Fugue Workshop 2014

Bianca wrote:

I believe it wouldn't be possible to go any faster, and anyway the expected speed is exactly 80 / 90, if one can manage it.

I don't know if you have already taken the complementary organ exam, but you will realize how many notes you can play per second with your feet.

If you haven't reached that point in your studies yet, a useful exercise could be to place yourself at the keyboard and perform the same passage using only 2 fingers and see how it goes. If your hands are already getting tangled... with the feet it is much, much more difficult

I liked all 4 fugues partially and for different reasons... so compliments.

Cristian, very structured but not very sparkling

Croma, very free but sometimes I have lapses in attention during listening.

RStrauss, the atmospheres are lovely, but I really don't like some cadences; it's probably a matter of taste

Bianca, imaginative and sometimes even fun, but it touches on extremes that are too distant... this weighs heavily.

Clearly this is just my opinion, surely everyone will have their own feedback. Compliments again to everyone.

yet

even more acrobatic ones can be found

anyway, as I said, it is not very practical at playback speed.

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Marzapane wrote:

I don't know if you have already taken the complementary organ exam, you will realize how many notes you can play in a second with your feet.

If you haven't reached that point in your studies yet, a useful exercise could be to sit at the keyboard and perform the same passage using only 2 fingers and see how it goes. If your hands are already getting tangled... with the feet it is much, much more difficult.

ehm, unfortunately I don't even have a keyboard

Organista94 wrote:

At the tempo proposed by the PlayBack, Bianca's pedal passages are not executable; however, the score does not indicate a tempo but rather an attitude (which doesn't actually indicate much)... taking it at half the tempo proposed in the file might work, but I don't know if that is or isn't the desired effect. Perhaps it would be better to indicate something in parentheses. In any case, some parts are executable; frantic arpeggios with pedals is not a very organistic gesture. Maybe a double bass.

But distributing the notes of the faster passages between the hands?

Yes, that possibility actually exists.

As for using a slower tempo: I will try to post a playback. However, the tempo I chose highlights the histrionic character of the piece better. I had even thought of an ensemble like a band, complete with cymbals on beat 14; perhaps if I find the instruments and the time, I'll give it a try.

The arpeggios are the most critical part for the pedal.

rstrauss wrote:

I tried playing it on the piano (manual only): a doubt arises ... is it really written this way?

The two staves of the manual are both in treble clef, and if that were the case, practically the hands would always be stuck together or, even worse, one on top of the other. It couldn't be bass clef, because in measures 15 and 16 the notes wouldn't be there.

Bianca, can you clarify this for us?

so, the right-hand staff is assigned to the upper manual (Swell) while the left-hand staff to the lower manual (Great). I seem to remember that many organ scores are written this way, but I might be wrong. That was the intention.

CromaDiBrera wrote:

I really like it very much, especially the exposition (and a bit less the finale), even if I don't understand this somewhat "sketchy" stylistic imprint, which reminds me of that other piece of yours with the little monkeys.

Thank you!

You're right, I had never thought of it before, but indeed the two pieces have something (perhaps quite a lot) in common. Even though they are two pieces written in completely different contexts and occasions, they ultimately have two analogous meanings: they are sarcastic (or at least written with that intention), even if in different ways.

Piccinesco wrote:

You could nonetheless circumvent this if, in the score, you specify that the pedal part can be played by a separate organ with an 8' stop, because since you did not specify which stop the performer should use, it remains implicit, also thanks to listening, that it is an 8'.

si, comunque ho schiacciato tutti gli stop dell'organo che mi ha suggerito Croma, fino a quando non è uscito qualcosa che mi sembrava andare bene

For those interested, I have posted the sheet music for the organ manuals only.

Thanks for the clarification, Bianca.

I have examined CristianK's fugue and I must say that the work is certainly solid and well-written.

What is missing is a countersubject that provides a bit of variety. As it is, it is too static and creates a bit of monotony.

Besides, the subject is made of quarter notes and eighth notes, and the countersubject for the first 6 measures has only quarter notes and half notes, and then eighth notes.

Too similar, and this unfortunately compromises the character of the fugue a bit, which is nonetheless technically well-written.

The only passage that does not convince me is the one mentioned by Frank, mm. 57-62, with T and B. who are bickering.

Another thing: I would have wanted the stretto to be more "tight"... the entries should start wide and then tighten until reaching one entry per measure.

That way, tension is created.

In any case, a good fugue.

Kill the little old lady, but she's got a size 45 foot...?! Anyway, maybe you're right, this one with the heel/toe is really something...!

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Marzapane wrote:

Croma, very free but sometimes I have lapses of attention during listening.

Among the various breaks, next time I will also include one for coffee.

Since I am not very happy with what I have done (I never am) and it seems to me that there are several things to correct, in my spare time I am reworking my fugue and having fun with a little novelty that I am finding very useful (at least for me): assigning different colors to all the incises and phrase members of the expositions, in order to force myself to ask where each of those I used in the subsequent developments comes from. In this way, I realized that just a few touch-ups are enough to make certain passages more explicit, tracing their pieces back to the members already made heard (and whose logic, having woven it myself, I took for granted even for another's ear). Come to think of it, I would have done it from the beginning, during the composition phase, because I am sure that something very different and, probably, more effective would have resulted.

I don't know if the procedure interests you, but perhaps I will post my second version (a color fugue!) when I have finished it.

CromaDiBrera wrote:

I don't know if you are interested in the process, but maybe I will post my second version (a color fugue!) when I have finished it.

I don't know if you remember Croma, but my first 2 fugues from the LAB were actually in color

It was in the Listening Guide file

It is an excellent teaching tool and if you figured it out on your own, all the better. I have always maintained that self-taught people are the most "didactic," but they don't know it. ...and I even risk that history will prove me right.

(just think, I preferred Sibelius to Finale).

Frank wrote:

I don't know if you remember Croma, but my first 2 LAB fugues were actually in color

It was in the Listening Guide file

Damn, I didn't remember that...! Evidently, I had let those files slip by. Are they still available?

CromaDiBrera wrote:

Damn, I didn't remember...! Evidently, I had let those files slip away. Are they still available?

Sure, I'll resend them to you ...

I want to clarify one thing regarding this

CromaDiBrera wrote:

I realized, in this way, that only a few touches are needed to make certain passages more explicit, tracing their parts back to the pieces already played

The work you have set your mind to do is very useful for respecting the thematic material, but the structures, which should always be present, must then be well "hidden".

In short, they must not weigh on the listener, but an in-depth analysis is able to trace them. A bit like what happens with the repertoire; in fact, during analysis, it sometimes happens that more "doubts" are raised than certainties. Not to mention that if we have difficulty with historicized works, over-analyzed ones, where a composer's poetics and aesthetics have few secrets (given the in-depth knowledge of all their works)... let alone with unpublished works

Frank wrote:

The work you have set your mind to do is extremely useful for respecting the thematic material, but the structures, which should always be present, must then be well "hidden."

In short, they must not weigh on the listener, but an in-depth analysis is able to trace them.

Thanks for the files!

Sorry, but I didn't understand this thing about hidden structures. Are you referring to the formal scheme of the entire fugue? Or to the structure of the musical phrases?

It is a general discussion, but without abstracting too much, let's talk about a divertimento.

One technique is to take a significant part of the S., CS. Free part and imitate it among the voices... if we want, it is truly schematic work and almost like copy-paste.

The point is then to ensure that this schematicism does not weigh heavily, so that the entire outline (namely the other voices) must create interest. So how do you "hide" the structure of a divertimento? Good question.

For now, it depends on the material, but I remember that in a fugue Gozzo asked me: "I can't find the structure of the stretto, how did you behave? By ear, freely, however it comes, etc."

In reality, the structure was certainly there, but it had been so "manipulated" and elaborated that it was difficult to truly understand which were the supporting fragments (which had generated those stretti) and which were the filler ones.

Think about laying down identical fragments in the 4 voices, then you start doubling some at the tenth, for others (perhaps in pairs) you change the attack, for the other 2 the tail, then you graft in pieces of the S or CS or vice versa or free part, pauses (why not?).... at a certain point, even you, who did not use colors, after a short while you don't remember precisely, but the divertimento still stands and results to be interesting and proportionate.

It is not certain that it must always be this way, but hiding structures is an art on par with creating them... not to be underestimated. I do not repeat it all the time, but mine are always invitations to reflect rather than true "rules," so much so that in the fugues I will send you, the structure is clearly proclaimed.... (they were didactic fugues)

But it depends, precisely.... "reflect" on the subject.