Five-Voice Ricercare for Orchestra

This is another one of those fugue subjects I composed several years back that I continue to make progress with. The subject itself dates from about 2003, and it was composed as a five-part canon at the octave. In 2006 it became a five-voice perpetual canon for string choir, which I blogged about at the time, but since you're going to hear it again, I didn't scour the archives for a link to those posts. Then, just last year, I came up with a two-voice octave fugue on that subject for solo guitar (An octave fugue is what Bach called a two-part invention). That is now the prelude for my Sonata Zero for solo guitar.

When I came up with that solo guitar version, I knew I'd made the breakthrough that would finally allow me to compose the five-voice exposition, and after some fits and starts, I finally got it about 95% there, I think. So, today's version just has the five-voice exposition, the first episodes and interlude, and then the five-voice perpetual canon, which is the recapitulation and codetta. I have a general plan for the development area - go to the winds for duets and then trios for the stretti, and gradually work back up to tutti - but I'm not ready to tackle that yet.

Here is the MIDI to MP3 conversion: Five-Voice Fugue for Orchestra

There are some default chorus and reverb settings in my new MIDI2MP3 converter I'm going to have to remember to defeat in the future, but I really love this application! Far superior to my old iTunes workaround, and since they are MP3 files and not M4A, the Play Tagger app I have imbedded in the blog template should work again too. A win/win.

On the top system is the subject, which is reminiscent of the Royal Theme - probably written by C. P. E. Bach to test his father - that J. S. Bach used for the Musical Offering, but with a different head and tail, so that it makes the five-part canon.

Then, on the lower system, is the answer, which has to be real and not tonal, and the counter-answer, which is the head of the subject in augmentation after measure 7.

The aforementioned counter-answer makes the leap of the diminished seventh at the dovetail into the third statement, which is the subject again. What was the minor sixth degree from the perspective of the dominant region therefore becomes the minor third of the tonic. Very slick and elegant. The countersubject, now in the lead, then gets the augmented version of the head figure.

Here, a conundrum occurs, as it is not possible to use the leap of the diminished seventh directly into a new statement of the real answer. This is because the minor sixth degree coming out of the tonic - the f-natural in measure sixteen - would be the minor second degree of the dominant. Utterly unworkable. So, I had to introduce a four measure episode in the middle of the exposition to reorient the voices for another statement of the real answer. Far from being any kind of fault, this increases the interest of the exposition enormously, avoiding the predictability and monotony that five statements in an uninterrupted row would produce.

The fourth thematic statement - the second real answer - then appears in the highest octave of the orchestra, and the primary counter-answer, with the augmented head figure again, provides the bass voice. This sounds quite dramatic and majestic. The third counter-answer - in violin two - adds a chromatic suspension/resolution sequence versus the subject that is quite beautiful, in a vaguely unsettling way.

Finally, the fifth thematic statement - and the third of the subject - appears in the contrabass octave, and it is positively massive sounding. This was the point of this fugue: To compose a fugue that used all five octaves of the orchestra. I doubt I'll ever compose another fugue of this type, and I also doubt I'll ever go beyond five voices to six or more. While possible for a subject of a more limited compass, five-voices seems like the pluperfect arrangement, as it is also reflected in the five voices of pure harmony (Four voice transitional stratum over a constant-root bass).

I didn't put the countersubject in the lead, as I, 1] didn't want to repeat the melodic peak, and, 2] wanted to get out of that highest octave fairly quickly, since it can become grating.

Coming out of the subject again gives opportunity for a larger version of the previous episode, and that's where I'm able to let violin one bow out gracefully: It sounds like it is absorbed into the E-natural in the second violin part. I've gotten much better with this aspect of fugue writing over the years.

On the bottom system we get the first six-measure interlude - as opposed to the four-measure episode - and it's very majestic and impressive sounding, what with the cellos and basses playing deep, dark counterpoint with each other, and the violas and second violins providing contextual color for them.

Now, at this point in the final version, the tutti will break and the winds will start with the stretti - initially in two voices - but hear I just link directly to the recapitulation, which, as I said, is a five-voice perpetual canon.

Here we get five inexorably descending statements of the subject in octaves and single measures of delay, which is how I composed the subject those ten years back. That means that measure forty-five has all five measures stacked up from the bottom. Pretty gnarly. Starting in the second system those dovetail into the subject in augmentation, which I did not intend: I discovered it back in 2006. Much of the art of fugue writing is, as I tell my students, "Noticing shit." Just becoming aware of relationships that you, as a composer, may not have strictly intended, but which add the dimension of art and magic to a composition.

On the top system in the top voice, you can see that I had to modify the augmented version of the subject: I was able to keep the rhythm, but I had to ditch the chromaticism. I also then dropped the final measure of the subject, and at that point everything dovetails back - re-dovetails? - into the original version of the subject, thus proving the perpetual nature of the five-voice canon. The augmented segment sounds wickedly dissonant, by the way, because I use all of the inversions of the bVI(M7) chord that have the root above the seventh, which yields the interval of a minor ninth. This really only works in five voices - possibly four - but it sounds quite devilish and creepy, which of course I love. lol.

Finally, the piece repeats the dissonant augmented statements, but this time over an ostinato on the tail figure, as the piece comes to an end: As each part reaches the tonic, it sustains that note until the conclusion. Since the subject has eleven of the twelve pitch classes in it - yes, there is an a-sharp in the answer, but no minor second degree is ever heard in either region - I put the final lick as a chromatically descending triplet that presents the b-flat as the penultimate note. Did you really think this weird and haunting piece was going to end on a major chord?

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Apple has Broken iTunes for Me

I guess it was always a workaround, but I had a nice workflow with it anyway:

1] Compose in Encore

2] Export MIDI file

3] Drag/drop into iTunes

4] Select soundfont bank in QuickTime Preferences

5] Create AAC version in iTunes with selected soundfont

Well, starting in OS X 10.6, there are no longer any QuickTime Preferences, and after 10.7 iTunes 11 won't play MIDI files at all. So, I've had to compose on my Mac Pro (10.7.5/iTunes 11), send the Encore file to my Macbook Pro (10.4.11/iTunes 9) via the HD attached to my AirPort Base Station, and do all of the fiddling there. Yes, a major PITA.

I finally had enough of that noise, so I was looking for a MIDI to MP3 converter. Well, those are a dime a dozen, but none of them allowed for selection of soundfonts, as far as I could tell. Finally though, I found a nice app for the chore that allows me to use my soundfonts: MIDI2MP3.

It's completely intuitive. Less than sixty seconds after opening it, I had a test conversion done.

So, if you need to make MIDI files into MP3's using your own soundfont collection, this is the easiest way. It's a major improvement from even my pre 10.6 workflow: Many less steps.

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Happy 2013

I have been busy making MIDI guitar files, which takes several hours per song, and I have seventy songs to do, soooo, it will be a while yet. I have also written a five-voice fugue exposition that is killer, so that will end up here at some point too. But, the recording is not going to happen until the MIDI guitar files are ready. If I don't do it this way, I'll get bogged down, and not getting bogged down is one of the most important things a musician must keep in mind.

Hope you had a good New Year's party.

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Happy Holidays

I had hoped to get a post together on how I am creating virtual guitar parts with my notation program - notating on six staves, one for each string, so you can notate precisely what is happening on each string - but I have a new computer. The problem is, I can't remember how to log into my Lunar Pages account! lol.

Anyway, I have gotten back into Smugmug, so I'm half way there.

Hope Santa was good to you.

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Recording!

After two years of prep work - TWO YEARS! - the easiest pieces in my set are now absolutely perfect and ready to record. As I present the recordings, I'll explain how I practiced them into such a state of perfection.

First ones up will be my twelve figuration preludes, and then I'll move on to the axial studies, &c.

By the end of next year, I should have all of my repertoire recorded. All 70 pieces.

I'm recording a guitar synth track, a stereo guitar track, and finally a hexaphonic guitar track for each piece, though I may not use all three tracks for every one (It will depend on the piece, of course). And, there are a few that will have no synth track from the beginning - I'm thinking of the tap technique pieces and some of the more rubato stuff.

First piece should be the day after tomorrow, so stay tuned.

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Sonata Two: II - Scherzo in D-flat Major

Yes, you read that right, D-flat major. There's a reason for that: It's the only key in which the piece will fit on the guitars. Guitar I has a high B, and Guitar II has a low E during the course of the festivities. Uh huh, naturals, not flats... because there is only one modulation, and it's a tritone to G major. Cool, huh?

This jazz swing tune began as an assignment my second semester at Berklee: The assignment was to write a jazz piece with only one modulation (The first semester it was a non-modulating jazz tune, and I wrote a Bossa Nova for that). I was around a lot of horn players then, and they were always going on about Giant Steps, which I never cared for. To clarify, Coltrane's improvisations are fantastic, but the tune itself is kind of trite. So, I wanted to make only One Giant Leap and a prettier song. I think I succeeded.

I was also very much into the music of Larry Carlton back then, and I had learned two of his pieces: Room 335 and Mulberry Street. So, it is in that style, and it was originally for steel string guitar, and it had string bends in it as well.

Years later, two of my students wanted to play it as a duet for their jazz duo, so I did a second version with accompaniment and without the string bends. Finally, after writing the jazz counterpoint scherzo for Sonata One (Links in the sidebar), I decided to make it a, "classical" piece with the song - or menuetto - in two-part counterpoint, and the improvised section - or trio - with the accompaniment I wrote for the jazz duo. Of course, I also wrote out the pure swing as being in 12/8.

I have not written out the improvisation yet, so the trio is just the accompaniment, and I want you to hear that isolated so that I can make a few points.

Here is the MIDI to AAC version I did in iTunes: Scherzo in D-flat Major

This is a I, vi, ii, V tune, and it modulates at the end of the second cycle of that continuity. I'm using the duo as one big virtual guitar here, so it's what I would play solo if that were possible. The melody is just as I originally wrote it, sans string bends, and the bass line is a modified version of what was in the original accompaniment I wrote (Which we'll cover in a moment). I had to make some changes so as not to violate any contrapuntal laws, and I made the bass part more melodic and interesting in the process. Note how smooth and natural the tritone modulations are. They are not jarring in the least.

The form is A, A', B, A", and when that is trrough, the trio starts.

This accompaniment style is called, "guide tone comping," and it's what the old school guys like Herb Ellis and Joe Pass would do when the situation was right. You improvise the bass part using chromatic approaches to the roots, and in the upper part you have the guide tones, which are the third and seventh of the chord of the moment (Usually, but not always: Sometimes you might want the fifth if it is diminished, &c). Very cool and economical. I was never a great jazz improviser, but I got really good at this kind of accompaniment because it was fun to me.

The way I plan to compose the solo is to make it so that the melody and bass part make correct counterpoint with each other, and disregard the guide tones in those calculations. There are already a lot of parallel fifths among the guide tones - it's a major aspect of the jazz style, after all - but the bass line will be perfect to write counterpoint over. I think this hybridized approach will work well. When? I don't know. Things like this tend to sit percolating in the old bean until they finally manifest themselves.

The trio gets the full A, A', B, A" treatment, and then we are back to the top.

Since the finale is going to be the same fugue that is the finale of Sonata One arranged for two guitars - an arrangement I will be able to actually learn and record - Sonata Two will be done whenever the solo comes to me.

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Sonata Zero: III - Fugue in A Minor

Finally!

Eighteen years after coming up with this fugue subject, I've, at long last, arrived at the perfect two-voice arrangement. If you remember the Fugal Science posts, I started out with this subject in a two-part invention format - I just call them octave fugues, or subject-only fugues, since there is no answer (Or, the subject is the answer) - and went on to develop it through a two-voce fugue with the answer at the fifth above, and finally a three-voice fugue. Well, by taking it back to the beginning and using the octave fugue exposition and some of the material discovered and developed in the two and three-voice versions, I got it all to make absolutely perfect sense. This is what a composer strives for: Beautiful music that makes perfect sense.

The key, remember, was the two-voice fugal texture for solo guitar I invented with Imitation Study #1, and I've continued that here.

Here's the MIDI to AAC audio: Fugue in A Minor

The five-measure subject starts out in the bass, and is answered at the octave above in two-part invention fashion. This really is the best solution for two-voice fugues with these types of subjects, as the addition of an answer begs for a third statement with the subject: Tonal answers really belong in fugues of three or more voices.

Under the subject is a countersubject that is every bit as perfect as the subject. In fact, it could be a subject.

Starting at 11 is the episode, and I mean THE episode: It is used, in different forms, for all of the episodes. Here, it does not modulate.

At the top here are the first middle entries, and the subject makes a stretto with itself with one measure of overlap. This stretto would be trivial except for the fact that it is a perfect dovetail between the subject and countersubject, which is here modified with an ascending diminished scale lick in the second measure. I did this because it sounds cool and it makes the dovetail easier to perceive when that lick appears in the bass at 22.

From 23 on, everything is as it was in the original exposition, and that leads to a seeming repeat of the first episode. That repeat is cut short by a measure as the music modulates dramatically to the dominant region, however.

Note the seemingly minor rhythmic variation in the bass at 29-30: This makes the descent more adamant, and it syncs up with the sextuplet better. There is still a tasty - but hard to pull off - cross rhythm with the triplet, though. This is also a preparation for the third and final time you'll hear this episode on the tonic level before the recapitulation.

That spicy little cross-rhythm comes upon an augmented sixth, which makes the modulation to the dominant particularly dramatic. Then, the soaring variant of the countersubject ads to that, and at 33 a closer stretto with two measures of overlap appears (I composed this subject as a four-part canon, so it is really destined for a string quartet or a symphony).

The third episode must be different, so I present the subject over the bass line of the episode. This hilariously comes to a dramatic pause on a diminished twelfth in 42, at which point everything suddenly modulates to the relative region.

The subject sounds beautiful in the major mode, and here we get another closer stretto with three measures of overlap. The original episode formula then reappears, but this time coming out of the major, it has a very different effect. The B-flat introduced in the bass at 53 was hinting all this time at a modulation to the subdominant, but I didn't see it until I got way, way into the Fugal Science series of posts. Well, it ended up being THE THING that makes this piece not just good, but a real work of art: The first episode was six measures, the second was five, the third was the bridge, so this is the true third episode, and it's now whittled down to four. Concurrently, the ever close stretti have been shortening the middle entries as well, so the pace is ever quickening. This creates a subtle but awesome effect.

With the subdominant begins another dovetail section, but this one modulates back to the tonic by using the answer form of the head - relative to the subdominant - in 59. Since it's another dovetail, I bring the diminished scale lick back to bring it out again.

This is great, and the listener isn't positive the piece has modulated until the confirmation into 64, where the original episode formula appears in the tonic for the third time. This time, however, it isn't shortened, it is lengthened with the addition of a pedal section. here is where that subtle rhythmic variation in the bass gets its full say, and to great effect.

The recapitulation is the closest stretto, a canon at one measure of delay.

By splicing the final measure of the countersubject onto the subject, I was able to extend the canon slightly to 6.5 measures. When that concludes in a false and unsatisfying ending, the coda is then introduced. This is a two-part hyper-stretto wherein the subject and the subject in augmentation start simultaneously. Yes, it's epic.

So, if you set out to master fugue writing, plan on working for years and years to get to perfect arrangements of your materials. When you end up with something like this, it's all worth it.

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