Joking Fugue on Jingle Bell and my Friend’s Theme

So... Seeing @PeterthePapercomPoser a.k.a PeterthePitifulcomPoser and @Thatguy v2.0a.k.a VincetheVeryVindictivebutnotValiant having their fight, I was enjoying my popcorn aside. But then I saw that Peter’s badge for this year Christmans event is so beautiful… it allured me to write my own Christmas music!

This piece is really a joking fugue which uses Jingle Bell and Vince‘s “How the Shopper Stole Christmas” as the subjects to form a double fugue: (We all know Jingle Bell right...)(It’s great to escape from the pressure of the 6 voice fugue of the Sextet Second movement LoL….)

I know Vince hates fugue, so I deliberately manipulate his theme with all sorts of fugal techniques to troll him muahahaha!!! I also include some quotations including my own throughout the piece haha. I dedicate the piece to him since I have trolled him haha! However, the more I compose this one it appears to me less of a joke… 

Joking Fugue on Jingle Bell and my Friend’s Theme Final.pdf

Here's the structure of the piece:

00:02 Jingle Bell Section. Includes troll stretto, troll inversion and troll retrograde. Crushed by the Hammer at the end… And we need some help with the “festive mood”.
02:10 Shopper Section: Includes troll stretto, troll inversion and troll retrograde (the same LoL).  The bell is repaired at 04:03 so the Jingle Bell theme returns to combine with the shopper theme but appears in minor. Some interesting polyrhythms happen there too, maybe Vince’s prelude style secretly invades. Tension building (but still have time to quote my own work LoL) for the…
05:28 Overly-Triumphant return of the theme which quotes the texture of the Emperor Concerto, another counterpoint of both themes and ends in a learned way LoL!

Thx to Vince for this perfect audio! I think there are no tears here this time @chopin and no random pauses anymore I think. Hope you all enjoy this one and Christmas!
 

Henry

so deliberately bad and un-Henrian
anyway how do you reach major 10ths 🙂 ?

Hey @PCC,

39 minutes ago, PCC said:

so deliberately bad and un-Henrian

I think I do joke in the first section, but not too bad later on right?😝  At least I do thing I moss do and there are neither parallel fifths nor random pauses nor tears in it!!

40 minutes ago, PCC said:

anyway how do you reach major 10ths 🙂 ?

I just cheat and use pedal there LoL haha…. for the “festive” mood!!

Henry

I really like it hahah 

Love the fugues - what a blast from the past it was to here Vince's theme! Structure wise the fugues are great. You could probably do with some more counterpoint practice (I don't claim to be any better lol!) but it's a great festive piece.

I know that you could have written better transitions between the fugues though! Something less clunky than broken chords into the second? I actually think you dig yourself into a hole by extending the 4-voice bells over eight bars. Four might have been enough and you could have got out of it with more grace. However, if you were looking for it to be a pause-and-cadenza type passage then maybe it could do to be a lot more virtuosic than just broken chords.

Thanks so much for entering!

11 hours ago, 44W74l4 said:

I really like it hahah 

Thx Aaron! I am happy you like it!

Henry

7 hours ago, aMusicComposer said:

Love the fugues - what a blast from the past it was to here Vince's theme! Structure wise the fugues are great.

I definitely wanna troll Vince's theme!!!!!

7 hours ago, aMusicComposer said:

You could probably do with some more counterpoint practice (I don't claim to be any better lol!)

Wait wait wait!!! It's a joke man!! ANDA IA AMA A SELF-PROCLAIMEDA GENIUSA!! WHATA MOREA EXERCISEA YOUA WANNA MEA TOA PRACTICE A? I AMA SICKA OFA THEA SIX-PARTA FUGUE IN MYA STRING SEXTETA AND ME NEEDA SOME REST A!!!!

7 hours ago, aMusicComposer said:

I know that you could have written better transitions between the fugues though! Something less clunky than broken chords into the second? I actually think you dig yourself into a hole by extending the 4-voice bells over eight bars. Four might have been enough and you could have got out of it with more grace. However, if you were looking for it to be a pause-and-cadenza type passage then maybe it could do to be a lot more virtuosic than just broken chords.

I know I can haha!! BUT AGAIN I AM A SELF-PROCLAIMED GENIUS AND YOU DEFINITELY ARE NOT MY SELECTED FEW!!!! WHEN YOU WRITE LIKE THIS IT'S TRASH BUT WHEN I WRITE LIKE THIS IT IS A WORK OF GENIUS, DO YOU UNDERSTAND A?? I DEMAND AN IMMEDIATE UNIVERSAL RECOGNIZTION FOR MY WORK OF GENIUS HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I AM A GENIUS SO WHAT I DO IT'S ALL DOGMATICALLY CORRECT!!!

(Ha it's that fun for a joke.......)

I do deliberately use broken chords becoz I wanna act like a novice composer who wanna impress others but fail to do so LoL!! Also isn't that 8 bars "stretto" and "canon" 4-voice bells GREAT HAHA?!

Thx for listening!!

Henry

22 minutes ago, Henry Ng Tsz Kiu said:

ANDA IA AMA A SELF-PROCLAIMEDA GENIUSA!! WHATA MOREA EXERCISEA YOUA WANNA MEA TOA PRACTICE A? I AMA SICKA OFA THEA SIX-PARTA FUGUE IN MYA STRING SEXTETA AND ME NEEDA SOME REST A!!!!

@Thatguy v2.0 did you draw that mustache in yourself?  🥸

I don't think music has ever made me laugh lol. This is a hilariously, well composed piece (hey, I think its well composed, even if its a joke!) that turns Beethoven towards the end. Your fugue section is also quite dissonant, but I was still able to follow it. Things get really funny at the 5:20 mark and beyond. Thanks for making me laugh, I needed a little boost .

@Thatguy v2.0 Is the italian sad becoz there is pineapple inside the pizza which is forbidden??!! 😂

1 hour ago, Henry Ng Tsz Kiu said:

 Is the italian sad becoz there is pineapple inside the pizza which is forbidden??!! 😂

No Henry, the Italian is you you spicy meat-a ball

On 12/20/2023 at 12:39 PM, chopin said:

I don't think music has ever made me laugh lol. This is a hilariously, well composed piece (hey, I think its well composed, even if its a joke!) that turns Beethoven towards the end. Your fugue section is also quite dissonant, but I was still able to follow it. Things get really funny at the 5:20 mark and beyond. Thanks for making me laugh, I needed a little boost .

Haha thx Mike! It's the happiest piece I have ever written, especially after escaping and procrastinating from the hard work of the six part fugue in the 2nd movement of my String Sextet!!! Still I have to compose this with full labour even though I enjoy it very much LoL.. It's easy to make the fugue dissonant since that freaking Jingle Bells melody has repeated notes and you can't nuance it to other chords haha! And I know you need a good boost especially when you will feature my piece in your music jotter video!!

Henry

On 12/20/2023 at 2:17 PM, Thatguy v2.0 said:

the Italian is you you spicy meat-a ball

No I AMA FREAKINGA GENIUS A!!! 

On 12/20/2023 at 4:07 AM, Henry Ng Tsz Kiu said:

ANDA IA AMA A SELF-PROCLAIMEDA GENIUSA!! WHATA MOREA EXERCISEA YOUA WANNA MEA TOA PRACTICE A? I AMA SICKA OFA THEA SIX-PARTA FUGUE IN MYA STRING SEXTETA AND ME NEEDA SOME REST A!!!!

EXCITEDA TO A HEARA THE FINISHEDA FUGUEA!

On 12/20/2023 at 6:17 AM, Thatguy v2.0 said:

No Henry, the Italian is you you spicy meat-a ball

WHAT

On 12/18/2023 at 8:23 PM, Henry Ng Tsz Kiu said:

Thx to Vince for this perfect audio! I think there are no tears here this time @chopin and no random pauses anymore I think.

Yeah.....but.............

As I listen to this again, the velocity of your notes are way to high. I forgot about this, and I should have lowered them. When I import midis, for some reason mf in my DAW is like 70/100. I'll drop them. I'll keep that in mind for next time. I'm also hearing subtle "cracks" in the audio in some spots. I don't know why I didn't hear it before. 

ANYWAY

It was really cool to hear this again. I sometimes forget how good you are haha. My favorite parts are when you took both themes and intertwined them. It reminded me of Shostakovich. My favorite parts of his music are when he does this so effortlessly and skillfully, and your music in that aspect is no different. You have such a great talent for it, so I'm excited to hear what you have in store for us with your upcoming sextet movement. 🙂

I've shared other thoughts on this piece I've had with you, and you're clearly not only an accomplished composer (so far!), but a great person to know. As I've said numerous times by now but never get tired of saying, you're a fantastic composer and musician, and it's only outshined by your strength of character and by the weight of your heart. Hope your holidays were great, and I'm excited to hear what you have in store for us for 2024!

Yo Vince,

On 1/2/2024 at 4:04 PM, Thatguy v2.0 said:

Yeah.....but.............

As I listen to this again, the velocity of your notes are way to high. I forgot about this, and I should have lowered them. When I import midis, for some reason mf in my DAW is like 70/100. I'll drop them. I'll keep that in mind for next time. I'm also hearing subtle "cracks" in the audio in some spots. I don't know why I didn't hear it before. 

Oh really?! I don't notice them at all! Otherwise I won't upload that videos full of tears and get roasted by our Boss Mike!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I enjoy this rendition very much!

On 1/2/2024 at 4:04 PM, Thatguy v2.0 said:

It was really cool to hear this again. I sometimes forget how good you are haha. My favorite parts are when you took both themes and intertwined them. It reminded me of Shostakovich. My favorite parts of his music are when he does this so effortlessly and skillfully, and your music in that aspect is no different. You have such a great talent for it, so I'm excited to hear what you have in store for us with your upcoming sextet movement. 🙂

Yeah seeing my (mal)treatment on your theme makes you happy ha? I love this kind of combining themes to create different meanings! The sextet movement will be posted seperately with the fugue first!

On 1/2/2024 at 4:04 PM, Thatguy v2.0 said:

I've shared other thoughts on this piece I've had with you, and you're clearly not only an accomplished composer (so far!), but a great person to know. As I've said numerous times by now but never get tired of saying, you're a fantastic composer and musician, and it's only outshined by your strength of character and by the weight of your heart. Hope your holidays were great, and I'm excited to hear what you have in store for us for 2024!

another big 💋

Henry