Crazy Little Fugue

People are posting fugues all over the place. This is not an 18th century fugue, but the answer does come in the dominant key. In a chromatic context I don't think the dominant actually has much meaning. The music can be and should be written with only two staves, but at the time I couldn't get Sibelius to do cross beams. So though it looks very difficult I think it can be played.

Although I am not well acquainted with fugue writing, I can say that this sounds amazing.

I love the rhythm in the opening motives with the combination of rests between the attacks could listen to that part many times. Plus the whole piece sounds positively playful and jumpy. I also like the dissonant harmonies during the halfway point. The only remote criticism (if I am qualified to give) is that the melody seems a bit angular at times and could not be adapted for anything other than this form. However, that being said this is a very advanced form anyways and it doesn't seem that you were going for anything of the cantabile nature. I am a guy that has an affinity for cantabile melodies but this piece is one I would allow as an exception to my affinity :)

Hi

I also think this is an amazing fugue. You say it' chromatic (but tonal). On the other hand, it keeps features of atonality (as I understand it): strong dynamic contrasts, rhythmic irregulariti, and precisely, big jumps in melody.

I always stand up for the use of Forms in a freely way. With the essence of a fugue you've done here something modern and captivating (at lest for those who like more than classic harmony). I've done some fuges in modal systems;  but my challenge is to write some one using the dodecaphonic (atonal) system.

Thanks for your comments, guys. It's fun to experiment with new uses for old forms!

Luis, you may be interested to read this book "A Geometry of Music" which has many examples of altered scales by both 19th and 20th century composers. It's by Dmitri Tymoczko.

Thanks Ken. I wll look for that book. Yes, I like alternative scales (to build harmonic systems upon them).

I also read your comment on the piano VST... I have some virtual pianos (not bad, I think: Vintage D Galaxy, etc... But I have big problems exporting audio files from Finale (they are full of noises, clics and cracks, very annoying, sometimes I can't export the file in many days until, ¿by chance?, one day works fine. And the more complex is the virtual instrument the worse). This is a problem reported, and it happens with Finale and the last versión of MacOs (El Capitán). They assume it, but no patch is available, yet. So, I can export only with Alicia Keys...

As I've been hera again, I listened to your fugue once more. This time only for "pleasure". It's great! Modern + Beautiful. Not easy.

I love it. I don't have much constructive to say other then I like it a lot. I heard some jazz and some bits of Debussy in it at times. I like the wandering aspect of music like this sometimes. The melody is not as straightforward and tonal as traditional fugues might be. To me this is a lot the same kind of "wandering" as John Adams violin concerto. I call it conveyor belt music. It seems like they race onto the conveyor belt and have to keep all the iterations of the rhythm constant and continuous or they "fall off" the belt. There is a lot of contemporary music that does this. When I think of contemporary "fugues" or fugues written by anyone other then Bach and Handel I always think of the part of Samuel Barber's piano sonata that is written like a fugue. 

Great concept though. I don't know enough about analyzing the music to be too constructive in that regard, but I can give you my thoughts elsewhere though. I like it.

On 6/6/2016 at 9:56 AM, Luis Hernández said:

Thanks Ken. I wll look for that book. Yes, I like alternative scales (to build harmonic systems upon them).

I also read your comment on the piano VST... I have some virtual pianos (not bad, I think: Vintage D Galaxy, etc... But I have big problems exporting audio files from Finale (they are full of noises, clics and cracks, very annoying, sometimes I can't export the file in many days until, ¿by chance?, one day works fine. And the more complex is the virtual instrument the worse). This is a problem reported, and it happens with Finale and the last versión of MacOs (El Capitán). They assume it, but no patch is available, yet. So, I can export only with Alicia Keys...

As I've been hera again, I listened to your fugue once more. This time only for "pleasure". It's great! Modern + Beautiful. Not easy.

 

Luis, I don't know much about Finale, but if it has a buffer setting for handling the rendering of digital audio, try increasing this value (if you haven't already).

On 6/4/2016 at 0:10 AM, MrLernerAndLoewe said:

Although I am not well acquainted with fugue writing, I can say that this sounds amazing.

I love the rhythm in the opening motives with the combination of rests between the attacks could listen to that part many times. Plus the whole piece sounds positively playful and jumpy. I also like the dissonant harmonies during the halfway point. The only remote criticism (if I am qualified to give) is that the melody seems a bit angular at times and could not be adapted for anything other than this form. However, that being said this is a very advanced form anyways and it doesn't seem that you were going for anything of the cantabile nature. I am a guy that has an affinity for cantabile melodies but this piece is one I would allow as an exception to my affinity :)

 

I also certainly love a singable melody! And I am not ashamed to be even sentimental about it. But here I was going for muscle, not melody, as you rightly point out. Thanks for your comment.