You knew what was coming when your resident fugologist shows up after months of absence, didn't you? 
That's right, it's another fugue. This one, though, is definitely something Bach would never write... It probably stretches the definition of fugue in quite a few ways. Yet it also has many Bach-like aspects to it. Well, no need for me to say in words what you can hear for yourself. I had lots of fun writing it, and I hope you'll enjoy listening to it as much too!
Score: [PDF]
Computer rendering: [mp3]
Let me know what you think. Any feedback, praise, critique, flames, etc., are welcome.
Replies
I enjoyed it! I'm not sure it stretches the definition of fugue THAT much, and while it's obvious Bach would never have written it, it's not too far from Beethoven's style in some ways. Nice work,. thanks for sharing!
Thanks! Beethoven is probably my biggest influence, and it shows. (And I like wearing it on my sleeve. :P) I would say that my musical tastes and style lean far more towards Beethoven than Bach, in spite of my current obsession with fugues.
Anyway, I'm glad you liked it. Thanks for listening!
Question for any brass players out there who might be reading this: even though I wrote this piece for piano, at the back of my mind I always thought of it as a kind of fanfare for a brass ensemble (I think the repeated notes and figurations give this away :-P). I think for the low range I kept well within playable range for trombone / euphonium, but in terms of high notes there's a couple of B's above the staff near the end (that would be C# on a Bb trumpet). If I were to score this for, say, a brass quartet or brass quintet, would it make sense to transpose it down to Ab instead? So that the highest note would be (written) C, which should be well within the abilities of any competent trumpet player? Or is it OK as-is?
Also, if I were to actually score this for a brass ensemble, I'm guessing I'd have to space the passages out more, since right now there aren't very many pauses in the 4 voices (esp. voice 2), which could be quite tiring to play. Maybe score for a quintet and split up the top two voices occasionally to have more breaks?
Any tips in this direction would be appreciated.
Hey HS. Bright, cherry, a lot of fun! Yes, it reminded me a bit of B's 9th, 2nd mov't. The rapid fire repeated notes a little tricky to play with the lines in the same hand, though doable. I do think this would sound great with brass ensemble!
Nice work!
Hey Gx, good to hear from you again. How are things?
Yeah I think I was a little too much in the brass writing mindset when I wrote it, almost forgot about the poor pianist. 😅 I think I need some help with the brass writing though. Should I score for brass quintet or quartet? Initially I was hoping for quartet because the voice to instrument mapping is cleaner, but then with a quintet there are more options to juggle difficult parts between instruments, and also gives me a way to fill out some climactic chords more, which I couldn't in this piano version because it would be impossible to play with two hands.
I have literally zero experience writing for brass (except for generic brass writing in orchestral scores) so this is new territory for me.
It seems that you could get by w 2 trumpets, french horn, and trombone. The trombone lowest (non pedal tone is E2, and can play at least up to Bb above middle C).
If you have notes below E2, you might consider a tuba as well.
Thinking of brass in baroque form, you might like Canadian Brass playing toccata in fugue, or for larger ensemble, German Brass.
I also think of Gabrieli's wonderful works for brass.
I thought perhaps these links might kindle some ideas for you.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Cst9lV5PPg - start at the 1'33'' mark.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p27AVfoeEcQ&t=56s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8vohnhbhyU&list=OLAK5uy_klbsGJ...
ps... You might consider transposing a 1/2 step up to Bb - for brass arrangement.
I was actually thinking of transposing down a step, because as-is the highest note is a B (written C# on a Bb trumpet). Now I read that there's no real upper limit for brass instruments as in theory you could go beyond traditional ranges, but I didn't want to risk writing something so high that it requires a Baroque specialist to play. :D Of course, being totally ignorant of how brass instruments work beyond the most obvious basics, I've no idea how much of a problem this actually is.
But now that I think about it, Bb is probably not a bad idea, since it would fit most default brass tunings naturally. The 1st trumpet would have to hit a high D, though. But maybe it's not that big of a deal?
Excellently composed! A real treat! Fugues are tough to write, but you kept it interesting and functional throughout.
Those chords at the end may cause the pianist's wrists to spasm slightly, but it's only a matter of time before human pianists are replaced with AI humanoids with pneumatic drill technology in their wrists, so this piece is abead of its time 😜
Thanks for listening!
Well, there are already player pianos that can play microrhythms fast enough to simulate human speech; I'm sure this piece is a piece of cake for them. 😆 I'm also pretty sure a human player would manage just fine by playing it a little slower than the indicated tempo.
Or I could just transcribe it for brass instead as I planned and there'd be no problem. 😝