Fugue on Row Your Boat

Hi all. First time posting here!

I'm currently in the process of composing a complete keyboard suite à la Bach. Wanted to share a sample, in this case the Gigue, for feedback. The choice of the subject is up for debate but I've been known to use random nursery tunes in the past. In particular, are the sequences, and the final 12-bar stretto, convincing?

Nice job!  The episodes, counterpoint and strettos all seem quite lucid and engaging to me!  And the subjects are quite recognizable when they come in.  Great idea to split the main melody in two and do a double fugue in the 2nd half of the piece.  Having listened with the "colored" score, the piece also seems quite playable.  You are quite skilled - are you an organist or something?  Or did you go to school?  Thanks for sharing and I'm hoping for more of this suite!  I also have a Gigue composed although it's not as traditionally contrapuntal as this one.

1 hour ago, PeterthePapercomPoser said:

Nice job!  The episodes, counterpoint and strettos all seem quite lucid and engaging to me!  And the subjects are quite recognizable when they come in.  Great idea to split the main melody in two and do a double fugue in the 2nd half of the piece.  Having listened with the "colored" score, the piece also seems quite playable.  You are quite skilled - are you an organist or something?  Or did you go to school?  Thanks for sharing and I'm hoping for more of this suite!  I also have a Gigue composed although it's not as traditionally contrapuntal as this one.

 

Thank you! I am entirely self-taught with regards to composition; it's a hobby I do from time-to-time. I trained myself through Grade 8 Music Theory which dealt with harmony and melody fundamentals, as well as things like writing for trio sonatas, piano miniatures, and of course, chorale harmonisations. My experience of fugue writing comes from obsessively listening and occasionally analysing Bach, and through half a dozen failed prototypes after getting through Music Theory.

The entire Suite is envisioned to be an 8-movement (35 minute /w repeats) piece. Quite ambitious! Three movements, including this Gigue, are ready, but I'm yet to tackle the hardest movement, the Overture! 😅

I am impressed!  Very clever, skilled and quite enjoyable. 

18 hours ago, muchen_ said:

Thank you! I am entirely self-taught with regards to composition; it's a hobby I do from time-to-time. I trained myself through Grade 8 Music Theory which dealt with harmony and melody fundamentals, as well as things like writing for trio sonatas, piano miniatures, and of course, chorale harmonisations. My experience of fugue writing comes from obsessively listening and occasionally analysing Bach, and through half a dozen failed prototypes after getting through Music Theory.

The entire Suite is envisioned to be an 8-movement (35 minute /w repeats) piece. Quite ambitious! Three movements, including this Gigue, are ready, but I'm yet to tackle the hardest movement, the Overture! 😅

 

I'm also working on a suite. It will have at least 7 movements, I still have to figure out whether I want something like a Toccata in there or not(I remember somebody suggesting that I add an improvisatory piece like a Toccata either at the start or mid-suite). And I have finally decided on the order of the 7 dance movements. This is the order:

1. Allemande
2. Courante
3. Sarabande
4. Bourree
5. Minuet
6. Gavotte
7. Gigue

I have over half the Allemande finished and I just started on the Minuet. I'm freeing myself to write the movements in any order, which I wouldn't do for a sonata, but is definitely appropriate for a suite.

1 hour ago, caters said:

I'm also working on a suite. It will have at least 7 movements, I still have to figure out whether I want something like a Toccata in there or not(I remember somebody suggesting that I add an improvisatory piece like a Toccata either at the start or mid-suite). And I have finally decided on the order of the 7 dance movements. This is the order:

1. Allemande
2. Courante
3. Sarabande
4. Bourree
5. Minuet
6. Gavotte
7. Gigue

I have over half the Allemande finished and I just started on the Minuet. I'm freeing myself to write the movements in any order, which I wouldn't do for a sonata, but is definitely appropriate for a suite.

 

Sounds good! Though I think liberties can definitely be taken with regards to the placement of movements, if you have good musical reasons. As an example, one of the movements I've written is a homophonic, lyrical Air, taken at slow tempo in 3/4. I therefore don't think it pairs well sitting next to a Sarabande (lack of contrast) and I also don't like it to precede the Gigue (too much contrast), so the setting would probably look something like:

Overture - Allemande - Courante - Air - Scherzo - Sarabande - Bourrees - Gigue.

2 hours ago, muchen_ said:

Sounds good! Though I think liberties can definitely be taken with regards to the placement of movements, if you have good musical reasons. As an example, one of the movements I've written is a homophonic, lyrical Air, taken at slow tempo in 3/4. I therefore don't think it pairs well sitting next to a Sarabande (lack of contrast) and I also don't like it to precede the Gigue (too much contrast), so the setting would probably look something like:

Overture - Allemande - Courante - Air - Scherzo - Sarabande - Bourrees - Gigue.

 

Yeah. That's exactly how I decided on the order that I did, was musical reasoning like that, because I was unsure at first how I should order the Bourree, Minuet, and Gavotte. These were my possible orderings:

• Allemande - Courante - Sarabande - Bourree - Minuet - Gavotte - Gigue
• Allemande - Courante - Sarabande - Bourree - Gavotte - Minuet - Gigue
• Allemande - Courante - Sarabande - Minuet - Bourree - Gavotte - Gigue
• Allemande - Courante - Sarabande - Gavotte - Bourree - Minuet - Gigue
• Allemande - Courante - Sarabande - Minuet - Gavotte - Bourree Gigue
• Allemande - Courante - Sarabande - Gavotte - Minuet - Bourree Gigue

These 2 I felt gave too little contrast with the Gigue(Both fast, both duple, both use dotted rhythms a lot, simple vs complex):

• Allemande - Courante - Sarabande - Minuet - Gavotte - Bourree - Gigue
• Allemande - Courante - Sarabande - Gavotte - Minuet - Bourree - Gigue -> This is the one I saw in Bach, and while it worked for him, I didn't think it would work for me

These 2 I felt gave too much contrast with the Gigue(slow vs fast, triple vs duple, simple vs complex and imitative, dotted rhythm abundance vs rarity):

• Allemande - Courante - Sarabande - Gavotte - Bourree - Minuet - Gigue
• Allemande - Courante - Sarabande - Bourree - Gavotte - Minuet - Gigue

This I felt was okay, but not ideal as I then have Moderate - Fast - Slow - Moderate - Fast - Moderate - Fast, too predictable:

• Allemande - Courante - Sarabande - Minuet - Bourree - Gavotte - Gigue

Which left me with this as my final choice:

• Allemande - Courante - Sarabande - Bourree - Minuet - Gavotte - Gigue

I like how this option kind of mirrors the whole suite, because you have your Sarabande and Minuet, the slower dances, Courante and Gavotte, faster dances, and Allemande and Gigue, the contrapuntally complex, sometimes fugal movements.

Love this