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I'd like to offer a suggestion for this competition regarding the length, in order to make it fairer. There is a big difference between 5 and 20 minutes. I mean one is a song and the other a symphonic movement. This difference will tend to skew both the composer's intention and the judge's appraisal. They are two different forms. One requires concision, the other, development. Why not just say 5 minutes +/- a minute? Or 20 minutes, +/- a minute? Then everyone will be competing evenly, the expectations clearer from the start.

Jaap, I very much wish I could hear a life version of this piece! It is such a fun piece to listen to. I never feel lost, nor as if I've been listening for to long of a time. I love the harmonic language. Bravo!

I love it. I don't have much constructive to say other then I like it a lot. I heard some jazz and some bits of Debussy in it at times. I like the wandering aspect of music like this sometimes. The melody is not as straightforward and tonal as traditional fugues might be. To me this is a lot the same kind of "wandering" as John Adams violin concerto. I call it conveyor belt music. It seems like they race onto the conveyor belt and have to keep all the iterations of the rhythm constant and continuous or they "fall off" the belt. There is a lot of contemporary music that does this. When I think of contemporary "fugues" or fugues written by anyone other then Bach and Handel I always think of the part of Samuel Barber's piano sonata that is written like a fugue. Great concept though. I don't know enough about analyzing the music to be too constructive in that regard, but I can give you my thoughts elsewhere though. I like it.

Hi I also think this is an amazing fugue. You say it' chromatic (but tonal). On the other hand, it keeps features of atonality (as I understand it): strong dynamic contrasts, rhythmic irregulariti, and precisely, big jumps in melody. I always stand up for the use of Forms in a freely way. With the essence of a fugue you've done here something modern and captivating (at lest for those who like more than classic harmony). I've done some fuges in modal systems; but my challenge is to write some one using the dodecaphonic (atonal) system.

Underrated: 1. Kalevi Aho. Probably the finest Finnish symphonic composer ever. Yet his 16 symphonies are not widely known. Of course not all of them are first-class, but numbers 1, 5, 7, 9, 10 and 15 are truly awesome. 2. Camille Saint Saens: he is much better composer than he is usually given credit for. His piano concertos and symphonies are outstanding. His clarinet sonata is such a beauty! He is not just a composer of Animal Carnival, Dance Macabre and Samson and Dallila. 3. Gustav Holst: He is known only for Planets but he has composed lots of exciting music, especially vocal. And his music from opera The perfect fool is intriguing. 4. Levi Maadetoja: his symphonies can easily match the quality of Sibelius, especially no. 2. 5. Lucijan Marija Skerjanc: I purposedly mention this Slovene composer since he is much underrated even in my country. But his symphonies no. 4 and 5 plus some other compositions (string quartets no 3, 4 and 5) should be world-known. Overrated: 1. Anton Bruckner: I give him credit for symphony no. 4, otherwise a boring, boring composer. Sorry. 2. John Cage: he had some intriguing ideas but he was never supposed to become a guru of modern music since he never really showed serious artistic tendencies. 3. Giuseppe Verdi and Giacomo Puccini: while they are excellent opera composers they are overdosed. 4. Gustav Mahler: funny, just as Bruckner, he was also the luckiest with his fourth symphony. The no. 1 is also ok, but he has made other symphonies way way too long. A smell of self-exhibitionism is too obvious. 5. Frederic Chopin: I am beginning to avoid concerts where is music is present. I am surprised the pianists are still so attached to him. Why not trying something else?