Advice on Learning Fugues?

Chords, scales, harmony, melody, etc.
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Hi Everyone,

I recently became interested in fugues, and am looking for resources (online, books, etc.) that anyone could recommend to learn more about how fugues work, how to write them, etc. Any help you could provide would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

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Greetings !

What I know I learned mainly from studying and playing Bach fugues and reading Alfred Mann's The Study Of Fugue. Btw, you'll need a good background in counterpoint and harmony, so you might want to dip into the standard texts by authors such as Fux and Kent Kennan for your counterpoint, maybe Piston for harmony.

I'm sure there are fine on-line resources, but what I've listed is how I learned. And since there's talking and then there's walking:

http://linux-sound.org/audio/studiodave ... e_In_G.mp3

Not making any claim to musical value there, just wanted to illustrate a typical student-level fugue. And yes, that annoyingly chirpy prelude is a 12-bar blues. :) The fugue itself demonstrates a number of typical devices, e.g. stretto and various thematic manipulations. I should also note that the piece is not humanly playable. I had been looking at Bach's Art Of The Fugue, thinking that Bach would have loved the sequencer as a means to realizing that work.

Best regards,

Dave Phillips

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If you have an ios device, 'Fugue Machine' is now Universal. Not sure if it will help, but it's certainly fun :tu:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvEJFjDykuE

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This is interesting stuff - thanks! I assume that it is possible to write a fugue that is not in Baroque style? I love Bach, and love Baroque music, but I'm not necessarily interested in writing it :).

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bharris22 wrote: Mon Apr 01, 2019 1:57 pm This is interesting stuff - thanks! I assume that it is possible to write a fugue that is not in Baroque style? I love Bach, and love Baroque music, but I'm not necessarily interested in writing it :).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUqGkci1iVo

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bharris22 wrote: Mon Apr 01, 2019 1:57 pm This is interesting stuff - thanks! I assume that it is possible to write a fugue that is not in Baroque style? I love Bach, and love Baroque music, but I'm not necessarily interested in writing it :).
Sure. Here's a famous one from Bartok's Miraculous Mandarin (the fugue theme enters at about 31") :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_o3uI3SL-M

A less frenetic example from Alan Hovhaness :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KqnvkR8kN0

Best,

dp

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Thank you both for these. Fugue Machine certainly looks cool, but is it really creating a fugue (as I understand, or perhaps misunderstand, the form)? In other words, the playheads appear to simply be running over the subject at various speeds/directions, and to the extent they are creating a true "answer" to the subject it appears to be by chance. Is that correct?

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bharris22 wrote: Mon Apr 01, 2019 2:50 pm Thank you both for these. Fugue Machine certainly looks cool, but is it really creating a fugue (as I understand, or perhaps misunderstand, the form)? In other words, the playheads appear to simply be running over the subject at various speeds/directions, and to the extent they are creating a true "answer" to the subject it appears to be by chance. Is that correct?
Like I said, it might help. As I have no understanding of the form, I wouldn't be able to say :shrug:

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Fugues belong to the discipline of counterpoint and no machine will help you make one in this regard. First you need to understand what counterpoint and polyphony are in contrast to voiceleading in harmonization. Then you can dive into further studies of imitative counterpoint techniques and especially study the master of fugues above them all, Johann Sebastian Bach. I will start by picking out a few E-entries for you to achieve some general understanding:

https://www.aboutmusictheory.com/counterpoint.html
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fugue
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counterpoint
https://www.musictheoryacademy.com/unde ... ic/fugues/
http://www.teoria.com/en/tutorials/form ... -fugue.php
https://www3.northern.edu/wieland/theory/form/fugue.htm
http://learnmusictheory.net/PDFs/pdffil ... nCanon.pdf

Some of the links above have major overlabs, yet they can contribute to a nuanced entry before diving into the heavy academic publications.

Here are more than a few links to open source theoretical articles on fugues:

http://www.kunstderfuge.com/theory.htm

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The Craft of Tonal Counterpointav0: Thomas Benjamin

But you probably need a teacher

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Thread started April 1st.
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To Dave Phillips' Bartok example I would add this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m129k5YcQnU

:wheee:

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@rp314 - Beautiful example ! Thanks for the link, listening now. Deep soulful music.

Best,

dp

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Indeed, and it's always great to listen to what some who came after Bach did with the form.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sS9hDlWoXv8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmIr-7z3XdY

:wheee:

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@rp134 - re: the Grosse Fuge: Yep, maybe the best fugue of the entire century. re: the op. 110 fugue, I hadn't listened to it, checking it out now. Lovely work !

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