# For giggles (Fugue in F Minor)



## Romantic Geek

Just finished up my 18th-Century counterpoint class.

And here's my Fugue in F Minor. Enjoy 

http://f.cl.ly/items/0I0o2i0D0o370i3n1L3D/Fugue in F Minor.wav


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## Tomposer

Yes!! A fugue a day keeps the doctor away. Seriously, writing a fugue now and then is a fantastic discipline and this is very well done. Your subject was pretty tricky too. Nice job, I'm impressed. Now let's see a double fugue .


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## Abracadabra

Pretty nice. Sounds as classical as it gets. 

I used to try to play Bach piano pieces but I could never master the hand independence required to play them.


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## MaestroViolinist

Very nice! I have never composed so I don't know how hard it would be but I'm guessing it was hard.

As Abracadbra said, it was very classical. I don't like most modern music because it often doesn't make sense, but that did.


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## Jeremy Marchant

MaestroViolinist said:


> I don't like most modern music because it often doesn't make sense, but that did.


Oh, come on. _Sometimes _it doesn't make sense. You might not like it, but to place the responsibility for your tastes on the composer is a little unreasonable.


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## MaestroViolinist

Jeremy Marchant said:


> Oh, come on. _Sometimes _it doesn't make sense. You might not like it, but to place the responsibility for your tastes on the composer is a little unreasonable.


What? I just added that because it's true! Of course, if I'd thought it didn't make sense I wouldn't have said that (because that would be rude) but I still would have judged it though. But because it did for once, I said it.


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## chopinsky

> I don't like most modern music because it often doesn't make sense, but that did.


What do you consider to be modern music?


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## MaestroViolinist

chopinsky said:


> What do you consider to be modern music?


Probably 1880/90 and up.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde

MaestroViolinist said:


> Probably 1880/90 and up.


Oh my you have a lot to learn when it comes to good music.


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## Klavierspieler

MaestroViolinist said:


> Probably 1880/90 and up.


 filler


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde

Klavierspieler said:


> filler


You see, Klavierspieler? The weird thing is, I'm going to write her a piece of music. Ironic, eh?


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## MaestroViolinist

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> You see, Klavierspieler? The weird thing is, I'm going to write her a piece of music. Ironic, eh?


 That's unfair! I said I didn't like SOME modern music! Or did I say most? I meant SOME!!! :scold: lol

And actually, I think I'll change 1880 to just 1900 and up.


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## Romantic Geek

I'm so glad my 18th-century style fugue as inspired a discussion of modernism. :/


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde

Listening to the first subject of the fugue again, it seems a bit strange somewhere, possibly a bit awkward to sing. I think it would have been better to after jumping from an F to a D flat to come back down stepwise or by sequences rather than going to a C and then jumping down a fourth to a G. But otherwise, very good job. I'd like to see some more use of suspensions and chromaticism in your next fugue. Looking forward to it!


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## Romantic Geek

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> Listening to the first subject of the fugue again, it seems a bit strange somewhere, possibly a bit awkward to sing. I think it would have been better to after jumping from an F to a D flat to come back down stepwise or by sequences rather than going to a C and then jumping down a fourth to a G. But otherwise, very good job. I'd like to see some more use of suspensions and chromaticism in your next fugue. Looking forward to it!


Guess you've never heard of compound melody, eh? It does descend stepwise  As far as subjects being hard to sing, aren't all (or almost all) of Bach's subjects impeccably hard to sing as well? 

As for suspensions and chromaticism, maybe in the future. You have to remember in a minor key, there is already a lot of chromaticism as there is in this one. It's just not as blatant. Suspensions...personally when imitating the 18th-century style, I try to limit suspensions in the most contrapuntal works (like fugues) because it usually creates too much voice dependency or unnecessary leaps in counterpointing voices. I like to save suspensions for the less contrapuntal works 

If you couldn't tell, this fugue is in triple counterpoint, meaning that there is the subject and two countersubjects which appear during every full statement of the subject. In minor, Bach was rarely able to achieve this (and for good reason!) It was hard as hell! Biggest issue was avoiding the augmented second between b6 and raised 7 melodically, which is almost impossible in triple counterpoint in minor. (And it wasn't my choice to do triple counterpoint, it was part of the assignment).


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde

Romantic Geek said:


> Guess you've never heard of compound melody, eh? It does descend stepwise  As far as subjects being hard to sing, aren't all (or almost all) of Bach's subjects impeccably hard to sing as well?
> 
> As for suspensions and chromaticism, maybe in the future. You have to remember in a minor key, there is already a lot of chromaticism as there is in this one. It's just not as blatant. Suspensions...personally when imitating the 18th-century style, I try to limit suspensions in the most contrapuntal works (like fugues) because it usually creates too much voice dependency or unnecessary leaps in counterpointing voices. I like to save suspensions for the less contrapuntal works
> 
> If you couldn't tell, this fugue is in triple counterpoint, meaning that there is the subject and two countersubjects which appear during every full statement of the subject. In minor, Bach was rarely able to achieve this (and for good reason!) It was hard as hell! Biggest issue was avoiding the augmented second between b6 and raised 7 melodically, which is almost impossible in triple counterpoint in minor. (And it wasn't my choice to do triple counterpoint, it was part of the assignment).


Yes I know what compound melody is, but the opening subject to me has a feeling that it isn't structured well without the other subjects. If you look at some opening subjects by Bach you can see a well defined structure in the melody that makes good use of compound melody. Perhaps that it's the sudden D flat to C that throws me off a bit then?


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