Prelude and Double Fugue in f minor

probably my most complicated work so far, and took me over a month.

score of the fugue with colors

I've just had a listen of the fugue. The only thing I find somewhat unconvincing is the false relation in measure 4.

Otherwise, it's evidently clear that all musical elements has been meticulous crafted with skill: not just the fugal architecture, but also the harmony, rhythm etc. My favourite moment is the passage starting from measure 112, characterised by the rising chromatic pedal line, weaved together with subjects and various motif strands - it's utterly beautiful. The entire piece is absolutely magnificent!

1 hour ago, muchen_ said:

I've just had a listen of the fugue. The only thing I find somewhat unconvincing is the false relation in measure 4.

 

interestingly, this fugue was a remade version of a very old sketch (from around three years ago) that i had given up on because my skills were then obviously very lacking. i've just dug up the original version of this piece from which this fugue is based.

another detail i think is worth pointing out about measure 4 is that i had intended this fugue to go to five voices right from the conception of the subject, and when rewriting the piece, i had evaluated that initial decision to be fundamentally correct. however, i also wanted to avoid redundant subject entries (as for this many voices, the piece would feel very slow with three sets of subject-answer in the same two keys). therefore, there are two choices for me to consider: either the part of the exposition after the entry of the fifth voice leading up to the cadence is in the tonic (or mediant), or the entry of the fourth voice is in a different key (preferably the subdominant) to strengthen the arrival of the fifth and final voice. you can see both of these mechanisms at play in bach's BWV 849 (c# minor) and BWV 562 (c minor, incomplete but the entire exposition is there).

i recommend taking a look at the prelude as well, since it's considerably shorter than the fugue.

I’ve never been in a historical cathedral but a church left me thinking about it’s particular aura. Tell me, what does this music mainly speak of since i’ve always liked ecclesiastical scores but perplexed as to the modern correlation to ancient musical lore & how it relates to modern society equated. Your music is quite passionately fluid.

Lovely piece ande well written.

On 3/10/2023 at 5:43 AM, muchen_ said:

I've just had a listen of the fugue. The only thing I find somewhat unconvincing is the false relation in measure 4.

Otherwise, it's evidently clear that all musical elements has been meticulous crafted with skill: not just the fugal architecture, but also the harmony, rhythm etc. My favourite moment is the passage starting from measure 112, characterised by the rising chromatic pedal line, weaved together with subjects and various motif strands - it's utterly beautiful. The entire piece is absolutely magnificent!

 

Glad to see you aren't tearing apart Mossy's work like you did with mine.

On 3/9/2023 at 11:43 PM, muchen_ said:

I've just had a listen of the fugue. The only thing I find somewhat unconvincing is the false relation in measure 4.

Otherwise, it's evidently clear that all musical elements has been meticulous crafted with skill: not just the fugal architecture, but also the harmony, rhythm etc. My favourite moment is the passage starting from measure 112, characterised by the rising chromatic pedal line, weaved together with subjects and various motif strands - it's utterly beautiful. The entire piece is absolutely magnificent!

 

It seems I misunderstood you. I have since learned what a false relation is and here is my solution:

I'm 2 minutes in to the prelude and I'm crying, its so beautiful! WTF! I'm blown away. Its heavenly. 

It reminds me of why I want to compose, it's so beautiful! Well done! I'm not easily impressed with ears full of the music of the masters, but this is amazing! It was well worth all the effort. Can you imagine hearing it live in a cathedral with people, the faithful, listening? 

I want to study counterpoint now but it's so complicated but worth the effort if I could make an organ sing like you have. Where did you learn to compose like this?

On 5/18/2023 at 2:49 PM, Papageno said:

Where did you learn to compose like this?

I'm actually self taught, and I wrote this with about four years of experience

In terms of actually improving, I find it to be a matter of experience; in my first few years of writing, I mostly wrote fast stuff, and there's a pretty good reason why. With fast counterpoint, there's essentially so much going on that it tends to mask a lot of inaccuracies; however, with slower writing, you're forced to place each note carefully so as to not disrupt the delicate balance (between melodic focus and harmonic integrity) that counterpoint is. My recommendation would be to regularly write three and four voice chorales or other brief exercises (such as the one I linked) to build your familiarity with contrapuntal patterns revolving around certain types of imitation and certain harmonic progressions.