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It's been a long time! I used to frequent this forum in my 20s, now I'm 42 years old, living abroad, haven't really written any music in the last decade, but I never fully gave up on writing music. It's time to fix my writer's block. I'm setting up this topic as a challenge to myself. Writing music in my 20s was something that came very slowly and painfully as I am a massive perfectionist and not terribly disciplined. So this plan is designed to cure me of that. - Only writing fragments for now. No aiming for completed pieces. - Focusing on practicing use of musical elements I like, experimentation over destination. - Loosely tracking my time in order to force something out the door, rather than get stuck on revisions. - Long term learning goal is to build the skills to write hybrid electronic/orchestral music for games. If anyone wants to take on this challenge with me, feel free, and you are welcome to post things here. For my part, the pacing is starting at one small post per week. As I feel able, I may increase that. Music will be hosted on flat.io and eventually Soundcloud, and linked here by Sunday evening USA-Eastern time, which is Monday morning my time. Feedback is welcomed, but I will be trying to take feedback lightly and focus on quantity of music creation, on volume, rather than refining the quality. First entry: https://flat.io/score/69930d12f4b7f4206442ca2c-sus-slash?sharingKey=4f68cd0e43730c91e48416b8978810ab0c63680a3161fb07fbfcbc75e85c135b02a6f15102ff10978621f147508f16a2ade8791783c86664bb7ed9f0e3b671f9 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14lZ2g_oCxI For this eight-bar melody, I chose the musical element described in the above youtube video - suspended chords above a slash bass note, essentially sparsely voiced tall chords. I wasn't following any particular progression principles, just whatever sounded good, but trying to follow the structure of the chords described in the video. Couldn't quite nail down the last chord, sorry it's unsatisfying, but according to the rules we are moving on!

Hello my fellow musicians, now I present the second half of the fugue with the „special feature“. Today is the 24th of February and it is now exactly four years ago since the Russian invasion in Ukraine. As I composed the fugue between February and May 2022, I decided - after I had accomplished the first half - to integrate the Ukrainian national anthem as further theme in the second half of the fugue – as a dedication to those which suffer from that terrible war, or more worse, have even lost their lives. For continuing the „analytic comments“, we cannot speak from now on of „development sections“ and „episodes“ since the fugue is now structured by the verses of the anthem and interludes between them: First Verse of the Anthem (mm. 51b – 43a). The first verse in B flat minor in the soprano is „accompanied“ by three subject entries: • B flat minor, inverted, bass (mm. 51b) • F minor, tenor (mm. 55b) • D flat major, diminished, alto (mm. 58b) Interlude (mm. 60 - 66). The interlude, dominated by a sequential motif which appears three times in normal form and three time in inversion. The fugue subject appears once in normal and once in the diminished form: • D flat major, bass (mm. 60b) • E flat minor, diminished, bass (mm. 64b) Second Verse of the Anthem (mm. 67 – 74). Similarly, the second verse, again in B flat minor in the soprano has tree contrasting subject entries, where the last, diminished one could be counted to the following interlude, too: • F minor, tenor (mm. 67) • B flat minor, bass (mm. 71) • D flat major, diminished, tenor (mm. 74) Interlude (mm. 75 - 82a). This interlude consists of four sequences, each featuring an entry of the diminished subject, which perform the modulation from the „sad“ keys with flat key signatures used so far (for example E flat minor) to the „triumphant“ keys with sharp key signatures (finally to F sharp major): • D flat major, diminished, tenor (mm. 74) • A flat major, diminished, bass (mm.76) • B major, diminished, soprano (mm. 78) • F sharp major, diminished, alto (mm. 80) Third Verse of the Anthem (mm. 82b – 90). The anthem repeats the last half bar of the second verse and is now in the third verse finally in the brightest major key in F sharp major! The remaining subject entries of the fugue are as follows: • B minor, inverted, bass (mm. 82b) • F sharp minor, diminished, tenor (mm. 85b) • A major, diminished, tenor (mm. 86c) • F sharp major, „tail only“, bass (mm. 89) I hope, you'll enjoy it. Wieland Here is the link to the previous thread with the first part of the fugue:

A+ for presentation, something I lack around here. I love how detailed your score was, and that you posted multiple versions to appease any taste in reading along. I preferred the color coding, as I'll admit I got lost in the thick of dissonance trying to find synergy with the theme, but your score made it very clear and more enjoyable for me. I was really intrigued by the chromaticism and dissonance. It sounded too harsh at times, but the more I listened I got used to the language and texture and it flowed really well for me. Forgive my ignorance, but I've never really been into fugues. I don't know/forget all the intricacies involved, but your ledger of HOW you wrote it was very helpful and dare I say educational for me. The amount of effort you put into detailing your music was enlightening as well as lovely to hear. Thanks for posting this, as well as being involved in the forum! I can't speak for everyone, but the music I post here is barely heard by the people around me, and a community that is aligned with my passion AND that I get to help grow has a special place in my heart. It's people like you that help keep YC alive 🙂 Cheers friend, well done

Just playing around 🙂 Glad there's interest in the badges, I forget about them 😄

Today I am presenting another fugue from my preludes and fugues project. Since it is a long piece with a special feature in its second half, I have decided to split the presentation into two posts. I began composing this fugue four years ago, inspired by Bach's Fugue in E major from WTC2 (BWV 878), after seeing Jörg Demus' wonderful introduction and tutorial, which unfortunately is no longer available on YouTube. The idea is to compose a fugue in the „stile antico“ or Palestrina style, which means having • 4/2 time signature (long allabreve), • long note values (from quarter notes to whole notes, and even „brevis“ notes), • a subject that moves primarily by step, with few leaps. Any leap that occurs is immediately balanced by stepwise motion in the opposite direction. Exposition (mm. 1 – 15). The „regular“ exposition is ascending (subject highlighted with blue-colored notes) • Dux, G flat major, bass (mm. 1) • Comes, D flat major, tenor (mm. 5) • Dux, G flat major, alto (mm. 9) • Comes, D flat major, soprano (mm. 12b) with tonal answer. We have a recurring countersubject (highlighted with olive-colored notes) which is paired with the subject entries in mm. 5, 9 and 13. Whereas the first occurrence of the countersubject starts together with the subject entry (mm. 5), the second one is delayed by one whole note (mm. 9) and the third one is delayed by two whole notes (mm. 13), thus not repeating the previous entry rhythmically but creating a continuous flow. Second Development Section (mm. 17b – 26a). After a one-bar codetta (mm. 16b – 17a) with a tritone substitution we reach the second development section where the subject appears in stretto as following • B flat minor, soprano (mm. 17b) • F major, alto (mm. 18) • B flat minor, tenor (mm. 21b) • F minor, inverted, bass (mm. 23, highlighed in green) The countersubject appears three times (mm. 17b, 21b and 23), the latter one in inversion (highlighted by plum-colored notes). Episode (mm. 26b - 32a). This episode is built from the material of the countersubject (highlighted with olive-colored notes) creating its own fugato. Third Development Section (mm. 32b – 36a). In the third development section the subject occurs the first time in a diminished form. It is not an exact halving of the notes values but also a rhythmic variation. • A flat major, diminished (highlighted with turquoise notes), soprano (mm. 32b) • C minor, tenor (mm.32b) • C major, diminished, soprano (mm.34c) • F major, diminished, alto (mm. 34b) • A major, diminished inverted (highlighted with pink notes), bass (mm. 34b) The subject entries are heavily squeezed together as strettos, and we have a surplus subject entry. The countersubject does not occur in this development section. Episode (mm. 36b - 40a). This episode is built from the material of the inverted countersubject (highlighted with plum-colored notes), also in a fugative way. Fourth Development Section (mm. 40b – 43a). The fourth development section is another one where the subject is presented in its diminished and normal form, together in stretto. • D flat major, tenor (mm. 40) • A flat major, diminished, soprano (mm. 40b) • C flat major, diminished, bass (mm. 40b) • F flat major, diminished, alto (mm. 42) Episode (mm. 43b - 50). This episode consists of two different sections with sequences (mm. 43 – 45 and mm. 46 – 50) whereas the fugue subject once occurs in its inversion (E flat minor, bass, mm. 46). With the crescendo of the second sequence motif, the fugue reaches its first climax, leading to the second half, which I will present next Tuesday, February 24th. Stay tuned!

Here now the fugue in its entirety with a YouTube-video and the complete score!