HS: Fugue on the theme of Bach (2020)

3 Compositional Studies in Fugue (2020) I. "Antismoking" Fugue in c minor (written in January) II. "Ribs" Fugue in G major (February) → III. Fugue on the theme of Bach (May) Suppl.(2021) Fugue on the theme of "Happy Talk" (February) --- As the finale of the suite, this is the last fugue I have written. I stopped writing fugues after this because I believed I had demonstrated everything I could (please don't mention parallels and hidden intervals! - I unfortunately never had formal training in composition). Once again, one can identify significant progress. Now I fully notate both the subject and countersubject in the score. The most significant change is the use of four voices - a four-voice fugue is quite different from a three-voice fugue. In a three-voice fugue, you basically use the subject and answer, along with contrasting counterpoints, arranging different combinations in each voice with continuous modulation. In four voices, this alone is not enough, and more creative material must be included; you now have two additional complete voices beyond the subject and answer! You can fill them with anything, but that also means you must fill them with something. I've tried to utilize these elements appropriately. Another point of note is the structure of the fugue itself. While writing the four-voice fugue, I realized more was possible and experimented greatly in the second part of the piece, introducing a second subject and later combining it with the first. This is a kind of double fugue, something you might see in Beethoven's later works or in only a few of Bach's. There are many other advancements such as canons, extended modulations, etc., but most of these are explained in the video, so I won't elaborate further. Although I've stopped writing fugues now, the skills I acquired while composing this piece have greatly helped in my later compositions. I learned how to incorporate counterpoint into melodies to enrich the sound. The most significant change is an obsessive focus on the subject. I learned how to sneak the declared subject anywhere in a piece, a technique I used frequently in subsequent compositions. This piece was influenced by Gould's famous fugue. Composed and recorded by the composer in May of 2020