Brass Quartet Small Fugue in C minor

somethingagain.mp3somethingagain - Full Score.pdf

I hope you enjoy it. Let me know what I should do to make it better?

What?!  No French Horns?  I'm offended!  LoL

I wouldn't exactly call this a fugue since in a fugue the subject is stated in it's entirety by one voice before the other voices come in sequentially first in the dominant, then back in the tonic, and then back in the dominant again stating the subject again while the other voices do free counterpoint or state their counter-subjects.  What you have here is more of a canon or canonic imitation in the beginning and it's far from strict so I would just call it a contrapuntal baroque-style piece.  It's cool though - I enjoyed listening to it and it uses proper voice leading and stuff.

On second look/listen this piece does state the subject at the tonic, dominant, tonic, and then dominant level again except I expected the subject to be longer than one bar.  In order to hook the listener the subject needs a distinctive contour/rhythmic identity and one measure is hardly enough time to establish that and introduce/expose the listener to the material they're supposed to listen for when each new statement of the subject comes back in.  What you have works well on paper as a fugue but in order to be a fugue to the listener the subject should really be longer in my opinion.  Aside from that it was enjoyable!  Thanks for the music.

2 minutes ago, PaperComposer said:

What?!  No French Horns?  I'm offended!  LoL

This piece was designed for my community college band. which only has 3 trumpets, 1 Trombone and 1 Tuba(Me) The reason that this fugue isn't in 5 voices is because we only have 2 trumpets at a time because of class schedule conflicts.

As the title suggests, its a small fugue. But short is probably a better word to use. But yea... I see your point that a 1-2 bar theme is rather short, so in the future I'll make it 4 bars. I've been having a hard time with new original melodies. It seems that all I write is a: Do So Fa SO Do or Do Mi So Mi Do Ti Do.

Thank you for the comment @PaperComposer

Yes, it is more counterpoint but very good. Smart that the tuba entera and goes, I love tuba sound. Good work.

Wow, very nice counterpoint!

I love the pause after the last homophonic statement in forte and then the last cadence and the tonic pedal in the last bars. Good job!

Thank you! @Guillem82 @Luis Hernández

On 9/6/2020 at 10:30 PM, i(don't)suckatcomposing said:

This piece was designed for my community college band. which only has 3 trumpets, 1 Trombone and 1 Tuba(Me) The reason that this fugue isn't in 5 voices is because we only have 2 trumpets at a time because of class schedule conflicts.

I love this. You got to write for a unique ensemble, and hopefully we will get to hear a performance at some point? 

I wish I could comment on the fugue element, but I can't...sorry. Sometimes I stare at my counterpoint book, but rarely do I delve into it and try to again relearn the language of it all. I live in a different musical world, I guess.

I did enjoy your piece though. I felt like it could have been a bit more adventurous with the harmony, but it suits the style. Bar 14 had a cool little trumpet motif, might be something you could toy with? Overall well done! Score looks super clean and readable, nice giving the ole picardy third at the end. 

Thank you @Thatguy v2.0!

I don't know about a performance, I'm the only music major that plays a brass instrument. Everyone else is there for fun, I have to be good at my instrument, they don't have to. I had my theory teacher take a look at this, and he said that it would be a good end to a fugue. And I should give it a proper start and tag it in front of what I have now. Which is what I'm working on.

The harmony will get more interesting... 

Thanks!

Cool! What software instrument are you using?