My tribute to the great J S Bach fugue

[georgey]

My first experience hearing classical music was listening to an 8 track recording of the Bach orchestral suite #2 when I was 12 10.  I still get goosebumps when I hear the fugue from this.  As a youngster, I listened to the WTC books 1 and 2 over and over again.  I still do to this day. Here was my attempt done many years ago to try to create a fugue in the style of Bach.  I was unable to find a pianist to play this because it would require someone with hands the size of Rachmaninov due to my giving no thought to playability.

I want to thank Klavieronin for creating the score for this (included here) and for producing this recording on such short notice.  If others make a recording of this, I will add it to this thread.  

This is my tribute to the great J S Bach and the great WTC.

[mjames]

dope as f my bro, absolutely pimping music.


I tried playing it on my piano and your piece almost baroque my hands.

[georgey]

dope as f my bro, absolutely pimping music.


I tried playing it on my piano and your piece almost baroque my hands.

Thanks Mjames! Sorry for not warning you about this piece. I had no idea until I tried playing this myself yesterday. I hope your hands recover.  

[beethovenfan01]

Thanks Mjames! Sorry for not warning you about this piece. I had no idea until I tried playing this myself yesterday. I hope your hands recover.  Smiley

On the contrary, it actually does seem at least as playable as the Bach fugues. I do like it! Maybe when I have time I'll give it a whirl.

[ronde_des_sylphes]

I played through it this afternoon and though it was perfectly manageable, as long as the player could reach a tenth and had worked out how to distribute the middle part in a few key places.

The performance is well done re balance of voices.

[georgey]

On the contrary, it actually does seem at least as playable as the Bach fugues. I do like it! Maybe when I have time I'll give it a whirl.

Thank you.  Let me know if you want payment for services. 

[georgey]

I played through it this afternoon and though it was perfectly manageable, as long as the player could reach a tenth and had worked out how to distribute the middle part in a few key places.

The performance is well done re balance of voices.

My guess is a little sustain pedal might be needed in some places?  Thanks for looking at this.

I will click on your link at the top of your thread on Jan. 28 1900 PST to hear your presentation. Also, I just ordered your volume 2 on Amazon.  I look forward to hearing these.  Thank you.

[ronde_des_sylphes]

My guess is a little sustain pedal might be needed in some places?  Thanks for looking at this.

I think the entire piece *can* be played without the sustain pedal, if so inclined. Of course there are points where the pedal could reasonably be used for colouristic purposes. An example of distribution would be the first half of bar 68, where it seems (on first reading at least) that the initial quaver of the middle voice could be taken with the rh so as to facilitate accentuation of the bass and the next three quavers of that voice then taken in the left hand.

PS hope you enjoy your purchase!

[georgey]

In case anyone is interested.  I changed the MP3 file and adobe file at the top of this thread to correct a couple wrong notes.

Klavieronin did a nice job by also doing the following with the MP3 sound recording:
- Emphasized the subject of the fugue by making it subtly louder each time it is stated.
- Added rallentando at the very end

Maybe Klavieronin will put pianists out of business?   

Thanks Klavieronin.

[cfluke]

Great work! Writing a fugue isn’t easy, if you’re not Bach...

[georgey]

Great work! Writing a fugue isn’t easy, if you’re not Bach...

Thank you!  Bach is THE fugue king.  I feel I had an advantage by listening to the WTC hundreds of times as a kid.

[georgey]

Just an update:  I introduced myself and sent this fugue to a local pianist who has several CD’s out as a member of the Mendelssohn piano trio.  I heard Richard Strauss piano quartet in c minor op. 13 for the first time (a great work by a young Strauss) when I bought her CD of this.  She brought in a 4th player for this CD.  I told her that someone from Pianostreet was kind enough to make the PDF and sound recording.  Thanks again Klavieronin!

She sent the following email back.

Thank you for sending your lovely fugue and the sheet music in pdf format!  I do have a few students in mind who I think might be interested in playing your work. I, myself, will look into it as well. That said, if you are to remain anonymous, this will mean the work will most likely not be used for public performances.

Wait until she tries to play this!    I pretty sure she will have second thoughts on this.  I could re-write sections, but I think I’m just going to go back to trying to learn chess in my retirement as a beginner.

[georgey]

Here is what my pianist said about the playability of this fugue:

My hands can only reach octave, so, even using the pedal, the measures listed below still are problematic.  
•   Bar 15 - D in the middle voice
•   Bars 42 to 45 - A pedal tone in the bass (possible to execute while use a sostenuto pedal)
•   Bars 49 to 51 - G octave in the bass
•   Bar 63 - Downbeat (possible to execute with a roll)
•   Bar 82 - 4th beat middle voice (possible to execute with a roll)

I replaced the original PDF in the first post of this thread with a revised PDF to fix these spots. Thanks again to Klavieronin for doing this. I kept the original MP3 recording though. This fugue is just a couple of bad notes away from not being good. These fixes did not help from a musical point of view unfortunately. 

No excuses though:  This is now playable.  You will still need to use sustain pedal in a couple places if you have small hands.

[georgey]

On the contrary, it actually does seem at least as playable as the Bach fugues.

I agree.  Fugue in A minor WTC 1 for example is much harder.