Fugue in a minor

A four-part tonal fugue in the instrumental style, composed upon a given subject. I made the first drafts about 12 years ago when I was still in university, but I hadn't worked on them until yesterday. I have mixed feelings about the result. (The slurs, as usual in my own counterpoint exercises, are meant to indicate various phrases and motifs and should not be taken as articulation.)

Hey @Fermata!

This is a very lucid and emotionally affecting and cerebral fugue!  But the string samples leave something to be desired in terms of the rendition.  Did you make this with Musescore 3 or something?  I think you could benefit quite a bit from switching to Musesounds and Musescore Studio!  My only gripes are with the way the piece is performed in this particular rendition.  For example, a small and petty nitpick I have is that it would give your rendition and articulations more clarity if you gave repeated notes some space before they re-occur.  Another thing that would greatly enhance my impression of the ending is if there was a ritardando towards the end with a fermata on the last note to hold it out longer.  In Musescore Studio you could literally just slap the rit. marking into the score and the program would do everything itself.  No fussing around with hidden tempo markings.  Same with a fermata.

I don't know if you intended to write this fugue with the ranges of choir singers in mind (SATB), but I think it could also easily be arranged for a string orchestra.  The Soprano and Alto lines can be covered by Violins I and II, while the Tenor could be covered by Violas, and the Bass part could be given to Cellos and Basses (and would be especially appropriate for both cellos and basses where they're doubled in octaves before the dominant pedal comes in).  I don't know if this is a feature of most choir music that it can easily be arranged for string orchestra (probably because of the similar restrictions in range?)

But I really love the structure of the fugue!  It's got everything - a stretto section right before the end, a dominant pedal and a second exposition.  Are the different motives that you use to construct each of the middle entries labeled as A, B, C, and D, respectively, in the score?  Thanks for sharing!

Hi, and thanks for your comments!

On 2/5/2025 at 5:14 AM, PeterthePapercomPoser said:

Did you make this with Musescore 3 or something?  I think you could benefit quite a bit from switching to Musesounds and Musescore Studio!  My only gripes are with the way the piece is performed in this particular rendition.  For example, a small and petty nitpick I have is that it would give your rendition and articulations more clarity if you gave repeated notes some space before they re-occur.  Another thing that would greatly enhance my impression of the ending is if there was a ritardando towards the end with a fermata on the last note to hold it out longer.  In Musescore Studio you could literally just slap the rit. marking into the score and the program would do everything itself.  No fussing around with hidden tempo markings.  Same with a fermata.

Yes, I use Musescore 3. Alas, that's the only version that runs on my PC, so switching to more advanced applications is not an option at the moment. It's very cumbersome to add articulations and such this way (like playing around with those hidden tempo changes); there is, in fact, a plugin for changing the note duration, but one has to set each note separately, which is an awful lot of work. I really don't know what other options I have in MS 3.

On 2/5/2025 at 5:14 AM, PeterthePapercomPoser said:

I don't know if you intended to write this fugue with the ranges of choir singers in mind (SATB), but I think it could also easily be arranged for a string orchestra.  The Soprano and Alto lines can be covered by Violins I and II, while the Tenor could be covered by Violas, and the Bass part could be given to Cellos and Basses (and would be especially appropriate for both cellos and basses where they're doubled in octaves before the dominant pedal comes in).

Most of the fugue was worked out on paper in an SATB open score format with no particular instruments in my mind (I chose those strings for the audio rendition because that soundfont is amongst the least horrible I have). Actually, what you suggest is a very good idea! One thing that makes me think is what role to give the double bass before the dominant pedal. Supporting the cello throughout might be a bit too much sometimes.

On 2/5/2025 at 5:14 AM, PeterthePapercomPoser said:

Are the different motives that you use to construct each of the middle entries labeled as A, B, C, and D, respectively, in the score?  

Yes, exactly, those form the kernel of the episodes.