A fugue is a form of composition which strongly emphasizes counterpoint. J. S. Bach was a master of the fugue and is probably the composer most famously associated with the form. I had this kind of general idea of the fugue but I’ve always wanted to study it closer and understand it enough to incoroporate fugal writing in my own compositions. So, this week was more of a homework assignment than a start of a piece. I found a great introduction to composing a fugue by Dr. Justin Rubin online and also this excellent interactive analysis of a Bach fugue (Fugue No. 2 in c minor from the Well Tempered Clavier, Book 1) linked from the wikipedia entry on fugues.
After studying these references I started following along Dr. Rubin’s intro and did my best to follow the rules and write my own fugue. Incidentally, these interactive online resources are so great because you can hear each excerpt as you encounter it in the text, rather than either taking a text book to a piano and banging it out, or glossing over it in the hopes of coming back to it later.
Here’s the score to what I’ve got so far. I’ve gotten as far as the exposition and the first episode (the last bar). Yes, it’s only 7 bars long. It’s an extremely dense kind of music and it’s easy to take a wrong turn and paint yourself into a corner, where the voices collide, etc. Despite the rules (or because of them) it’s quite fun to work on, and really gives me a greater appreciation for the masters.
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