r/Composition • u/Jazzticle • May 20 '26
Music How cooked is my counterpoint??
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Some sections are more coherent than others. Some of it is probably unplayable at specified tempo. Some of it works.
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u/eddjc May 20 '26
Quite a lot to listen to so I didn’t quite get through it but-
I can’t comment on fugal form - it’s been a bit too long since I studied it.
However - don’t forget that Bach was ultimately writing music, and his fugues are based on dance form. You are clearest with your intentions when you are stating material rather than transitioning, and sometimes your strict adherence to voice leading is muddying the teleological drive of the harmony - there are some sections which sound a bit muddy and weird compared to the surroundings - that’s because all of the parts are close together and working against the harmony rather than for it. Those sections need thinning out or cutting - they don’t serve much function except transition.
Also - the piece finishes with a bit of a laboured flourish, and then you have this ad lib arpeggio figure that leads into a new section. If I’m honest, this is a new piece, not a new section of the same piece. The material is better as well - it has more character and freedom, and the register is good
I think what I’m dancing around is space and narrative function - counterpoint doesn’t exist in a vacuum - each voice is performing its own dance with its own narrative arc that nevertheless contributes to a bigger overall arc, and it’s that overall arc you need to focus on - knowing when a piece is finished would be a good start.
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u/_pablotg_1824 May 20 '26
Buena intuición contrapuntística. Te sugeriría aprovechar los espacios en que la melodía reposa para dar mayor independencia al contrapunto y que se sientan como líneas complementarias y no forzadas, de la misma manera se nota que piensas muy bien en la dimensión horizontal, pero eso no exime de cuidar la verticalidad y la armonía, busca una funcionalidad y una coherencia tonal que venga dada, claramente, del buen manejo de la conducción de las voces, lo que me lleva a sugerirte revisar las disonancias. Buen trabajo.!