Fugue in E minor Nº4.

It's been months of desolation and utter lack of inspiration. Composer's block I would say (if I could even call myself that), but finally I could get to finishing another fugue. Feedback is much appreciated, thanks in advance.

EDIT: modified the final cadence, fixed some parallels and added more rhythmic variation in one spot.

You clearly have great skill with contrapuntal writing. which I wish I possessed myself. I have never been bold enough to actually write one. 

However if I may give a little bit of criticism. before the second entry of the theme I feel like there should be a slight pickup in pace, perhaps a run up so the entry of the counter subject isn't so jarring. at least it was for me personally. 

Another point which is a very personal one is a lot of the fugue just feels too busy it's difficult to detect the individual voices and the feel of the piece towards the middle feels less contrapuntal and more just accompaniment. especially when you get to the octave B's it feels very much like the second voice is just accompanying the first rather than actually being a second voice. though perhaps this was the effect you intended. 

Overall very good. look forward to hearing more music

As soon as the subject comes back after the episode, things start to go awry, with parallels (mm. 8-9) and some crossed voices (mm. 9, 10, etc.).

6 hours ago, Bradley Scarff said:

You clearly have great skill with contrapuntal writing. which I wish I possessed myself. I have never been bold enough to actually write one. 

However if I may give a little bit of criticism. before the second entry of the theme I feel like there should be a slight pickup in pace, perhaps a run up so the entry of the counter subject isn't so jarring. at least it was for me personally. 

Another point which is a very personal one is a lot of the fugue just feels too busy it's difficult to detect the individual voices and the feel of the piece towards the middle feels less contrapuntal and more just accompaniment. especially when you get to the octave B's it feels very much like the second voice is just accompanying the first rather than actually being a second voice. though perhaps this was the effect you intended. 

Overall very good. look forward to hearing more music

 

4 hours ago, Monarcheon said:

As soon as the subject comes back after the episode, things start to go awry, with parallels (mm. 8-9) and some crossed voices (mm. 9, 10, etc.).

 

I thank both of you for your criticism. It's really nice to see my "pieces" are seen as worth improving by others.

In regards to Bradley Scarff's comment, the only thing I would say to "disagree" of sorts has to do with the fact that the fugue is virtually played by a machine, a soundfont engine, not a human. Which I think is partly the reason why it's difficult to distinguish individual voices to a great extent. Albeit that much syncopation in the alto voice perhaps wasn't so good in the end though. Also, the octave B's were intended to be a pedal note, and putting them in the bass wasn't any particular decision (even though I think I'm a bit biased towards unconsciously putting them in the bass).

As for the parallels and voice crossing, to some extent I noticed them (at least the voice crossing, when the subject lies in the bass which is when it gets most noticeable), but I refused to change them due to the fact that they would ruin the countersubject and dissipate the harmony of the exposition. By the way, I'm not sure if those are the only parallels. Don't get me wrong, I'm not asking anyone to get to counting each parallel this fugue might have, I assume that would be just unbearable. Just wanted to know if Monarcheon just noticed those in the exposition or perhaps they might be all over the piece but counting them is thus not worth it.

Thank both of you for your kind comments and appreciated criticism.