Slightly impressionist fugue

Here is a short fugue(-ish) that I wrote about 9 months ago for string quartet. At that point I had been studying impressionism for a couple of months, and I wanted to write a piece which gradually morphed from one style to another. This one tries to morph from baroque to impressionist.

I'd love some feedback.

Fugue (MP3)

Fugue (PDF)

very nice work. as a fugal piece it is well devised with fine contrapuntal dialogues and textures. those great chords closing 2 of its sections are wonderful and very effective. but something in the final impression did not satisfy me fully. difficult to describe, but it is as if you kept too much attached to the form forgetting to introduce some warmth to the writting. formally it is fine, but emotionally it is somewhat cold. anyway it is very well written. keep it up!

Hi. I loved the piece. I thought it sounded as fugueish as afugue should be. In fact, I have to agree with Frantz that you stuck so well to the form you forgot to add warmth and soul to it. I listened to it twice, once without the score and once with. I found that when listeneing to it without the score I hated it... sorry for the strong word... but it wasn't very enjoyable. Then, the second time around looking at the score, I found it to be delightful (not in the sense of dadelions delightful... just good). You have written a fine piece of work. Keep it up!

~Mori~

Structurally and technically impressive - but completely and utterly stale; didn't like it, sorry.

Thanks for the feedback, everybody. frantz, are you saying that the final impression felt cold, or the whole piece?

Does anyone have any suggestions to improve it? This was done as a "freewrite" (a piece which I started and finished in the same day), and I've always felt like it ended abruptly. I want to chop off measures 59-end and do something else with it, but I'm not sure if it is worth it.

This was one of my first quartet pieces. I'll take all your advice to heart and approach my next quartet from Mozart's angle (beauty before complexity). Thanks.

I wouldn't finish it. I would just move on and remember this advice for the next piece:

Put some heart into it!

Hey, it was a good start! But you should move on because I think you can write even greater pieces of music. :P

It's a pretty neat little piece. I think one thing that might help make the piece a bit less cold is if your counter-subject were more rhthmically varied. The perpetual 16ths take away any chance you have of your other voice rhythmically clashing with the other which has the potential for great expressive moments. The perpetual 16ths also make me feel less like I'm listening to counterpoint and more like I'm listening to a voice and its accompaniment as opposed to a voice and its equal. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but I think a little more countrapuntal feel would actually make the piece more emotional.

I don't find the piece nearly as sterile as some of the reviewers here do, and I find that the subject actually has the potential for some very emotional moments, it just needs an emotional equal in the countersubject - and perhaps a little bit more deliberate use of the dissonant steps in the subject.