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Here are some of my "Bach-like" fugues, each with a short description of its themes. All fugues are composed using Apple's Garageband. Using a software program for composition has its pitfalls though, as I completely ignored the fingering technicality of the score, resulting sometimes in an "unplayable" piece, or at least, you need more than two hands (and two feet!). So please think of them foremost as abstract fugues. All recordings are also made with Garageband and are played using software instruments (sampled from real-life instruments). Although Garageband is a fantastic program, its score editor is not yet that sophisticated and is particularly inadequate for polyphonic music notation, and so I rewrote all scores using MuseScore. I first thought of also syncing the audio with the sheet music and combine them into a YouTube movie. Using instead the forums on MuseScore, I decided to publish some of my pieces there (the only drawback is that the digital instruments sound more synthetic than the soundfonts I use in Garageband).
The Fugue has three voices. Its main theme consists of two parts, I and II,with the second part divided also into two parts, IIa, going upward, and IIb, going downward. The energetic movement is amplified by the countertheme with its quavers going up in thirds.
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The two-voiced toccata in D minor is in a 12/8 rhythm, whereas the fugue has three voices and is the usual 4/4 tempo. The fugue's main theme has three distinct parts I, II and III, where III lends a particular chromatic flavor to this fugue (and his countertheme has even a 3/4 counterrhythm). On the other hand, the countertheme to II is the most lyric of all themes. Although recorded for piano or organ, one should more think of it as an abstract fugue, as the score is technically too demanding for two hands.
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This prelude is really a trio, whereas the fugue has four voices [vierstemmige fuga in sol klein]. The main theme of the fugue has three distinct parts I, II and III, with the middle one again divided into two parts, IIa and IIb, where IIb is a faster version of IIa. Moreover, the second countertheme to part II is an echo of part II, in a one-beat delay at a third higher, whereas the third countertheme to part II is a variant of I. The countertheme to III gives an "unbaroque" feel to the very baroque III.
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Fugue in C minor in five voices [vijfstemmige fuga in do klein] with a prelude. Both prelude and fugue are written in a quintuple measure 5/4, interpreted as 3+2, very much like the Delphic hymns to Apollo in cretic meter (L-S-L), which resembles particularly the dynamics of the 2nd part of the second theme of the fugue. The fugue has 5 voices and also five themes/counterthemes. The first theme is a type of ostinato, from which the fourth theme [starting in bar 37] is built by a one-beat delay, down a sixth. The third theme [starting in bar 16] has a syncopated rhythm, breaking the monotony of the ostinato theme, thus anticipating the delayed syncopation of the fourth theme, whereas the second theme [starting in bar 7] almost feels like a minuet (in the cretic meter rather than in 3/4). Finally, the fifth theme [starting in bar 132] is an anagram, HACB, of the beloved B-A-C-H theme (recall that German H is B-natural), but instead of the usual seconds, it goes up in augmented sevenths. In stark contrast to the fugue's complexity, is the prelude's simplicity: it is a continuous repetition, spanning the entire 70 measures along a sinusoidal arc, of a one-measure rhythmic/melodic pattern based on the 3rd theme of the fugue with as countertheme a variation (inverse) of the fugue's first ostinato theme.
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The prelude is a two-voiced fughetta/canon, whose theme consists of a tonic part followed by a chromatic one. There is a "false" end in major followed by the correct end in minor. The fugue has four voices. The main theme consists of two parts: an upward arch modulating back to the tonic, and a downward one in counter rhythm. Before the remainder of the exposition starts, the second theme is introduced [in bar 81]. The second part of the theme has itself a two-part countertheme, both of which later also mix with the first part and the second theme. The first part of the main theme also occurs in a stretto [first time in bar 148] starting half a measure later, catching up with the first theme and even ending a half measure earlier. In the finale [bar 178ff], the first theme becomes a canto firmo, its first part being stretched four-fold. Before the final cadence is a fast single-voiced coda.
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The prelude switches between its three-voiced chorus and its simple two-voiced, one-bar pattern. In the three-voiced fugue, the counterthemes get towards the end rhythmically more complex, but the main theme stays throughout the same (except that its penultimate appearance is in a "false" E minor).
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Without changing the tempo, we get three rhythmically different parts: a prelude, followed by a two-part toccata (the second part has a 3/4 counterrhytm), and then an aria (in a fuga style), which gets interrupted halfway by a partial repetition of the toccata.
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Submitted to the Lake George Music Festival Composition Competition.
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The prelude follows a very fixed progression/passacaglia, with two themes (bass, tenor and alto), each played in a similar threefold harmonics, whereas the sorpano becomes more involved as the prelude progresses (the prelude needs at some point a pedal, so is predominantly intended for organ). The four-voiced fugue has a tri-partite theme, with the middle part also acting as countertheme.
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After a small introduction (in triplets), the toccata takes off with a simple one-measure quaver pattern that will be repeated throughout (and a four note countertheme in the pedal). The three-voiced fugue also is based on a one-measure quaver pattern, with several of its variants, in which the theme is developped: this fugue has an almost as simple polyphonic structure as the toccata.
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One of my first compositions using Garageband, rewritten for three strings.
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Duet for solo violin and viola
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The prelude is monophonic, but the fugue is an attempt at polyphony with a solo instrument, in a feeble imitation of Bach's brilliant Cello suites. I am not 100% sure whether the prelude is playable, but to you should listen to the digital recording for the intended bowing.
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Three-part Kyrie in E minor. The main themes have a mirror symmetry to them, where the two Kyrie Eleison's (for orchestra and harpsichord) enclose the middle Christe Eleison (for bass solo, cello and harpsichord).
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- Sheet music (written using MuseScore)
- Movie on MuseScore (with score).
- Complete YouTube movie (without score; artwork by my brother-in-law)
- YouTube movie of Part I (without score; artwork by my niece)
The 4-voiced fugue starts off slowly, but picks up pace with the more chromatic, semiquaver theme halfway.
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"Church" sonata for Oboe, English horn, and Cello in four movements (Adagio-Fughetta-Sarabande-Gigue)
Three-voiced prelude and four-voiced fugue.
Short choral without lyrics
The theme of the toccata is a variation on the "wedge" motif from BWV 548. The four voiced fugue is in fact a double fugue, with two distinct themes, each with its own counter themes, which then in the last part combine together. I marked these themes in the sheet music by T1 and T2.
- Sheet music (written using MuseScore)
- Movie with score on MuseScore