiculous, make it a minor chord.

Ah, Morgri not sure if I agree. Recall this is a midi rendering, any pianist or organist would have a rallentando followed by a tiny break before playing the final chord so it would not sound as abrupt or unnatural as the midi. Also, there are sequences in major tonalities which contrast the F minor, C minor and G minor entries - I thought the Picardy third would be in keeping with this characteristic.

Lastly, I found three errors: measure 38 bass - E natural should be E flat, mm 36 E flat in soprano 4th beat should be ties to the following E flat, mm 47 G soprano half note should be tied to G eighth note.

I don't know, CO. Sometimes Picardy thirds can come across as very cliche, and I thnk that's what happens in this piece. However, it's just my thoughts. We are both different composers! ^_~

This got better as it went on - the main problem seemed to be a lack of interesting harmonic motion. Fugues are supposed to make the listener feel like something is rotating; the key is supposed to shift frequently and excitingly to facilitate middle entries.

Morgri - now I understand you better and can see your point. Alas I am done with this one. I'd start a new fugue and keep this in mind next time.

Zet - thanks for the tip. I did find it a struggle to stay mostly within the rules of counterpoint while moving my entries to the dominant key area (and later the supertonic). Also I found my answer would easily modulate to the dominant (eg I-V-V/V etc) running the risk of going to too remote keys with some entries for a Baroque fugue.

Nevertheless I was taught fugues usually keep their modulation to closely related keys. Is this incorrect for the Baroque style? Also I'd like to know particular spots where the harmonic motion could have been more interesting which you could pinpoint. Just so I learn more about it.

Thanks guys!

This is a very nice fugue, well done :)

thanks SimenN!

I love the subject! It was quite fun to work with and the intricacies and character of the subject do lead to quite the interesting counterpoint. The entrance of all the voices was marvelously done. The downward scale sequencing was also very well done. The one thing I'd have to say in that location is that in a lot of Bach fugues that I play, the first full perfect cadence occurs quite late in the piece and it seemed a bit out of character to have it so early.

However, from that point on, the entrance of each voice was very clear. (Almost too clear! haha). The clarity of counterpoint helped to keep coherency. At 1:37 I think you were about to go into a circle-of-fifths sequencing moment, but you avoided it. That seemed a bit out of character to me. At 1:41 it sounds like the dissonances weren't prepared well enough.

At 1:48 is where I really started to notice the deviations :P (It's not bad at all.. just not baroque) Where all top three voices combine to make one voice in diminished chords. I wished for a full stretto.. but I guess a half stretto works too haha.

Nice picardy third at the end, though I notice that picardy third endings usually involve a move to the minor subdominant key before landing on the picardy third.

Great work! :D

Your comments are great mael and not mean at all - you helped me improve it. I hated the arrival on the octave around 1:37 and found changing it to a P4 works perfectly and is a nice reference to the fourth starting the sequence earlier in the piece.

As for the rest, some it was I just wanted it have it done. You are right the stretto could have continued possibly a little longer but i like it as it stands.

It Is a good fugue as far as traditional rules are concerned. One thing that comes to my mind is is there anyone interested in expanding the art of the fugue to innovative extremes?