How to Write a Fugue

An overview of the fugal composition technique using Bach's Little Fugue in G minor.

[FighterFred]

This is not easy, even if each voice is an independent melody it's the combination that counts. How Bach did it is a miracle at least to me. Very often after playing his music I wonder "how can anyone come up with something like this"? A sense of wonder.

[Offshoreorganbuilder]

You almost have me convinced that I could do this.
Thanks!

[tymime]

The element of a fugue that's escaped me so far is how one transposes the lines into a different key, and how they all harmonize together. This helps.

[AbdelOveAllhan]

And then there's Handel's famous "One note fugue" from his Concerto Grosso Opus 6 #7, in the 2nd movement his fugue says, "I can write a wildly good fugue with more dash and harmonic interest with "1" note than you pikers can with 12."

[jasonyang]

Please do one for the development and the recapitulation. This video was extremely helpful. Thank you so much!

[KordTaylor]

Thank you so much. An amazing review of why this piece is so good and how to write a fugue. 👏🏻

[HowardTse]

Glenn Gould: "Forget about the theory and start making a fugue we can sing!"
Also Glenn Gould: *Wrote impossible fugue to sing, yet there are still people singing it...*

[Composer]

This was a great refresher, very clear to follow. Thank you!

[Yorgi.A]

Q: What do Bach and this presenter have in common?
A: They both make it look easy.

Haha! Excellent video -- very informative! Thank you. 🙂

[tonybmusic]

I’m 77 and the older I get, the more I realize I do not know. About 45 pr so years ago I received my masters in music comp and completed an application to the music comp doctoral program at UCLA. The entrance exam was a bitch, and one of the exam components was one hour to take a four or five note snippet and extend it into a fugue complete with multiple subjects, a stretto and an inversion of the fugue subject.

[francobonanni]

Excellent explanation of one of the forms most difficult. Please publish other videos on the subject. I would like to be your student. Thank you.

[jcortese]

This is a really nice explanation, very clear and useful.

[DPNack_]

0:54 sheet on the left is the manuscript of Chopin's ballade n°2's Coda

[Ancestor_Savio]

Thanks for this video... Please do more...

[minerscale]

Thank you so much sir I will cherish this with my life.

[nathaniellevy]

Bravo! This is wonderful and I would give you a hug if I could. My only suggestion is that in your ‘map’ of the fugue it would be great to have a map-key so we know that green is home-key, and yellow (subject answer) is Dominant key

[hironegatoshi]

Thank you so much!!!, I was able to write my first fugue because of this!!

[RivkaMacales]

Thank you for explaining this. I actually just wrote a fuge exposition after watching this - a 4 voci.

[FugueNerd]

This video helps me a lot for my practice and my projects. Thank you!

[devendasmusic]

I’m into metal music, but I love the concept of a fugue. It’s very fresh to me.