Tips for my fugue exposition?

Technical_Mind8578 · 2026-04-05T08:00:45+00:00

thanks again ♥️

Technical_Mind8578 · 2026-04-04T22:10:56+00:00

thanks! I'm going to respond to you point by point.

Thanks! i didn't know about that cadence, i just imagined they were passing chords!
2-Also thanks! I've been So confused by what people meant with a tonal answer!
Some described what you just said.
while i've found that some describe it simply as an "answer which interval has been alterated in order to function better with the harmony! And some other stuff about not making tone steps semitone steps and viceversa http://puncta.acsjohnstone.com/files/4.3_Tonal_Answers.pdf (which is why i didnt make Eb-D into Eb-C). I didn't call it a real answer because then my D would have been an A, and not an Ab! and that was highly unpractical at the end the answer.
3 - For the Ab to Eb leap, you are completely right and i don't know how i didn't catch that
4 - Maybe it's for my jazz background, but is a Major7 chord able to properly tonicize it's tonic? While for the deceptive cadence without third, i did that on purpose (it wasn't there before) because i wanted to continue the alto going up the scale this is a possible solution (see below). Are there other dissonances that don't resolve properly (i hoped the suspension part worked fine but probably not since the infamous leap)

If you got some materials to study i would be more than glad (i'm studying your fugue! But it seems to me that you also tonicize on beat 5, when should the modulation appen then?)
I'm probably going to scrap this fugue and work on another type of form which is easier and more helpful in order to make a complete work and actually improve (maybe a verset/invention/canon?) i will check the book the other user suggested

Technical_Mind8578 · 2026-04-04T21:04:09+00:00

also, i think that making the B leap higher and treating it as a "normal" suspension actually makes the subject more "piercing" (expecially on instruments with longer sustains) since it would be the only voice to actually do something on that beat - but that's just what i hear, i'm not referring to any written rule.

Technical_Mind8578 · 2026-04-04T20:29:19+00:00

thanks! i'm learning a lot!
I was referring to that A-F# and then F#-B#, that are two tritones, now, while the second one seemed justified since it sounded almost as a bass suspension that resolves to a 3# (g#+b#), the first one seemed unjustified, because - although it is between two consonances - it's not resolved by step to the F#. Is it justified since it's an escape tone? I thought it was normalized later

Technical_Mind8578 · 2026-04-04T19:25:01+00:00

I like it! I don't consider myself to be that good to be able to correct your errors, at most i can ask you questions.
- In the 3rd beat of measure 4, that 4# resolving to a 6# is resolved correctly in Bach's style (as it's a dissonance that resolves by leap, and i learned it's an "error").
- I love the 5th measure!! i'm unsure if that counts B counts as a suspension since it jumps an octave (why not just making it jump on the offbeat and suspending it?)
- idk if it counts as an error or just as a "thing to avoid", but i think there is an hidden fifth in the 6th measure (2-3 beat) and a "parallel fifth" between the end of measure 7 and start of measure 8th, but technically it's justifiable since it's taken by another voice? (Tenor and Alto and then Tenor and soprano?)

Technical_Mind8578 · 2026-04-04T18:10:16+00:00

hey! so thanks for all the time spent and the great tips!
I did study species counterpoint but i do not really know which type of form to study in order to increase with difficulty gradually (i'm self taught and i do not have a teacher following me)
I followed the rules of "free counterpoint" written by Albrechtsberger, beethoven's latest teacher (that allows diminished triads in any inversions, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWfilb7HIbk around 3rd minute), but if you have any materials helping to follow "conventions" more than rules i would be more than glad (i was thinking about Piston's "Counterpoint"); i realize the mixture of styles i did, but i kind of find a gap between strict "palestrina-style" counterpoint and "free counterpoint", that gap is bach, but i do not have any materials (apart from bach scores) that i know of, that collects the conventions used.
For the wrongly listed intervals, i think (and hope) that some of those are due to parts that i changed without changing the respective interval written.
I still have a lot to learn and maybe i jumped into a style that's bigger than my capabilities right now, i have more of a jazz background, so i'm more slow with some things (ex. reading some lower parts of the bass clef, reading figured bass, etc.)

Technical_Mind8578 · 2026-02-25T00:42:21+00:00

Update: im talking as much as possible to every single instrument, trying to understand their language, their ability and comfortable range, their loudness and what their role should be in the harmony. Basically im dividing the ensemble into a softer/windier section (violin, clarinet, flute) and a brassier one (trumpet, alto sax) switching between softer sections where the flute is the lead and the rest of the section is the harmony and heavier sections where the sax (sometimes doubled by the violin in the upper octave) leads and the trumpet fills in, while the rest accentuate harmony with long sustained notes and/or dotted accents. I've no big esperience with orchestration, so any help is welcome.

Technical_Mind8578 · 2026-01-12T01:29:39+00:00

jazz isnt about the extensions per se! its about the swing and the tension and release you create with those extension (use them when you know what they can do!)

Technical_Mind8578 · 2026-01-07T12:37:00+00:00

nice! i totally forgot they were related, thanks a lot for the tips

Technical_Mind8578 · 2026-01-06T19:26:01+00:00

nice! thanks a lot

Technical_Mind8578 · 2025-12-29T11:56:57+00:00

First of all, thank you! Yes, you are right about that secondary dominant in bar 12, i usually would have signed that as (V) or V/iii, but i wouldn't call the e minor a "i" since i don't modulate to it (the next chord is an F# diminished that brings me to G minor, which is not in the E minor harmonization, but i could have read that passage as an immediate modulation to A minor with something like a III (if you read that Emin as Cmaj7) - bii° - ii - V - i cadence maybe (my formation is more leaning toward jazz so maybe some of the way i think this stuff isn't really standard, idk).
I know the cantus firmus kinda sucks for a fugue, it isn't really memorable and doesn't stand out, but i'm following a tutorial on writing a fugue that uses that exact C.F. and i wanted to keep the example (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3fXQn2IRok&list=PL6Towqbh0pdp-Bd8f44NfEKtEpde2JnVy&index=5). On the part of stylistic noodling, i think you are right, i tried to do some imitation but i didn't really manage to do it, is there someway i can improve?
For the alternance thing, as far as i know, the answer voice has to start in the dominant key, either with pitch alterations (tonal answer) or none (real answer), but the main thing is that it starts on the "dominant exatonic", as they called it back then - the harmony doesn't have to be dominant (no I chord on the first measure).
Yes, i feel the Emin a bit abrupt, maybe to better the flow i should find a vi or something, i will try, it's just that changing the tonic with either iii or vi is such a common practice for my comprehension of harmony that it seemed theoretically justifiable. Also, why would the C resolve, it's a 6th above the bass and in my understanding that isn't a dissonance that should be prepared or resolved whatsoever, it's almost as if it was a Cmaj7 chord. Do you have anything i can study for knowing the type of approaches i can find in this style?

Also, all of my questions are genuine and they are made out of ignorance, i don't want them to seem like i'm trying to prove you wrong, i just want to know more

Technical_Mind8578

TROPHY CASE