Six Voice Fugue from String Sextet in G-flat major, 2nd Movement

[@jcjacques]

Henry. I just listened to this long cry from the heart. Yes yes, cry from the heart, like often I've heard from you. Here the apparent austerity of the choice of the runaway is the space of constraint that precisely allows all your sensitivity to emerge. In this sense, I thought a lot about what Schubert does when he uses the fugato in his F fantasy or his quartets (except around the last 7 minutes). The Gothic appearance is then the romantic vision of these cathedrals invaded by wanderings, thoughts, memories, as we visit old abandoned places to sing our pain! Bravo !

[@henryng0725]

Thank you very much Jean! I feel so happy when someone resonates much with the music, especially with someone highly skilled as you!! Your observation that having the greatest constraint gives you the greatest freedom is always my motto of composing!! I always think you can only achieve something great and free when you give yourself some constraint since it will push you to dig deep inside yourself, rather than searching aimlessly! And I like your metaphor very much!! Henry

[@David_Goza]

My god, what a contrapuntal tour-de-force! That took my breath away! That passage from around 50 almost made me crawl out of my skin, and then it just kept moving farther and farther out into the solar system. That C-major pentatonic passage really took me by surprise, and that wonderful, haunting ending! The analytical information you provided is really helpful (and it's an honor to be counted among your mentors - thank you for that). If I may offer just a couple of purely practical suggestions: There are places where it would be helpful to the 1st violist if you'd transliterate that part to treble clef. You can spot these passages easily; once one is going beyond two ledger lines, it's best to go ahead and change the clef sign. And I think it would make things easier for everyone if you were to lose the three-sharp signature somewhere along the way, when those sharps have to be overridden in order to have music in a different key (e.g. C major - and if you see flat signs in a passage with a sharp-key signature, unless it's a momentary sidestep into the parallel minor, it's best to re-think your strategy). Wonderful work, Henry. I can't wait to hear the entire composition! Do you have prospects for performance?

[@henryng0725]

David, thank you so much for your listening and comment!! I am very happy that you love it!! It not makes my day but at least make my week or month!! For the violist treble clef issue, I am sure I overlook it, thx for pointing out! For the key signature issue, e.g. for b.126 I originally thought I would just go back to the 3 sharp key signature after the material really goes back to F sharp minor, but you are right there! I will change it when finalising the score. I should also change to no sharp signature when the music goes to C pentatonic in b.178. Thank you! The analysis is exhausting to make and I even find some entries I miss! But as the composer himself I have the responsibility to make it clearer for what I am doing here! A six part fugue is real difficult to write but if it’s written properly the sound will be much thicker and the emotion stronger than a three or four part fugue, and I am very happy with the result since an definitely use my 200% effort to write it! B.50 is one of my favourite too, and my favourite is b.100 since I think I have never written things this emotional! And the C major pentatonic passage will act as the precursor of going back to the pentatonic later in the movement. For the ending I use the Spanish “Soledad”description since I suddenly thought of Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s “One Hundred Years of Solitude” there haha. The entire 2nd movement will be in four parts: Lamentoso-Fugue-Chant-Back to pentatonic, so I have just finished one fourth here!! That will be a long long writing distance 😭😭. But even if I finish the whole sextet I don’t see it’s prospects for getting performance, since it’s a Sextet and hard to get string players, and it will be really long, as the two movements will at least be in 40 minutes and I don’t see chances of string groups performing such a long piece!! It will be already great enough for me to just finish the piece, although I do hope one day it will be performed!! Thx so much for taking your time to listen and write such a thoughtful comment. It’s for me such a great encouragement from a person I worship!! Thank you! Henry

[@younghokim1994]

Awesome! Great piece of fugal work :)

[@henryng0725]

Thx Young Ho! It takes me a LOT of time for this! Henry

[@musicjotter]

Incredible work. I felt that the amount of dissonance used to convey your thoughts was perfect and not too overbearing. Also, really nice key changing at 2:00 and 3:50, and a really cool and subtle, yet deliberate usage of the pentatonic scale at 7:00. What was the motivation behind that?

[@henryng0725]

Hey Mike, thx for your reply! I also love the dissonance level here haha. The changing to C minor is more to reply to the first movement when there are sections with Gb major and C major alternating, and also kind of creating a Henry Ng Universe here with my Clarinet Quintet theme quoted. The reason to use pentatonic scale at 7:00 is to link it back to the first movement which is dominated by it, and also kind of hint what will follow later in the movement! Henry

[@viktor-salamandro]

This is amazing! o:

[@henryng0725]

Thank you so much! Henry

[@andyxyz01]

That minor second really surprised me!😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮OwO

[@henryng0725]

Yeah Andy I intentionally use that minor second in the point when the subject enters and also later passages to express the pain I feel these few months, and to prepare the antithesis for later pentatonic passages to overcome and dissolve. Henry