The "Short Fugue" Challenge

Use Music Jotter to compose a short fugue! This video will give you a rough idea on what elements make up a fugue. I also attached my staccato fugue that I composed with Music Jotter. You can download the midi file, and load it into Music Jotter. Feel free to play around with it.

You can Self Grant Access to the software.

Criteria

1. Since I will record all the pieces with Organ or Piano and audition your works on YouTube, keep it one instrument. Also, because Music Jotter is still in development, keep the piece short (at most, one minute). Use Chrome or Firefox as well. Safari has been lightly tested.
2. No more than 5 tracks, but you may use fewer tracks and multiple voices. I've composed works with up to 1000 notes and it runs OK.
3. Don't compose too many notes without making sure your piece has been saved. You can download your midi file as often as you wish.
4. You can follow the rules of the fugue loosely. But be sure you compose with at least 2 voices (either within a track, or by using multiple tracks). But you can compose up to 4 or 5 voices if you wish!
5. I will record your piece, and rank them...this is a challenge! I will try to get a judge to help me rank these.
6. To join, I encourage you to be a supporter, see below.

If you want to join my Fugue Challenge, you can help support my organization of this event + development of this software by becoming a supporter. We already have 26 supporters, why not join us? I am offering 2 tiers:

• $3 / month (basic support, and eligible to join our challenges)
• $5 / month (a voice in development of Music Jotter + eligible to join our challenges)

Join here

If there is enough interest, I will release a short video on exactly what elements to use in Music Jotter to compose the fugue.

*Update: Short video, lol.

28 minutes ago, chopin said:

You can follow the rules of the fugue loosely. But be sure you compose with at least 2 voices (either within a track, or by using multiple tracks). But you can compose up to 4 or 5 voices if you wish!

My 6 voice masterrrrrrrrrrrpiece rrrrrrrrrrrejectedddddddddd!!!!!!! 🥶

@Henry Ng Tsz Kiu lol, you can adapt a part of your 6 voice fugue in Music Jotter, if you wish to use it, and participate!

Nice challenge!  Here's my entry:  a three-voice fugue in Bb minor including only one episode and final entry with a bit of stretto, composed entirely in Music Jotter (but first on paper .. and I took the "short" part very literally LoL)  Edit:  I have attached a recording @chopin made with Kontakt Organ sounds.

FugueBbMinor (10).mid

Thanks Peter, I'm going to record this for you, and you will be in my next YouTube video! Short and sweet is what YouTube likes, as I am learning by doing this YouTube thing lol. Thank you for participating, and I hope we can get more participants. I will probably create the tutorial video tomorrow, because this program is very easy to use, but there still is a slight learning curve.

I made another fugue for the challenge!  This one is also a 3 voice fugue, in Bb major, 6/8 meter, with two middle entries, some stretto, and some false entries before the final entry.  Made entirely in Music Jotter!  Edit:  I am also including another recording @chopin made for me using Kontakt Organ sounds!  Thanks a bunch Mike!

Fugue in Bb Major (14).mid

Thank you! Nice fugue. I will be releasing a 20 minute video and hopefully I can get more challengers after the video. If not, we will just be featuring you Peter haha!

Sad I cannot just copy and paste my Sibelius score onto the Music Jotter. I am too lazy to type in my notes into MJ lol!

@Henry Ng Tsz Kiu You can try importing, I worked on Quantization last weekend, it will probably will work. Just trim it down to the minute you'd like to submit since Music Jotter may not be capable of handling massive scores just yet.

Hi, I made some kind of a fugue/invention for this challenge. I hope it's acceptable.
 

fuga.mid

I made another 3 voice fugue for the challenge.  This one is in C minor - once again, with some stretto near the end.  Made entirely in Music Jotter!  @chopin made another recording for me using Kontakt Organ sounds:

Fugue in C minor (5).mid

3 hours ago, Cafebabe said:

Hi, I made some kind of a fugue/invention for this challenge. I hope it's acceptable.

I love it! You were supposed to use Music Jotter to compose this, however I will accept this. The reason is because your file helped me find an issue with an import feature (which I addressed). And as a result, your midi imports pretty nicely into Music Jotter. I still encourage you to use Music Jotter, and get yourself familiar with it, especially because I will be hosting other Music Jotter challenges in the future.

Thanks for your submission!

despite multiple files it is basically the same fugue, one is piano/no pedal version, one is organ/pedal version. some formatting issues but the whole soundtrack seems fine except bar 12

Thematic materials used in the fugue:

My fugue chart:

edit: added MS versions which contains fixes/changes including modifying a parallel unison

"Short Fugue" Challenge (pedal version).pdf

short fugue( pedal organ.mid short fugue mj np.mid pcc short fugue piano:no pedal.mid pcc short fugue organ:pedal.mid

short fugue( pedal organ.mid short fugue mj np.mid pcc short fugue piano:no pedal.mid pcc short fugue organ:pedal.mid

short fugue( pedal organ.mid short fugue mj np.mid pcc short fugue piano:no pedal.mid pcc short fugue organ:pedal.mid

short fugue( pedal organ.mid short fugue mj np.mid pcc short fugue piano:no pedal.mid pcc short fugue organ:pedal.mid

short fugue( pedal organ.mid short fugue mj np.mid pcc short fugue piano:no pedal.mid pcc short fugue organ:pedal.mid

short fugue( pedal organ.mid short fugue mj np.mid pcc short fugue piano:no pedal.mid pcc short fugue organ:pedal.mid

Edited February 8, 20251 yr by PCC
one page version added

I made a post compiling all three fugues I made for this challenge:

Yay I got a submission for this cha llenge too!

Lil Fugue 1.mid

41 minutes ago, HoYin Cheung said:

Yay I got a submission for this cha llenge too!

Thank you for your submission. Don't forget about my number one rule: "Use Music Jotter to compose a short fugue!"

This is my way of obtaining testers of the software. In return, I will record, and showcase your work.

Hello! I'm interested in submitting a fugue. I should have it finished over the next few days.

8 hours ago, Gwendolyn Przyjazna said:

Hello! I'm interested in submitting a fugue. I should have it finished over the next few days.

Great! I was hoping to get at least one more. I'm preparing to release another video before this challenge so you all still have more time.

I'll submit a fugue in the coming few days too.

3 hours ago, muchen_ said:

I'll submit a fugue in the coming few days too.

Great! And don't forget about my number one condition, which is to use Music Jotter. Just FYI, I am working on speed, and one of Music Jotter's big selling points will be responsiveness. I'm working on being even faster than Finale (which was Finale's big selling point over MuseScore). I believe a fast, and of course, easy to use software is important.

My submission for the challenge is here:

https://www.youngcomposers.com/t46132/fugue-in-a-major/

I've attached the Music Jotter version below.

fugue.mid