Snetterton: a simple fugue

I am embarrassed that it took me a year to 'complete' two compositions (Obsidian and Voile d'automne). People in this forum wisely advised that I should 'lose my first hundred compositions quickly', so as to learn from my errors and move on. So this morning (Christmas eve) I determined to complete an albeit short composition in a day. Here it is, a simple fugue. I sketched the basic idea while out walking in a local wood, transcribed it when I arrived home, and developed it through the day.

I hope that I have avoided orthographic issues, which have dogged much of my work to date. As the complexity of the piece increased, I realised that dynamics play an important role. I use MuseScore both for transcription and for playback. With MuseScore playback the scored dynamics work (reasonably) well, and I hope that this remains the case with the MP3 file.

One of the issues I soon discovered is that I had to cheat by altering some notes to avoid unwanted dissonances. I should appreciate guidance on how I ought to be handling the issue.

I participate in this forum because I am eager to learn. Feedback will be gratefully received.

In an early scene in Roman Polanski's movie of Thomas Hardy's novel Tess of the d'Urbervilles, a bevy of young woman dressed in white dance round a maypole. The simple country music swells as the observer approaches the maypole, and falls again as the viewer departs.

Happy Christmas.

You say you want to avoid unwanted dissonances... but I'm assuming you don't necessarily want to follow Baroque fugue rules? Because if you did, the vast majority of this piece would need reworking, i.e. parallel fifths everywhere, parallel dissonances, incorrect chord resolutions.
Operating on the assumption those rules don't matter to you, I'd still say that dissonance is the main issue here, since it obscures some of the chordal function of a lot of the piece. m. 14 is an example of that with a 7-8 bass suspension from B to C in the cello, but a motion to C on beat 4 before the syncopated resolution of the suspended tone. These sorts of little things exist in a few places (i.e. m. 20's G∆7 chord as a resolution to C). It's a well-thought out work, with an interesting take on the idea of fugue as a homophonic unit, but obscures the tonality a little bit too much.

This doesn't quite seem to be a fugue in the true sense. It seems more like a canon or ricercar. I'm not sure dissonance is the correct issue here -I can see a lot of issues with just the voice leading, doubling choices, and many unsupported parts. For instance, at measure 9, the winds and violin doubling the same line at ff is going to drown out the rest of the ensemble (which you have at mp and mf.) 

Your counter subject that begins at measure 5 also lacks enough variety to make it stand out in contrast to the subject itself. Generally, in fugues (and this also includes more modern examples), you want to state the counter subject in a different tonal region. I'd look at adjusting this. The canonic ending -where each voice drop offs leaving the cello- also doesn't quite work with this -particularly since you have the full ensemble play a closing chord. 

That said, I think the biggest issues here have more to do with lack of planning in terms of your material. One of the biggest lessons in fugal/contrapuntal writing is learning what works and what doesn't. Certain things are well documented: stretto, imitation, false entries, etc. These are classic tools for writing fugal material. I'm certainly not a tonalist and -hence- am not going to comment much on the harmonic nature of the work. Also, I'd do away with the ground bass pattern.

One final caveat: 

I'm not sure who told you -ever- that you should write many pieces quickly to get the mistakes out of your system. If anyone ever instructs you to do this, ignore them. I was told once that there are no mistakes in music. Everything can be reworked. In many ways, this is true. We learn to identify and utilize tools that allow us to convey what we often times hear in our heads. The tools and problem solving are used to make this realization doable. If it takes you time to realize what you envision, then -by all means- take the time to make it a reality. Don't rush just because others thing its necessary.