Double Fugue
2010-02-09
I've got a preliminary completion of the first fugue now. I expect heavy revisions are necessary.
Lament movement 5: Fugue in A minor for pipe organ
1. Prelude
-Slow and steady, this prelude evokes feelings of loneliness and fruitless searching
2. Chaconne/Passacaglia
-The theme/feeling of loneliness revisited, this Chaconne uses a complex bass theme which keeps repeating/varying itself
3. Interlude
-A bit more playful than the others, this is a very short work written to be a buffer between one section and the next. This is done because the next sections are derived from material in the chaconne, including the bass theme as a fugue subject
4. Fantasia
-Supposed to be a sort of improvised work, it kind of sounds like several different songs fighting one another to be heard in a kind of way. It borrows a little from the chaconne.
5. Fugue 1, sans second subject
6. Interfugue
7. Fugue 2, subjects 1 and 2 combined
I'm modeling this fugue after something Bach (or Zoltan Goncz) did. It's a game of juxtaposition. A preliminary step is to write one fugue exposition which exploits both fugue subjects in a predetermined order. According to that guide, subject 2 uses the G2 configuration, while subject 1 uses the F2 configuration.
I ran into a problem with the combined fugue. Both subjects almost drown one another out because they both draw attention at the exact same moments. To get around this, I made subject 1 begin a measure earlier by adding a little 2 note intro to it. It's taken off the squareness of the work, so the thickening of the voices isn't so pronounced (ie, going from 2 voices to 4 is confusing). This was Bach's/Zoltan's solution as well. In his quadruple fugue, each of the 4 subjects begins at a slightly different time.
The three fugues are all derivations off of the chaconne theme, and are all roughly 8 measures long. The 'interfugue' is based off of the opening counter melody to the chaconne (which rhythmically seems to work quite well, though it clashes when combined with the subjects of the double fugue, effectively nullifying the possibility of its being used like a 3rd fugue subject/triple fugue). Still, these 3 fugues all do resemble one another, so I think it is fitting that they are all included in the same work which spawned them.
I have no idea what to call this bloody thing, though. I'd use the word 'suite' but this implies it is intended to be used for a dance (and often in 3/4 time or at a quick pace, neither of which is true of this project).
Fugue Voice Guide
2010-02-01
I've been messing around with what variations of voice order a fugue can take. Using the picture below as a guide, I was able to calculate all 24 of them, and arranged them into related families (the ones grouped in 4s). Each family's first form can be rotated to reproduce the other forms shown in that same color. Some can only be rotated once before it starts repeating itself due to their symmetric nature.
The configurations are designed to each occupy one of the 4 voice ranges and one of the 4 voice times (first, second, etc). So while there are 16 slots to choose from, there won't be any repeats (like two tenor spots). What's even more interesting is that you can overlay certain configurations over one another. If they don't conflict, you can fill up all 16 blocks. For example, in Zoltan Goncz's reconstruction of Contrapunctus 14, he uses a permutation matrix in this way, specifically configurations: E2 and F2, D 1 and D 4. This is a quadruple fugue, which means it's got 4 different themes that can be played simultaneously. I've been experimenting with things like this for a while now (though only double fugues) because the idea intrigues me so much, though I get pretty stuck at it. I guess I just like symmetry? I have to say, he had a very good idea with it. Each theme begins at a slightly different time, so when each one enters, regardless of how high or low they are they always seem to enter in order. If you don't do this, you just get a mess of notes at the beginning, making it much more difficult to distinctly make out each theme.
Tune wise, I can't say it's the catchiest piece of organ music I've ever heard, but the fact that this thing has that many themes, all of which can dance with any other theme or all at once without stepping on one another's toes- it amazes me.
Multifugue definition: I like this website, as lots of good info if you can get through the music theory/counterpoint jargon.
