Fugue in g minor

This took me about a week. To be fair, it is no masterpiece of a fugue, it relies on little moments of "tunefulness". My counterpoint requires clean-up, so any useful tips I'd be glad to take on.

Sorry for not having a midi, I'll try and come up with one.

Fuga_sol_minore.MUS

The midi:

Fuga_in_sol_minore.mid

Yes, my bass entry is wrong.

But the rest, they are all acceptable - aren't they? Middle entries of the subject may be on any note within the key - may they not?

Sorry, I don't know how to make it meaningful - do you mean that I should add a sequence or free counterpoint before the bass?

Fuga_sol_minore.MUS

Study Bach, it'll help IMMENSELY.

No greater advice than that.

You also have to know what you are looking for in Bach too.

Here is what to look for.

The Fugue

Based on Hugo Norden's Foundation Studies on Fugue

I

The Subject

A fugue consists of the statement and development of a single subject

(the main idea).

It usually is stated at the beginning of the fugue by a single voice.

The subject usually has following three characteristics:

If you're serious about composition, you'd study up on counterpoint, harmony, orchestration, and all of those wonderfully entertaining books :). But even these in-depth analytical books won't help you as much the composers will. Your greatest source of study and musical information are the greats, or composers that you deem good ones. Musical scores say more than any book, no matter how many words.

The books help us learn what stretto and such are though.

So, I would definately agree studying scores is best, but books are

great too.

Now I have never had any formal training in composition (unless you count high school music theory), but I think it is often useful to hear the reactions of an untrained ear. I found it to be a bit random sounding. It was difficult to hear a good structure. Altogether it seemed a little sloppy. That's not to say it was all bad; it had some interesting parts in it. Sorry to be so critical, but I think (hope) that's what you want to hear.

Thank you all for your comments.

It appears as though I need to start form scratch...

What I really need to work out is to structure my fugue, but how do I do that?

Hello all!

I'm new to the forum, but with all this talk about fugue-writing, I thought I'd put in a plug for Giorgio Pacchioni's work (www.giorgiopacchioni.com). I learned counterpoint and fugue from him.

I'll leave you all with another (three-voice) fugue in g minor that I wrote just a couple of weeks ago. Not the best example as it lacks a consistent countersubject. When I write a four-voice fugue, it ultimately ends up as a concerto movement.

Cheers,

Mark

I'm new to the forum, but with all this talk about fugue-writing, I thought I'd put in a plug for Giorgio Pacchioni's work (www.giorgiopacchioni.com). I learned counterpoint and fugue from him.

If I could pick someone to study under (such things things as fugue/counterpoint) it would be him.

By the way, nice fugue. You should do as Nico said and put it in its own thread. :shifty:

How did you go about studying under him?

If I could pick someone to study under (such things things as fugue/counterpoint) it would be him.

By the way, nice fugue. You should do as Nico said and put it in its own thread. :closedeyes:

Thanks for the kind words. I'll probably post some things here from time to time (as I have time!). BTW, are mp3s ok, or are they too big?

Anyway, about Pacchioni, it wasn't really formal study, more like an ongoing back-and-forth exchange that I learned a lot from. Here's a little background on how I got into this.

I've been interested in baroque music since I was 8 or 9 and started writing little bourrees and minuets around that time. A couple of years later, I got a computer and notation software. Not being very proficient at the keyboard, it really helped because I could finally get a playback of what I was writing. So I started writing a set of concerti grossi. Shortly thereafter, I got an internet connection and found that there were others interested in writing this sort of music--and the first two I stumbled upon were Michael Starke and Giorgio Pacchioni.

By e-mail, I sent them samples of my work and they were very receptive (as bad as the music was!) and offered input. Pacchioni sent canonic exercises that I'd complete with sets of rules that I'd have to follow. I'd send them back finished and he'd mark them. With Starke, I'd send completed works or partly-finished ones and he'd send them back with suggestions for revisions and I found this very helpful as well.

I'm actually part of a new organization for people writing music in the baroque style (there's a post for it on the announcements page) and we review the work of prospective members. For those who aren't quite up to snuff but have the spirit of what we're looking for, we offer "conditional memberships" with constructive input and musical guidance.

Pacchioni seems very busy these days and it can take weeks to get a reply. We have another member who writes fugues that are positively glorious.