Menuet in D minor

Hello everyone.

This is the first piece I have posted to this website. It is a menuet in two-part counterpoint composed for the keyboard, baroque in style - partly inspired by the menuets found in the Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach.

Nice job! Overall, I think this piece sets out what it's supposed to do! I can hear the Bach minuet influence on this piece as well. The Harmonies and Counterpoint sounds and look well too!

It sounds simple but overall correct and very pleasant.
The simple thing is because there is a lot of conta against note of the first species (1:1).
This kind of counterpoint is, in my opinion quite difficult, although it looks the opposite, because it does not admit and easy to fall into parallel notes.
I think this is not the case and there is special care to avoid that.

Hello @Kevin Forfar,

I think the counterpoint here great since the lines go along well with each other and doesn't provide bare moments. It's easy to have poor countetpoint when the harmony is not full and implied throughout, but that doesn't happen here.

Thx for sharing your first piece here!

Henry

9 hours ago, Luis Hernández said:

It sounds simple but overall correct and very pleasant.
The simple thing is because there is a lot of conta against note of the first species (1:1).
This kind of counterpoint is, in my opinion quite difficult, although it looks the opposite, because it does not admit and easy to fall into parallel notes.
I think this is not the case and there is special care to avoid that.

 

Thank you for the compliments! I was inspired by the simplicity of menuets such as BWV Anhang 132.

Yes, I agree that 1:1 counterpoint is difficult to compose despite looking simple. This is largely due to the fact that each part still needs to stand on its own melodically while still making sense harmonically when played together. When composing second or third, etc. species counterpoint, it becomes much easier to create melodic independence between parts. With 1:1 counterpoint, it takes more effort to make each melodic line distinct enough such that the listener is able to hear two separate melodies at once. Like you said, with 1:1 counterpoint, it's easy to fall into composing too many parallel notes which ultimately make the melodies lose independence (thus defeating the purpose of counterpoint).

Thanks again for complimenting the piece.

Yes, I am aware of the difficulty of the first species counterpoint and what you did is phenomenal, I congratulate you.

5 hours ago, Henry Ng Tsz Kiu said:

Hello @Kevin Forfar,

I think the counterpoint here great since the lines go along well with each other and doesn't provide bare moments. It's easy to have poor countetpoint when the harmony is not full and implied throughout, but that doesn't happen here.

Thx for sharing your first piece here!

Henry

 

Thank you for complimenting my piece!