Prelude & Fugue in G Minor

I especially love the meditative prelude. The section beginning at mm. 26 with repeated notes and chromatic harmony is extremely elegant and tasteful. The bass line is particularly well-written, and patterns like mm. 51-53 brings subtle drama. The entire piece is playable too!

Personally I think some reordering/transposing/rerun of the material here would give the piece better cohesiveness. The reappearance of the quaver-dominated opening material at mm. 15 for example can be in the dominant or relative key, and rerunning it again later (though maybe not in its entirety), particularly near the end brings not only unity but also some excellent contrast to the surrounding French overture rhythms.

5 hours ago, muchen_ said:

I especially love the meditative prelude. The section beginning at mm. 26 with repeated notes and chromatic harmony is extremely elegant and tasteful. The bass line is particularly well-written, and patterns like mm. 51-53 brings subtle drama. The entire piece is playable too!

Personally I think some reordering/transposing/rerun of the material here would give the piece better cohesiveness. The reappearance of the quaver-dominated opening material at mm. 15 for example can be in the dominant or relative key, and rerunning it again later (though maybe not in its entirety), particularly near the end brings not only unity but also some excellent contrast to the surrounding French overture rhythms.

 

Thank you so much for the thoughtful feedback.

Thanks for sharing this prelude and fugue, both of them a joy to listen to. The beginning of the prelude is especially very charming. However, the passage in m. 12 and 13 (and similar ones) with those notes of different length tied to semidemiquavers in both hands running in parallel seems difficult to play, especially to get the timing right, but I am a rather bad pianist.

After the cadence in m. 14/15, the verbatim repetition in m. 15-27 is not that unusual, but would have been easier to notate with a repeat sign. The following passage brings finally the modulation everyone is waiting for (you could try and modulate already in the first part of the prelude; it increases momentum as the prelude then has to find a way back) 😉 , and with it some harsh harmonies which you handle tastefully.

At the end, for a short moment it sounds like the opening phrase would come back in d minor, but in a clever move, we are disappointed; the return of g minor is, however, a bit too surprising for my taste; a e.g. "motivo di cadenza" or a similar adapted cadence could be used to flesh this more out.

The fugue has a good and versatile subject and I just identified three full instances of the subject (m. 65, m. 69, m. 73) and two partial ones (m. 77, m. 93); it would have been nice to have fewer instances of the sequences and more instances of the subject. But of course this is a well composed fugue, so this is more a matter of one's preferences.

Hi @Cafebabe,

I like the recurring March like turn figure in your prelude, it reminds of the D major fugue in WTC I. 

For the fugue, nice Dido and Aeneas like subject. If you are writing in Baroque style, usually the 3rd entry of the subject (in b.73) will be in tonic G minor instead of dominant D minor. I agree with @Willibald that there can be more appearances of the fugue subject, and to me especially there should be more appearances of the subject in the tonic G minor! Good counterpoint throughout though. Thx for sharing!

Henry

Thank you for sharing this wonderful Prelude-and-Fugue piece. Since I also compose preludes and fugues, I am very excited and interested in reviewing such a pair.

And indeed, I really enjoyed it and have now a few thoughts or comments which are not to be considered as „criticism“, but rather intended as an advice or idea how this beautiful piece could be improved further and finally made „great“:

When listening to the prelude for the first time, I clearly recognized the Baroque style of a French overture with its double dots and 32nd runs, but there were something stylistic that differed from a typical Baroque and counterpuntual piece. Now, after listening multiple times and with the help of the other comments, I figured out that this is due to the repetition of measures 1-14 in bars 15-27, which means that up to this point there is no real modulation away from the tonic G minor.

There is nothing wrong with it, but I would agree with the suggestions of @muchen_ and @Willibald to possibly change something concerning the modulation and recurrection of the material, also with respect that usually the prelude is not longer than its fugue.

The fugue subject is very memorable and expressive, I especially love the „wedge-like“ ending in mm. 68, which, in my opinion, implies that the theme should not end with the first eighth note in bar 68, but should extend over the entire four bars. In the comes in bar 72, you have already quoted the “wedge,” even though this bar is a variation of the original, while in the third entry in bar 76, the “wedge” is completely lost, which I regret.

In measures 80-85, 87-95, and 96-103, you have created three (or even four) sections with sequences based on different contrapuntal material—for example, quotations or parts of the theme—which would be perfect as interludes or episodes between further development (or exposition) sections of the fugue theme. And that is exactly what I would like to see: at least two further developments of the excellent fugue subject. I also could imagine a coda with a pedal point and perhaps a recurrection of the 32nd notes texture from the prelude as ending climax!

With this in mind – to shorten the prelude and to extend or „complete“ the fugue – your piece could become a marvellous pair – Prelude and Fugue in G minor!

12 hours ago, Wieland Handke said:

Thank you for sharing this wonderful Prelude-and-Fugue piece. Since I also compose preludes and fugues, I am very excited and interested in reviewing such a pair.

And indeed, I really enjoyed it and have now a few thoughts or comments which are not to be considered as „criticism“, but rather intended as an advice or idea how this beautiful piece could be improved further and finally made „great“:

When listening to the prelude for the first time, I clearly recognized the Baroque style of a French overture with its double dots and 32nd runs, but there were something stylistic that differed from a typical Baroque and counterpuntual piece. Now, after listening multiple times and with the help of the other comments, I figured out that this is due to the repetition of measures 1-14 in bars 15-27, which means that up to this point there is no real modulation away from the tonic G minor.

There is nothing wrong with it, but I would agree with the suggestions of @muchen_ and @Willibald to possibly change something concerning the modulation and recurrection of the material, also with respect that usually the prelude is not longer than its fugue.

The fugue subject is very memorable and expressive, I especially love the „wedge-like“ ending in mm. 68, which, in my opinion, implies that the theme should not end with the first eighth note in bar 68, but should extend over the entire four bars. In the comes in bar 72, you have already quoted the “wedge,” even though this bar is a variation of the original, while in the third entry in bar 76, the “wedge” is completely lost, which I regret.

In measures 80-85, 87-95, and 96-103, you have created three (or even four) sections with sequences based on different contrapuntal material—for example, quotations or parts of the theme—which would be perfect as interludes or episodes between further development (or exposition) sections of the fugue theme. And that is exactly what I would like to see: at least two further developments of the excellent fugue subject. I also could imagine a coda with a pedal point and perhaps a recurrection of the 32nd notes texture from the prelude as ending climax!

With this in mind – to shorten the prelude and to extend or „complete“ the fugue – your piece could become a marvellous pair – Prelude and Fugue in G minor!

 

20 hours ago, Henry Ng Tsz Kiu said:

Hi @Cafebabe,

I like the recurring March like turn figure in your prelude, it reminds of the D major fugue in WTC I. 

For the fugue, nice Dido and Aeneas like subject. If you are writing in Baroque style, usually the 3rd entry of the subject (in b.73) will be in tonic G minor instead of dominant D minor. I agree with @Willibald that there can be more appearances of the fugue subject, and to me especially there should be more appearances of the subject in the tonic G minor! Good counterpoint throughout though. Thx for sharing!

Henry

 

21 hours ago, Willibald said:

Thanks for sharing this prelude and fugue, both of them a joy to listen to. The beginning of the prelude is especially very charming. However, the passage in m. 12 and 13 (and similar ones) with those notes of different length tied to semidemiquavers in both hands running in parallel seems difficult to play, especially to get the timing right, but I am a rather bad pianist.

After the cadence in m. 14/15, the verbatim repetition in m. 15-27 is not that unusual, but would have been easier to notate with a repeat sign. The following passage brings finally the modulation everyone is waiting for (you could try and modulate already in the first part of the prelude; it increases momentum as the prelude then has to find a way back) 😉 , and with it some harsh harmonies which you handle tastefully.

At the end, for a short moment it sounds like the opening phrase would come back in d minor, but in a clever move, we are disappointed; the return of g minor is, however, a bit too surprising for my taste; a e.g. "motivo di cadenza" or a similar adapted cadence could be used to flesh this more out.

The fugue has a good and versatile subject and I just identified three full instances of the subject (m. 65, m. 69, m. 73) and two partial ones (m. 77, m. 93); it would have been nice to have fewer instances of the sequences and more instances of the subject. But of course this is a well composed fugue, so this is more a matter of one's preferences.

 

 

Thank you all for your feedback. I have nothing to disagree with, and I will certainly put the tips into practice if I ever rework on the piece.