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One day a couple of weeks ago, I found this post on /r/composer where some guy (/u/AHG1) wrote a fugue for organ when he was a teenager. Anyway, I thought the subject was interesting, so I decided to do the fugue my own way. The original composer supported my endeavors as well, so I'm happy that he can finally see what I've come up with. This isn't a particularly unique fugue in my opinion, but any and all comments are of course welcome regardless. https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/191AToucbt0E9Py-6MqM0y_22IHwqxq6R

Hi, I've been workin on this fugue, trying to apply my new knowledge. It's in G major, and there's controversy. In the subject the dominant note (D) appears quite clearly in measure 3. Is it supposed to be transposed tonally, i.e. a fourth up (G) instead of a fifth (A)? I didn't. As you can see in bar 8 it is as an A. It really is an ambiguous case "by the book". Since the D appears prominently but already in the third bar. So I tried to make the answer as you can see, and as it sounded good it stayed that way. The structure is: Exposition, where the 4 voices enter and the countersubject is written in invertible counterpoint. Divertimento, sequence or episode (measure 22) that modulates to the dominant (D). Counter-exposition (measure 26), using inverted subject and countersubject. Divertimento (m. 36) using Corelli's Leapfrog with the subject motive with other schemata and Cudworth cadence (which I like to use a lot). Stretti (m. 44) and mini-exposition with pedal note. Divertimento (m.58) in the subdominant area with plagal cadence and new Cudworth to return to the tonic. Coda (m 65) with perfect authentic cadence. As always happens to me, I'm sure I've missed parallels all over the place. But hey, someday I'll get closer....

The truth is that there are many, many topics that could be discussed about the leak, but in order not to be tiresome, this will be, for the time being at least, one last question that I would like to address. It is about invertible counterpoint, or double counterpoint. What is it? Well, that counterpoint in which the upper voice and the lower voice can be interchanged and still sound good. For this, it is necessary to make sure that the intervals (in strong beats) are consonant both in "normal" and "inverted" position. The most frequent is to see invertible counterpoint at the octave. That is, two lines that can be inverted by raising one an octave and lowering the other an octave. But you can also see invertible counterpoint at the twelfth (which is a fifth + octave). More rarely we will see the tenth (third + octave). And other intervals are not practical, or very rare. WHY IS THIS FUNDAMENTAL IN THE FUGUE? If we compose an invertible counter-subject with the subject, we gain two enormous advantages: 1) In following expositions or entries, we can safely change the order of the subject - countersubject voices. 2) This makes the fugue sound coherent and, for the sake of redundancy, makes it sound like a fugue. Because the fugue tries to reuse the initial material as much as possible. If anyone is interested, I can post my own appreciations of how to compose these counterpoints. The truth is that mastering the invertible to the octave, you have a long way to go. To illustrate this, I bring here a fantastic analysis of Bach's C minor fugue where there is not only one invertible counter-subject, but two. Thanks to that, during the development he is placing them up, down, in the middle..... With this technique you have a great part of the fugue done.

I wrote this for fun. Whenever I try to write fugues I don't have the patience to check all the intervals. Also, in this case, the tonalities sometimes get a little fuzzy. What I did was to start from a simple material Subject I and its counter-subject I, written in invertible counterpoint. Answer (subject II) and countersubject II, written in invertible counterpoint. In this way, these parts can work the same up and down or the other way around. And with this, I followed the following scheme:

One minutious revamp, two of Bach's favorite instruments, three dazzling voices - this piece has it all for me. The title is pretty much self-explainatory. Otherwise, please consider reading my YouTube video description here: Enjoy!

probably my most complicated work so far, and took me over a month.

Hi everyone! I wrote this baroque style fugue as a studie piece. I am applying to the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music (in Budapest, Hungary) this year, and I want to send in this fugue (they require a lot of study piece). I am hoping some of you can help me out with ideas, how to make it more stylish, more accurate. I listened to it so many times, I can't really determine how "baroque" it is.

Here I present two more fugues, also in a major&minor set. This time I tried to write for 4 voices in the major fugue, and I'm really satisfied with the result (tried 5 voices but quickly abandoned the idea). The minor fugue to me is less interesting but still has some things in the presentations of the subjects that was productive to compose. Hope you like them! Fuga_en_Fa_mayor.pdfFuga_en_Fa_Menor.pdf

This particular fugue, whose final version has been transposed one half step down from the original, has been the result of a rapid burst of creativity that often comes and goes in waves around this time of the year. Even though it was finished before midnight two days ago, the thought process of deciding on an extramusical title has taken a little longer than usual this time. In the end, I have dedicated this humble work of mine to the marvellous and everlasting art of Spanish painter Francisco de Goya, in commemoration of his famous oil on canvas "The charge of the Mamluks" which, as we know, depicts the insurrection of the people of Madrid against invading Napoleonic troops in May 2nd 1808, this exact date 215 years ago. The title itself, which roughly translates as "The unrelenting night train" is meant to evoke the profuse skirmishes that took place before the Puerta del Sol as the French colonial cavalry charged against the revolting crowds, thus igniting the first instance of bloodshed in what would come to be the Spanish War of Independence. Here's a royalty-free picture of this iconic painting among Goya's many masterpieces: Following the continued advice of some among my audiences, who suggested relieving the density of the counterpoint at certain points within my fugues, I have finally decided to try out this method, et voilà! I honestly can only say I could not possibly be happier with the result. How stubborn I was in keeping the full weight of the contrapuntal texture throughout the vast majority of my works in spite of my dear viewers' counsel! Thankfully, the wall encircling my mind has now been breached by these new perspectives, which I will henceforth apply to upcoming future fugues of mine. Enjoy!

Last Thursday was a special date for the history of Western music. 337 years ago, on the 31st of March, a child was born in Eisenach, a town located in Thuringia, modern-day Germany. His name was Johann Sebastian Bach, and he would become one of the greatest composers ever to live, even though most of his fame would be posthumous. Regardless, it has been of the utmost pleasure for me to dedicate one of my humble fugues to the birthday of Master Bach, in order to commemorate his art and work of such unfathomable abundance and heavenly quality as his spirit deserves. Link to the video:

Hi I took a phrase from one of Bellini's first operas Adelson and Salvini, and wrote this. When making counterpoint or fugues I don't care anything but how it sounds for me. Including the weird modulation.

For the last couple evenings I have invested most of my energy into finishing this fugue, which as shown below the title is coupled with an aphorism in Spanish, my native language: "Cuando cae el respeto a la muerte, decae la vida misma", which, leaving aside metaphorical extension, would roughly translate into English as "When respect to death is lost, so degenerates life." Even though said aphorism wasn't the main inspiration for this piece, I thought it was a nifty addition given the fatigue and withering emotions it was intended to wake on the listener. Since it is difficult for me to describe the nuances of this one as strictly "enjoyable", I guess the most appropriate closing expression for this one would perhaps be "feel existential" or something on those lines.

Four fugues and 3 preludes (or whatever these can be called.) The counterpoint and style is mostly quite free, I took a lot of liberties with harmonies and voice leading if I thought it was interesting, so there's inevitably going to be parallel motion, but I think I'd rather take that than make it bland. It's been quite a long time since I've written this kind of music so it was really refreshing to go back to "my roots" and have fun with it. As for technical matters, the subjects for the fugues, save for the first one, are strange on purpose. Specially C minor and the second double fugue subject in the D minor fugue. I mean, they're workable, but I'm constantly harmonizing "against" the subjects, so this leads to some pretty fun moments like a subject that's supposed to be in G minor tonic being harmonized in Ebmajor, stuff like that. It was pretty challenging to get all of this done and stay somewhat inside the style of instrumental counterpoint that I like. The double fugue in D was hard to write and it went on for longer than I had anticipated, even after cutting all the fat. If there's something I realized when writing these things is that I have very little tolerance for sequencing that is there for the purpose of padding out the runtime of the piece. So I try to never sequence anything more than 3 times, and I will vary the amount between 3 and 2 depending on context. It's one of the trappings on the style and I understand better now a lot of composers that worked in this style post-baroque times, specially within the context of a sonata's development episode vs the way sequencing is used in a fugue. Combining both things is very difficult from both a conceptual and technical point of view. In fact, I grouped these fugues together (I wrote them in sequence within the span of 2 weeks or so) and in the end I feel this is also sort of, kind of, like a sonata. Even if there's no "sonata form" in these, but then, I get the feeling that the DNA of the thing is more leaning in that direction than something like Bach. I purposely avoided reusing countersubjects when I could help it, too, as to give myself more freedom to write whatever was more appropriate within the context of that moment, but that also has the unintended side effect that the whole thing feels a lot more complex than it really is (certainly felt that way when I was writing it.) I get the feeling that a lot of the typical baroque counterpoint conventions and traditions end up being shortcuts to pad out time, so I kind of didn't want to use them. If anything was too "automatic" I would cut it and rewrite, and I did this the entire time when writing. I have no idea if that's something audible, but well there you go. As for the score, it's not completed yet. All the music is there, but I need registration markings and a bunch of other things that I'm not going to write until meet up with the person who will be performing these, so we can work out the details together at an actual organ. It's easier that way. Edit: Guhhh, fixed IV's key signature to something sane. oops. 01-fugue in e.mp3 02-fugue in h.mp3 03-fugue in c.mp3 04-fugue in d.mp3

Composed between yesterday evening and today afternoon, as inspiration finally came forth amidst the silent darkness of tedious stagnation, bringing along a burst of renewed hopes and a dusty fugal subject from my earlier days, forsaken inside a long-unopened folder up until now. Also, happy 337th birthday to J.S. Bach! (If he could hear me from Heaven...) Link to the video:

After more than a year of inactivity in this forum, I've decided to return and paulatinely post my compositions from this period. Starting with my latest fugue, which as shown on the score PDF file was composed just two days ago and has undergone a key set of minor details being changed since I published it on my YT channel. Enjoy! Fugue in C minor #5.pdf

Trying to get some experience writing counterpoint. Constructive feedback is much appreciated!

First Fugue of my work "Colours of the Fugue". Enjoy and feel free to leave advice and any constructive criticism.

First Fugue I ever wrote. Have been composing for 8 months. Have been inactive for the last 4 months so I decided to write a fugue to improve my counterpoint.

(I'm surprised my account still works - the site looks somewhat different now) Revision of an old (non-Baroque) scholastic fugue of mine written originally for unspecified instruments. The subject (what you can hear in the first 4 measures) was given; I worked it out in four parts, with one single invertible countersubject.

"David's Heart," inspired by Michaelangelo.

This is a short piece in the tradition of 19th century fugues with harmonies and textures a bit more adventurous than Baroque ones. You may recognize the subject from memes LOL. I also made a string trio version (which some people from Brazil asked me if they could play, but I never heard from them anymore).

Double fugue in gminor scored for 2x oboe, 2x bassoon in g minor. I think i will rearrange the fugue for two pianos... Written in the mid baroque style, so dont exptect those bach episodes 😉 Please telle me what you think. SimenN

I've always wanted to try writing a piece for organ. Though he didn't write much for organ, I am a big fan of Mozart's organ music and in particular his Fantasy in F minor which inspired this work in terms of structure and the fugal subject which is similar, though otherwise I treated the sections very differently. It is generally organized as a chaconne-like theme and variations in pairs separated by two extended sections (a fugato and a more lyrical section). I had posted an unfinished version of this in the incomplete section and I greatly appreciated the feedback. I also plan to transcribe a version for string orchestra.

Hello everyone! I recently finished composing a fugue for brass trio as a second part to the canon for brass trio that I posted some time ago. Since I do think that both pieces belong together and sound much better together, I post both pieces as one. The canon is a strict canon at the octave for the most time, but on measures 15, 21 and 22, the canon is broken on the top voice in order not to reach higher than the high C. The fugue starts at 1:45. It starts in Gminor but finishes in Gmajor (in the same way the canon started). It has a theme (subject), two countersubjects and it contrasts in rythm and tonality (since it starts in Gmin) with the canon. The measures in which the subject (or the tonal answer) appears and their tonality are the following: m.30-37: Gmin subject | Dmin answer | Gmin subject m.42-45: Bbmaj subject | Fmaj answer m.48-50: Dmaj subject m.53-54: Emin subject m.59-60: Gmaj subject Any feedback, suggestion or comment is welcome. Thanks for listening and hope you like it!