Can anyone review my fugue that is part of the sonata I am composing?

[sonata_5]

I have composition lessons this Saturday and I want to make sure there are not a lot of problems with this fugue. Help!

[lelle]

I'm currently recieving occasional lessons in counterpoint with a focus on fugues, and studying on my own as well! Fugues are a lot of fun, aren't they?

Whether or not there are problems depends on what style you are going for. The more you are trying to emulate a baroque fugue, or counterpoint written by the later masters who were trained very thoroughly in that style even if they were Romantic composers, the more strict the rules are.

A couple of thoughts:
- There is a parallell 5th in bar 6, which is a no-no. I would also be careful with things like bar 14 going to bar 15 in alto and basso; though technically not a parallel 5th, it is very close and it sounds very parallel 5th-y to the ear.
- In the baroque style, if the 5th scale degree appears early in the theme, you'll do a tonal answer in the exposition, altering it to the 4th scale degree in the answer. In your case this would be making the first E a D in the answer.
- It is unusual but not unheard of to start the theme on the 7th scale degree.

To improve your counterpoint, I would read up on:
- Dissonance treatment in traditional counterpoint. I think you may already be aware of it since you are handling certain scenarios correctly. But there are also some unusual things going on with some of the dissonances. Typically you resolve the dissonant note in the harmony step-wise to a consonance. For example, you would rarely leap from the dominant's 7th, but almost always resolve it to the 3rd of the tonic. In stricter counterpoint you have to prepare them and/or approach them stepwise as well.
- Species counterpoint exercises (from Fux's book Gradus ad parnassum). Do multiple exercises from each species, starting with the 1st species and doing them in order without skipping steps. It will help with fluency a lot.
- Hidden 5ths
- Hidden octaves

[sonata_5]

A couple of thoughts:
- There is a parallell 5th in bar 6, which is a no-no. I would also be careful with things like bar 14 going to bar 15 in alto and basso; though technically not a parallel 5th, it is very close and it sounds very parallel 5th-y to the ear.
- In the baroque style, if the 5th scale degree appears early in the theme, you'll do a tonal answer in the exposition, altering it to the 4th scale degree in the answer. In your case this would be making the first E a D in the answer.
- It is unusual but not unheard of to start the theme on the 7th scale degree.

To improve your counterpoint, I would read up on:
- Dissonance treatment in traditional counterpoint. I think you may already be aware of it since you are handling certain scenarios correctly. But there are also some unusual things going on with some of the dissonances. Typically you resolve the dissonant note in the harmony step-wise to a consonance. For example, you would rarely leap from the dominant's 7th, but almost always resolve it to the 3rd of the tonic. In stricter counterpoint you have to prepare them and/or approach them stepwise as well.
- Species counterpoint exercises (from Fux's book Gradus ad parnassum). Do multiple exercises from each species, starting with the 1st species and doing them in order without skipping steps. It will help with fluency a lot.
- Hidden 5ths
- Hidden octaves
[/quote]
Thank you for your feedback!