Three-Voice Fugue

Here is a short, one-minute exercise I wrote to prepare for the upcoming fugue competition. In general, I tried to keep it simple, sticking to the basics of the form (exposition, a couple of episodes, a short coda). As for counterpoint, it's really not my strong suit, so I tried to incorporate as much contrary motion as possible, especially between the cello and the upper instruments. I also tried to keep to the idea of dissonance on strong beats and consonance on weak beats as much as possible.

I've never written a fugue before, and I'm sure there's plenty I did wrong, so any pointers or corrections would be very welcome!

Edited December 6, 20169 yr by Noah Brode
Changed 'parallel' to 'contrary'

Good idea with the dissonances, but they just don't resolve correctly, some of them. Mostly the ones that are resolved by leap, which is a no-no if you're trying to stay within the classical bounds. A lot of your modulations are based on altered tones so they should be void of dissonances if possible.
Clever line up with the 16th note triplet figure.
Bowing markings could have been nice as well, especially with the 16th note triplet figure.

45 minutes ago, Monarcheon said:

Good idea with the dissonances, but they just don't resolve correctly, some of them. Mostly the ones that are resolved by leap, which is a no-no if you're trying to stay within the classical bounds.

Thanks so much for taking a look -- that's exactly the kind of feedback I was looking for. It's hard to just read about this kind of thing online without someone to guide you a bit. There are so many rules! O_O

Just to be clear -- should I try to avoid dissonance altogether in measures where I'm modulating?

Thanks again for the feedback!

2 minutes ago, Noah Brode said:

Just to be clear -- should I try to avoid dissonance altogether in measures where I'm modulating?

No, maybe I was too emphatic about that, but just remember your main job in the modulation is to make it as smooth as possible. There's nothing less smooth than an unresolved dissonance. If it's resolved in a really clever way, generally it's fine, but you don't want to leave one hanging, for sure.