Storm Fugue | Original Composition in G-Minor

Noteworthy features of this fugue:
→ the answer modulates to the minor dominant as late as in the third measure, and the subject modulates back to the tonic in the last beat of the first measure
→ the tail of the subject has two implied voices: the lower one also features in the countersubject, the upper one (or its first bar) is sometimes used as a secondary countersubject (at 2:00, 3:08, 3:38), which is also why the head of the subject works in stretto with the tail; the latter also provides the thoroughly used rhythmic motif of ‘rest-8th-8th-8th’
→ the fugue features two inversions, one of the subject, one of the answer: the first one at 1:43 (with an inverted countersubject), the second one at 3:08 (with a partially inverted countersubject); there is also an inversion only of the tail of the subject at 2:18, following the tail of the normal subject
The fugue has three parts and is written for one player.
Inspiration: Bach’s ‘Kunst der Fuge’ (Art of the Fugue), which is based on the motif ‘scale degree 1, 5, 3 (1)’; this motif features in the answer of my fugue
Score: drive.google.com/drive/u/1/fo...
Have a nice day! ɛ›

[@lord.of.tamarindo]

this is one of the strangest fugue subjects I've heard but this is also one of the most amazing fugues I've heard!

[@averynhiell]

Thank you so much, this means a lot to me! (=

[@sergioreynajr.3367]

I've been playing some of your compositions on my piano and I just love how it's written! It's written so well!

[@averynhiell]

Wow, thank you so much! (= I feel honoured that you play pieces of mine. I hope you are aware that I provide all the scores for free under the following link (so you don’t have to read the notes from the videos). drive.google.com/drive/u/1/folders/10VoNbD0eKS6mfEcBSMzCIkvGSh0TqAkf

[@Dcastleg]

Amazing work, love the counter subject and the ending, it's awesome

[@averynhiell]

Thank you so much, I really appreciate it! ^^

[@florestan88eusebius]

That trill gets me every time. It's an amazing composition. I think I'm going to try and write one. I guess I'll plunge right in and write one.

[@averynhiell]

Thank you so much! I love to inspire others and give them the urge to write a fugue, give them the nerve to write a fugue.

[@florestan88eusebius]

​@@averynhiell😂

[@omarantar9585]

just forget the rules and have a try,

[@sgkharma3823]

this is amazing! well done!! ❤️

[@averynhiell]

Thank you, I appreciate it! 💜

[@drtee51]

Once again, you've come up with a strange but effective fugue. I thought for sure the sudden jump into sixteenth-notes in the subject was going to be a disaster, but it wasn't--it just made the answer sound all the better when it came in in m.8. And you carried the contrast through the entire fugue. I like this one! Keep 'em coming!

[@averynhiell]

Thank you so much, your comment made my day! (= I’m so glad you find the jump to 16ths effective, I had really hoped that it works well.

[@maksimnets2229]

Very interesting fugue! It sounds sometimes classically, sometimes like Bach or like some piece from Baroque period, I always always enjoyed that compilation. And overall very nice composition. You are tremendously talented guy!!!

[@averynhiell]

Thank you so much, I appreciate it! (=

[@TheToto59840]

Amazing i love it !

[@averynhiell]

Thanks a lot, I appreciate it! ^^

[@trevandrea8909]

Amazing

[@averynhiell]

Thanks a lot! (=

[@tschibasch]

The is absolutely brilliant. I am serious.

[@averynhiell]

Thank you so much! I really appreciate it. (=

[@DanielSilva-gc4xz]

This guy is a true composer.

[@averynhiell]

Thank you! (: (not a guy btw)

[@g-man2351]

amazing fugue

[@averynhiell]

Thanks a lot! (=

[@DougsMusicChannel]

Very nice!

[@averynhiell]

Thank you! ^^

[@Tylervrooman]

Subbbed. One composer to the next. We strive on.

[@averynhiell]

Thank you! (:

[@sdzhchannel]

You never fail to surprise in ideas! The subject initially seems a bit unbalanced when it jumps from long durations to sixteenths but the "toccata" later handles it quite well and balances it out!

[@averynhiell]

Thank you! (= Yeah, I see how the subject could be perceived as unbalanced at first. I’m glad you say it’s handled well after that, this was the intention. ^^

[@mtv565]

Bach also had such "unbalanced" subjects with long notes or many rests in first part of subject. But it's up to the counter-subjects to balance the subject out.

[@dan27music]

Pretty awesome.

[@averynhiell]

Thank you! ^^

[@ThalesZettelMusique]

beautiful!

[@averynhiell]

Thanks! ^^

[@MaskedPianist57]

a true master composer you are. bravo.

[@averynhiell]

Thank you so much! (=

[@Skydancer0665]

Bellissima!

[@averynhiell]

Grazie mille! (=

[@philipped.picard7933]

Cool !

[@averynhiell]

Thank you! (:

[@gio10bo]

Se ci sono cinque visualizzazioni in più, e perchè l'ho ascoltata io cinque volte. molto bella, grazie!!

[@averynhiell]

Grazie, lo apprezzo molto! (=

[@joshuasalmon6757]

is this inspired by Burgmuller "l'Orage"? sounds great

[@averynhiell]

Thank you, I appreciate it! I am not familiar with the piece, but I see the similarity. (:

[@nahuelmelara]

Simply impressive👏🏻

[@averynhiell]

Thanks a lot! ^^

[@ben-rosfeld]

This would be amazing on the organ. Playing around with different registrations and such would be so exciting! And foot pedals! Lovely work nonetheless

[@averynhiell]

Thank you! (: I’m very limited by the playback of the programs I use. I tried organ, but it just didn’t work for me, so I opted for piano. I have since written a fugue explicitly for organ, though. Feel free to check it out: kzbin.info/www/bejne/iH6llZ2anqicm5o

[@ben-rosfeld]

@@averynhiell feel that hard as a composer myself. MIDI playback just doesn't do it justice majority of the time. I'll check out the organ piece!

[@averynhiell]

@@ben-rosfeld I’m surprisingly satisfied with the possibilities of Musescore. I can find decent-sounding solutions for most instruments, I just didn’t look very hard for organ because I conceived this piece for piano.

[@obonyxiam]

how long did it take you to write this? i've been inspired to try to write a fugue after seeing your work, but after a couple hours i only have about 30 seconds of material

[@averynhiell]

I feel honoured that my work has inspired you! (= This one took me a few weeks due to longer pauses in between. But I usually only need a couple of days (if I’m inspired enough to finish it, that is). Have you had lessons in counterpoint and fugal composition? Or have you taught it to yourself? Without proper understanding it’s not really possible to write a fugue, both because counterpoint is essential for it and because you need to know the structure and techniques of fugues. I’m asking because in an earlier comment you asked me how I learned it. (:

[@obonyxiam]

​@@averynhiell i don't really have any composition training, i've kind of been experimenting for the last 6 years - mostly with electronic music - and as of late became interested in baroque music. if it's not too much trouble for you, could i email you what i have so far for you to check out?

[@averynhiell]

@@obonyxiam I had a very similar background before I started fugue tution. I will try to have a look at your work and see if I can help you with anything. You can find my mail address in the channel description. (:

[@vultun29]

thanks for your work, it is inspiring. A non technical question: how it would be if played on organ? Or did you write it specifically for the piano? Could you upload a version with (simulated) organ?

[@averynhiell]

Thank you, I appreciate it! (: I am not trained in writing for organ. I wrote the fugue specifically for piano, the broken pedal points and Alberti bass-style writing is more idiomatic for harpsichord or piano afaik. I’m not sure if it would work on an organ (on a simulated organ no less).

[@lorenzocrispino4498]

Amazing Work! What software do you use to make this? And you record yourself playing for the upper keyboard layout?

[@averynhiell]

Thank you so much! (= This is Musescore 3. I don’t play the fugue myself, it’s all done by the software.

[@alindmay]

Haha, very nice energetic piece! For joke I imagine such a fugue could be written by Domenico Scarlatti and sent to JSB in a birthdays letter and saying " hi Sebastian, can we be friends ?" Lol, just kidding.... love your creativity!!! You are different!

[@averynhiell]

xD Thank you so much, I appreciate it! I love Scarlatti’s Cat Fugue. ^^

[@alindmay]

@@averynhiell ohh I didnt know D Scarlattis fugues! I listened to them all now, cat fugue very funny, theme simulating the cats random walk on the keyboard. 🙂 and I found D scarlattis fugal parts in his 10 voice choral work! Maybe you can try some counterpoint on human voice too... sounds very dramatic and deep.

[@averynhiell]

@@alindmay Hmm, interesting suggestion! The problem is, I don’t really like the sound of human voices in the program I use, and I can’t really afford paying actual singers. Do you know a good VST for that? (:

[@RyanMaterna_Composer]

Wow... I now next to nothing about Fugues, but after hearing this I'm thinking I need to go and do some studying! I have no idea how this Composition works at all, but this Fugue just sounds so good! Very beautiful and fun to listen to, I'm excited to listen to more of your Fugues Averyn!

[@averynhiell]

Thank you so much, I really appreciate it! (= I have found it especially hard to impress someone who doesn’t know the music theory behind fugues, so this means a lot to me.

[@akbarbekboev8971]

Wow, that’s nice! How is possible to write you? Please!

[@averynhiell]

Thank you! (: My email address is in the channel description. If you prefer Facebook Messenger, you can contact me here: facebook.com/wren.hiell

[@user-gp1ou7fd2g]

Impressive handling of an unusual subject! Loved the way you interwove the inverted subject almost surreptitiously amidst the regular subject entries. Good stuff, keep up the good work! P.S. This really deserves to be played by a real pianist for better expression. Repeated notes just don't sound good in computer playback. You might need to work on the dynamic markings a little for a human player; some parts are overspecified (but I understand they are necessary to work around computer playback limitations).

[@averynhiell]

Thank you so much, I appreciate it! ^^ Yes, I would love for it to be played by a pianist, but I can’t really afford that at the moment. As for the dynamic markings: I don’t have much experience in how to handle dynamics in a piece, I’m mostly winging this part. If you know any helpful resources about that, I’d be much obliged. (:

[@user-gp1ou7fd2g]

@@averynhiell As I understand it you don't play the piano yourself, so this would be a bit difficult to explain. (But IMHO it would help your composition skills a great deal if you at least learned some basics of the instrument; it would give you great insight into why certain things are written a certain way in the classics like Bach). But in a nutshell, unlike computer playback, when you're dealing with a live player, dynamics are not absolute. "mf" in one context can be louder or softer depending on the surrounding material, and often also the mood and experience of the pianist. As such, rather than thinking of dynamics as some fixed sound volume, it's much more useful to think of them as the *manner* in which you want the pianist to play. For example, "mf" means "play in the usual manner", i.e., your typical average piano intonation. "mp" means "play somewhat more gently than mf". And "f" means "hammer on the keys", and "ff" means "hammer on the keys *really* hard like there's no tomorrow", whereas "p" means "play gently and calmly" and "pp" means "play extremely gently like you're tiptoeing". Don't worry too much about the actual volume the pianist will play at; that's their job, let them figure it out themselves. More important is the manner in which they will play, since this is what will give the right expression to the music. Secondly, unlike computers, pianists aren't dumb (at least good pianists aren't haha); they generally know which notes to emphasize (down beats, climactic notes, etc). So you don't need to write so many dynamics; only where it may not be immediately obvious from the notes themselves. This includes crescendos and diminuendos: if you look at, say, a Beethoven piano sonata score, you'll see a lot of hairpins without any explicit dynamics. If you read the score, it's pretty obvious what Beethoven intended (crescendo for those group of notes, then go back to whatever the ambient dynamic was). A computer, however, doesn't understand this, so you have to spell it out always ("< mf" -- increase volume until mf, "> pp" - decrease volume until pp, etc.). For a score intended for a human player, a lot of this can be left out unless it's ambiguous, or you want something unexpected (e.g., crescendo and sudden pp at the end). It's hard to explain exactly when you need to be specific and when not to, though, if you don't play the piano yourself. The best way is probably to learn how to play it, at least to a basic level. ;-) Either that, or study piano scores and see how others notated their dynamics and how it sounds in a performance. Sorry for the info dump. Hope this helps.

[@averynhiell]

@@user-gp1ou7fd2g Wow, thanks a lot for your comprehensive explanation! (= This helps indeed. I did have piano lessons for a dozen or so years, but not to a point where dynamics mattered a lot. Of course, the dynamics I notate are, as you said, mostly to make the playback sound a bit more alive. But I will keep in mind what you told me for future pieces. (:

[@YukiEhms]

The counterpoints were well enough, but there were an abuse of simple accompaiments that made some parts boring. Weirdly, it reminded me of some failures i had trying to write baroque compositions with counterpoints

[@averynhiell]

I know what you mean by ‘simple accompaniment’, I was experimenting with something different this time. Whether it’s boring or not is of course subjective, but I see your point. (:

[@viviallesly2358]

Wow. Beautiful. I’d love to play some of your fugues. May I ?

[@averynhiell]

Thank you! (= Of course, I would feel honoured. If you need a score for any of them, feel free to send me an e-mail, the address is in the channel description. Earlier pieces have a link to a MuseScore score.

[@antonprokopenko6755]

Можно ли с вами сотрудничать?

[@averynhiell]

Извините, я не говорю по-русски, поэтому сотрудничество будет затруднительным. Что именно вы себе представляете? (:

[@antonprokopenko6755]

@@averynhiell Я бы хотел возыметь ваши навыки в полифонии и подобно группе Rhapsody of fire. Сочинить средневековую мелодию распоряжаясь подголосками мелодии. Я уже сочинял в подобном стиле но я не имею к сожалению конкретного муз образования. Но могу показать что я сочинил, прислав вам фото а социальную сеть. Сейчас я начал работу над аранжировкой песни этой группы. Но совмещать учёбу и другие дела сложно. Но я буду стараться!

[@averynhiell]

@@antonprokopenko6755 Извините, но в данный момент у меня нет возможности для такого проекта. Удачи вам! (:

[@antonprokopenko6755]

@@averynhiell Ну хорошо, а расскажите как вы добились таких успехов что заканчивали вы щас учитесь, на кого на композитора или кого. Расскажите про себя?

[@averynhiell]

@@antonprokopenko6755 У меня есть частный преподаватель, который учит меня контрапунктической композиции. Мы используем книги и другие материалы, но я не знаю никаких ресурсов на русском языке, извините. Если вы хотите изучать это в университете, вам стоит поискать "композиция" или "теория музыки". Надеюсь, это поможет! (: