# Resources for composing fugues



## Morodiene (Dec 23, 2015)

Apart from studying scores (which I will definitely do), what good books or websites are there to learn what is needed for a traditional 4-part fugue?

Even the basic rules are good to know, but tips on what makes a good fugue subject would be great.

I'm writing an oratorio, and this would be the final movement for choir and orchestra.


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## Daryl (Dec 23, 2015)

Try The Examination Fugue by William Lovelock. A bit academic, but lots of useful exercises to get you into good habits

D


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## Baron Greuner (Dec 23, 2015)

The Art of the Fugue by JSB.


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## Morodiene (Dec 23, 2015)

Daryl said:


> Try The Examination Fugue by William Lovelock. A bit academic, but lots of useful exercises to get you into good habits
> 
> D


Thank you, will do!


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## Morodiene (Dec 23, 2015)

Baron Greuner said:


> The Art of the Fugue by JSB.


Isn't this a collection of fugues, but no instructions for how to make them?


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## Dave Connor (Dec 23, 2015)

The form is rather easily apprehended and found online no doubt. It's writing with that kind of pure counterpoint that's what's really important. At least if it's a Bach style counterpoint. Later writers like Mozart, Beethoven and Brahms would take a less linear approach that had more of a chordal basis (not always as in Mozart's 41st Symphony - last mvmt., and Beethoven's String Quartet in C#minor Op. 131 - 1st mvmt.)

If you "Layout" your form with Subject, (Counter Subject if used) Response, and Free Counterpoint sections predetermined (outlined first wherever they occur on the page) you can then fill in the parts and also write up to the oncoming section so it connects smoothly. I would model in every way upon Bach from the Well Tempered Clavier fugues (for example.)

To clarify: write your Subject in and then your Response. If there will be two or three bars of free counterpoint before the next Subject entrance, leave those bars blank and then write in the next Subject and Response in the voice they belong (as with all your subjects and responses.) Do this until the entire length of the piece is basically there. Your structure is now in place and you can compose accordingly.


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## Farkle (Dec 23, 2015)

Gradus Ad Parnassum (Book) by Johann Fux. Widely considered the bible of strict counterpoint (renaissance up through Baroque).

18th Century Counterpoint, by Robert Gauldin. I used in in school, it leads you into the mechanics of the fugue, and basically lays out the harmonic and formal architecture of a fugue.

Mike


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## Morodiene (Dec 23, 2015)

Dave and Farkle...thanks for the info!

I should have paid better attention in undergrad composition, but the teacher was such a derp. I couldnt stand the thought of taking counterpoint from him. >_<

So now I get to self-teach.


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## Baron Greuner (Dec 23, 2015)

Morodiene said:


> Isn't this a collection of fugues, but no instructions for how to make them?


Yes. Did Bach have instruction books on the Fugue? Not sure. May have but probably learned more from listening to Buxtehude.
Also, while counterpoint is important, it's not the be all and end all of the Fugue.


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## bbunker (Dec 23, 2015)

John W. Verrall's "Fugue and Invention in Theory and Practice" is a really useful text...it's very efficient, uses tons of examples, and he constantly gets straight to the point. It is fantastically dry, but since the book is so small and focused, it isn't difficult to carve out a little at a time. There's a great section on the types of fugal subjects, and classifications of fugal episodes. Good stuff. Hard to find for sale, but pretty common in libraries: https://books.google.com/books/about/Fugue_and_invention_in_theory_and_practi.html?id=lEoJAQAAMAAJ

I like Schubert's Tonal Counterpoint book, of the textbook options. So many textbooks just focus entirely on Bach's more complex fugues and ignore all of the other contrapuntalists of the Baroque - Schubert actually focuses particularly on Handel, with analyses of Marpurg, Pachelbel and Albrechtsberger - which are tight, simple fugues that work well in textbook analysis. https://books.google.com/books?id=V...ved=0ahUKEwig7buahPPJAhUCwiYKHb5nBDwQ6AEIJjAA

I think the real 'error' most students make is to focus too heavily on the fugue - if you dig deeply into canons at different intervals, on canons in inversions, on invertible counterpoint and invertible counterpoint at different intervals, on simple inventions at the octave and sinfonias (inventions for three voices) at both the octave and the fifth, then fugue is just the next step in the chain instead of a wall to leap over in one great bound.


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## Morodiene (Dec 23, 2015)

Ya, I'm not really stuck on it being a true fugue in the Baroque sense. I'm fine with an imitative sort of work, but enough so that it can be legitimately called a fugue - however loosely. 

Great list of resources...I'll definitely look into all of these!


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## Dave Connor (Dec 23, 2015)

Morodiene said:


> Ya, I'm not really stuck on it being a true fugue in the Baroque sense. I'm fine with an imitative sort of work, but enough so that it can be legitimately called a fugue - however loosely.


A quasi fugal approach is quite common where you have {as you say} imitative writing that is contrapuntal in nature but not a strict fugue. Beethoven often wrote brief sections that had that quality. They were generally a part of much larger sections where counterpoint was not the main texture. If you want to do a large section than you can probably do an abstraction of the form which suggests it more than adheres to it.


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## Morodiene (Dec 23, 2015)

Still, it's always good to learn the "rules" before breaking them.


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## Rodney Money (Dec 23, 2015)

Goodness, just analyze Little Fugue in G Minor and it will teach you everything you need to know. Boom. Done.


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## muk (Dec 24, 2015)

Great to hear that there's still some interest in good old fugue. Unfortunately I doubt it that it will be practical to learn to write fugues simply from textbooks and studying scores. I think some form of tutelage will be necessary, someone to look over your exercises, and to answer your specific questions. So, my advise would be not to rule out lessons/tutelage. But sure, why not try and see how far you get with books alone.
The Fux' 'Gradus at Parnassum' (by the way, Gradus (with a long u) is a plural, so it's in several steps) is up to today a work of reference. Many of the cointerpoint curiculae are based on it's structure. Choose one of those books - presenting species counterpoint - to start with. But don't start with the 'Gradus' - the Kirchentonarten and old clefs would only detain you from the main thing, which is learning proper counterpoint.

Some basic pointers about fugues:

The exposition
- A fugue begins with a recognizable theme (also called a subject) in the tonic, the dux.
- After the theme played through solo - no accompaniment! - a second voice enters with the same theme, but on the fifth degree of the scale. This is called the comes.
-- If the dux contains the fifth above the tonic (in C major that would be a G), this fifth is altered to a fourth in the comes. That is called a tonal answer. If there is no exposed fifth above the tonic in the dux, all intervalls will be left intact. This is called a real answer.
- While the comes plays, the first voice goes on playing a countermelody, called the 'countersubject'.
- In that way all voices of the fugue will first enter with a presentation of the theme. When all voices have entered and played the theme, the first rotation is over. This rotation is called exposition.

Episodes

- The next rotation, called episode, doesn't present the theme, but may develop certain motivs from it, or from the countersubject(s).
- Episodes can be in freer form and don't have to be in strict counterpoint.
- Modulations can take place in episodes.

Development

- After an episode comes a development. In development the fugue theme reenters, and is treated like in the exposition, except that the theme doesn't have to occur in every voice, and that it can occur on any degree of the scale.
- In development sections contrapuntal techniques can be used to condense the texture and build tension and climax.
- There are many techniques to do that, some of which are entrance of the theme in various voices with less time between the entrances than in the exposition (stretta), inversion, retrograde motion etc. These techniques are not as common as is usually thought, though.

- For the rest of the fugue, episodes and development sections occur alternatingly.

One of the most prominent distinction of the fugue is that each voice is an individual melodic line. Even the middle voices have a distinct melodic shape, and don't simply fill in the missing harmonic notes. In fact, the treatment of the middle voices is often a very good indicator for the quality and strictness of a contrapuntal writing. In later times this distinction became less strict, though. If you look up a fugue from, say, Johann Georg Albrechtsberger there is sometimes even chordal accompaniment. But that is very much not the norm and is to be avoided in any traditional fugue.
In later scale works that require a fugue - for example a mass - the fugue is often only hinted at with an exposition. But after the exposition the texture becomes looser and doesn't follow the rules of the fugue anymore. Some good examples for this much freer treatment of fugue techniques which don't actually make up a real fugue can be found in Haydn masses.


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## Rodney Money (Dec 24, 2015)

muk said:


> Great to hear that there's still some interest in good old fugue. Unfortunately I doubt it that it will be practical to learn to write fugues simply from textbooks and studying scores. I think some form of tutelage will be necessary, someone to look over your exercises, and to answer your specific questions. So, my advise would be not to rule out lessons/tutelage. But sure, why not try and see how far you get with books alone.


When I study scores, I always saw the composer themselves teaching me, but maybe I'm different than other people. That's what my professors always told me back in the day, but I can already analyze music. I've seen what you wrote a thousand times, but when I study Little Fugue in G Minor it automatically says the exact same thing.


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## sinkd (Dec 24, 2015)

Shostakovich Op. 87


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## Morodiene (Dec 24, 2015)

muk said:


> Great to hear that there's still some interest in good old fugue. Unfortunately I doubt it that it will be practical to learn to write fugues simply from textbooks and studying scores. I think some form of tutelage will be necessary, someone to look over your exercises, and to answer your specific questions. So, my advise would be not to rule out lessons/tutelage. But sure, why not try and see how far you get with books alone.



Point well-taken. I do have a composition teacher, but I only get to work with him during the summer months. I really don't want to wait that long to get started, however, so this will have to do for now.



> The Fux' 'Gradus at Parnassum' (by the way, Gradus (with a long u) is a plural, so it's in several steps) is up to today a work of reference. Many of the cointerpoint curiculae are based on it's structure. Choose one of those books - presenting species counterpoint - to start with. But don't start with the 'Gradus' - the Kirchentonarten and old clefs would only detain you from the main thing, which is learning proper counterpoint.
> 
> Some basic pointers about fugues:
> 
> ...



Thank you for this overview! I do tend to write a lot based on chords, but being able to write a great melody is a very important skill as well. I was told by my teacher that in counterpoint, each line needs to make sense melodically. It's a bit of a shift from harmonic writing, for sure. What I love about Baroque and early music is that they would sometimes come up with these complex harmonies - not with the intention of doing that, but simply by how each melodic line turned out. I absolutely love that and hope I can arrive at something similar in mine! :D


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## Morodiene (Dec 24, 2015)

sinkd said:


> Shostakovich Op. 87


Ah yes. I love Shostakovich and bought this score at one point with the full intention of learning to play them. But as you know - so much music, so little time! However, perhaps it's time to pull them out and study them a bit.


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## Rctec (Dec 24, 2015)

Rodney Money said:


> Goodness, just analyze Little Fugue in G Minor and it will teach you everything you need to know. Boom. Done.


its the most sublime fugue to me, and emotionally I agree with you! ...but I know there is a little more to learn...


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## Rodney Money (Dec 24, 2015)

Rctec said:


> its the most sublime fugue to me, and emotionally I agree with you! ...but I know there is a little more to learn...


Do y'all, yes I'm southern lol, know another fugue I absolutely love? The finale of Britten's Young Person's Guide to the Symphony Orchestra.


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## Morodiene (Dec 25, 2015)

My personal favorites are Bach's Dona nobis pacem from the B minor mass, WTC I B-flat major, and Brahms Requiem 6th movement. The latter one being more of the character that I'm looking to create. But there's just something about the form that builds in excitement and sounds chaotic yet you know there's an order to it all underneath. So cool.


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## Rodney Money (Dec 25, 2015)

Morodiene said:


> My personal favorites are Bach's Dona nobis pacem from the B minor mass, WTC I B-flat major, and Brahms Requiem 6th movement. The latter one being more of the character that I'm looking to create. But there's just something about the form that builds in excitement and sounds chaotic yet you know there's an order to it all underneath. So cool.


Absolutely. I know exactly what you mean. I already have this idea one day to use a fugue for a finale of a symphony because of the excitement and foward momentum they create.


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## all ears (Dec 25, 2015)

Maybe not exactly what the OP asked for, but good fun (and rather instructive in its own way):


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## mickeyl (Dec 25, 2015)

That is great!


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## Uncle Peter (Jan 13, 2016)

Bach Bach ... woof woof:
This is brilliant - in depth interactive analysis of the fugues in the WTC
http://bach.nau.edu/clavier/nature/fugues/Fugue01.html

Digital Bach Project.. This site offers great analysis and background on Bach's canons and Fugues
http://www2.nau.edu/tas3/bachindex.html

Also - additionally: follow the original score (digitally) for the WTC, Goldbergs, Mass in B Minor, St. Matthew Passion
http://bach.nau.edu/


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## Morodiene (Jan 13, 2016)

Thanks, Uncle Pete!


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