Fughetta in C minor for String Quartet.

A slightly more Romantic-sounding fugue than usual, whose theme's chromatic nature I chose to exploit with a string quartet setup for greater expressive intensity. The subject itself was originally somewhat experimental in nature but quickly developed into a full-fledged exposition, and the rest was hours upon hours of trying to deal with its rather unwieldy nature as best I could.

Enjoy!

YouTube video link: 

Edited October 9, 2025Oct 9 by Fugax Contrapunctus

Great contrapuntal work! The piece sounds complete, the four voices flow naturally, are easy for the ear to follow, and all are engaging! My only small critiques would be that the four voices might be slightly overused and that a few more silences could make the whole piece feel less dense. Also, I don't think it's necessary to use different types of fermatas in the final measure. Once again, bravo!

13 hours ago, Jonathanm said:

Great contrapuntal work! The piece sounds complete, the four voices flow naturally, are easy for the ear to follow, and all are engaging! My only small critiques would be that the four voices might be slightly overused and that a few more silences could make the whole piece feel less dense.

Unfortunately, given how short this piece already is, such textural density isn't just merely accidental, but a properly deliberate design choice. Should the composition in question reach up to more than 3 minutes or so, as is the case for other compositions of such duration among my works, perhaps I would consider temporarily suppressing one or more of the given voices. Otherwise, unprompted rests in the middle are out of the question for me.

13 hours ago, Jonathanm said:

Also, I don't think it's necessary to use different types of fermatas in the final measure. Once again, bravo!

Fixed, and thank you for your kind words, as well as your constructive feedback.

Hey Pabio @Fugax Contrapunctus,

The fugue subject immediately reminds me the last movement of Brahms's Piano Quintet, b.94

But of course you use the motive in your own way and much more contrapuntally.

For me maybe I will use much more of the motive in b.1 in the episodes since it's the most significant figure of the whole subject. Nonetheless that's just me, and thx for sharing this great expression!

Henry

Hi @Fugax Contrapunctus

I loved this work ; this is both a cool technical exercise and a well written theme 🙂 

Thanks for sharing

Hi @Fugax Contrapunctus!

I think your hours of labor on this unusual subject really paid off!  I think the subject and the counter-subject are really well matched with each other with one moving while the other rests on quarter notes.  It creates a kind of question/answer dichotomy between the voices and increases their independence.  I think this is one of the best fugues you've written and seems really mature and less mechanical.  It's very fluid, natural and spontaneous.  The only thing that bothers me is the ending on a feminine cadence.  I felt like the last chord came too early and should have been reserved for the strong beat of the next (non-existent) bar.  Thanks for sharing!