Opus 11

Fugato for Brass Quintet in D Minor

My first attempt at counterpoint! Hopefully I have not offended Bach, but to me (for the most part), it sounds relatively believable as a counterpunctual work, as it also seems to be free of parallel fifths, utilizing contrary motion more or less.

Originally, the subject of this piece was going to be used as one of the themes in my Clarinet Sonata No. 1, however the melody seemed to have more of a "baroque" aspect, so I decided to rather try transforming it into a fugue, but then I learned that fugues have a pleothra of rules, so instead of following them I decided to opt for the name "fugato" instead. I felt this melody would sound best played by brass, and that was perfect because Ryan Cole (principal trumpet of the Victoria Symphony), previously asked me to compose a work for the Victoria Symphony Brass Quintet.

I originally planned for this piece to be much longer, but after a certain point, no matter how many different directions I tried to take it, I ended up getting the piece nowhere, so I decided to simply finish it off early with a picardy third, since you can never go wrong with the good old tierce de picarde! After all, most fugues or fugatos tend to stay below four minutes anyway.

If you do notice something iffy about the integrity of my so-called counterpoint, please do not hesitate to slam this work in the comments, as I feel I am open to even the most brutal of criticism.

General Score Information


Started..........................................28 Jun, 2019Completed...................................11 Mar, 2020Genre........................................................FugatoKey...........................................................D MinorDuration.................................................0:03:27BPM................................................................108Bar Count........................................................90Note Count................................................1727Time Signature.............................................4/4Avg. Writing Speed...................0.32 notes/h

Parts

B  Trumpet 1B  Trumpet 2F HornTromboneTuba
Suggestions on how to improve my compositions are appreciated.