Getting Started WIth Writing, Part XIII

(con't from Part XII)
Once we've taken your first steps in writing a fugue for the organ we might entertain writing a prelude to go with it, perhaps in continuous expansion form.
The processes involved in creating 2 different pieces destined to be paired like this are very much the same; the main difference is, in the prelude the thematic material is not subjected to strict fugal procedure ... every voice in the prelude, technically, is a free voice (unless momentarily occupied with imitating the theme), which tasks the imagination a step further than writing a fugue even, to invent something interesting to say musically, bar after bar, page after page.
All it takes is patience (with yourself), an open mind, understanding how to win against Resistance [See blog, The Book], a thematic idea, a plan to carry it through a certain order of keys, and familiarity with some good models.
This is where, if we haven't already, we're going to bump into J.S. Bach.
Every hunter spending time in the woods searching for game will eventually run across something big; and so it is with him.
When we speak of Bach we're talking about a comprehensive musical genius, someone whose sheer mastery of the techniques of composition have never been equalled, a musician with nearly superhuman powers of invention; his very surname is a colossal syllable, one which makes composers tremble, brings performers to their knees, and beatifies the Bach-lover.
The models he left us can be trusted.
Using him as authority, paired preludes and fugues are under no obligation to spring from the same ideas; some of his do, but the majority of them do not.
Some authorities believe that Bach always conceived preludes and fugues in pairs and that, when we find isolated specimens of each, it means that one or the other was rejected by him at some revision or another and he never got around to rewriting it.
The simple truth is, not every idea fits a classroom outline (the teaching that if you have a Roman numeral I, you have to have a Roman number II, or if you have an part A under it, you have to have a part B ... etc.).
In the same way not all fugues lend themselves to being paired with a free work.
Some of them work very well that way, but some don't.
Study of Bach's major organ works and both books of the Well Tempered Clavier show that the majority of his preludes and fugues have no thematic connection at all with one another; they're built upon dissimilar ideas and are merely joined because they happen to share the same key; their grouping together as a prelude and fugue in fact seems a method of convenience.
It's possible to take the subject (theme) of a fugue or its countersubject(s), or maybe a theme from another piece, and subject it to rhythmic transformation (same pitches in sequence but different note values) to create a subject for a fugue; in this procedure the pitches in succession are exactly the same but the note values are changed.
It's a fairly easy operation which, if adopted along with the other tools described in this series of posts (Imitation, Inversion, Retrograde, Retrograde Inversion, Pedal Points, Sequencing, Augmentation, Diminution, Segmentation, etc.), yields some interesting results which may stimulate still more ideas that will seem to have your own inventive skill self-propelled.
Hidden thematic connections like this are shared by several pieces whose scores and explanatory notes are available pro bono on this web site.
For example, this is precisely how the theme for the D Major Op. 5 Prelude Internationale and the subject for the D Major Op. 6 "Jig" Fugue were invented; they both came about from rhythmic transformation of the main theme from the C Major Op. 4 Variations on a cantus firmus [See blog, Learning by Example, Audience Appeal, Monotony].
It will help to download a copy of Prelude and Fugue in c minor Op. 11 (photo) and follow it along as you read further about how it was put together.
In this work the double Fugue was written first, and the Prelude afterwards; the Prelude is of relatively simple construction and unusual in that the tonic key is virtually hidden throughout; it's theme is derived by rhythmic transformation, note for note, of the 1st theme from its paired Fugue, thus lending a certain unity to the entire work [See blog, Getting Started With Writing, Part VI].
One of the nice things about working with an online music writing software program like Noteflight is that our Noteflight scores can be converted to PDF format and exported to the document files of our notebook PC and stored there indefinitely without being subject to the wear and tear involved with a perishable paper manuscript (the score may also be converted to an mp3 audio file and stored the same way for future playback).
More importantly, this saving of our work, day to day, on an electronic screen allows us to change or edit something without having to cross things out on paper or maybe trash the whole manuscript and start over again.
Bach was the type of composer who settled in his mind the entire layout of a work before ever setting pen to paper; far more commonly however it's the other way around, as with Beethoven, Franck, and a host of others, where many measures were rubbed out before settling finally on the disposition of a work.
It makes us wonder what those master composers of bygone centuries could have produced if they only had access to the time-saving modern notebook PC and music writing software; composers in this technological day and age have a much easier and far less frustrating time of it, for the creation and editing of their music.
There's a lesson here, one that Franck never failed to teach to his composition students: "Do not write much, but let it be very good."
Most modern composers after 1980 use computers and online music writing software, much as they would use a word processor, to put their works on (computer) paper.
This has a number of advantages; sloppy, unclear writing is difficult to accomplish compared to 1820 when Beethoven was crossing out notes in his manuscripts; editing is easy and score paper does not have to be kept on hand.
The use of pedal (held) notes [See blog, Inversion] and imitation in several places in this Prelude adds to the excitement as the music boils up quickly over 3 octaves from the bass octave of the main manual and maintains that same driving rhythm right through to the end.
This Prelude is remarkable in that the opening passage is in the dominant tonality (g minor); the theme is first presented voice by voice over a secondary dominant pedal point; the moving lines in combination create a perpetual 8th note motion, and all of the interest in this Prelude is focused on this 8th note motion which is developed in continuous expansion form for a duration of 45 bars.
When in continuous expansion form the music, instead of separating into clearly defined sections, develops a single motif or theme from beginning to end; this type of development could include such things as excursions into various keys and experimenting with various textures, inversions, sequences, dynamic levels, and the like.
The tempo of this Prelude is deliberately brisk and agitated, with a troubled theme which tends to capture and hold the listener's attention from the get-go.
The pedal point on low pedal D at the outset needs to drone very quietly in the background below the other moving lines so the listener can hear these lines clearly; this pedal note cannot be too loud here, and a very soft 16-foot covered flute stop would suffice.
When the theme repeats in the soprano line of the middle octave of the manual the music remains in the dominant key, still over that same droning pedal point, with the addition of a free voice in the alto to complete a 3 voice texture for the hands.
When the theme enters finally in the Pedal in the same key an 8-foot Principal can be drawn to bring out this line, the pedal point meanwhile continuing in the high tenor range; after the theme runs its course in the Pedal a modulating sequence of 4 bars briefly takes the music into the tonic tonality (c minor) before a modulation lands the music in the relative key (Eb Major).
Here the Pedal comes to a stop and the inversion of the theme [See blog, Inversion] appears in the soprano and is harmonized using 2 other free voices (alto and tenor).
The theme is then heard right side up in the soprano (for the sake of comparison) with the 2 free voices continuing in the alto and tenor.
This hearing of the theme right side up immediately after its entry in the same voice upside down foreshadows something that will happen later on with the entry of the Pedal line in the expositions of the 1st and 2nd themes of the double fugue which follows.
So we see here that a paired prelude and fugue can have connectives not only thematically through rhythmic transformation of a theme but also by means of how the thematic material is worked.
A modulating sequence [See blog, Sequencing] of 5 bars then takes the music into the subdominant relative key (Ab Major) where a crescendo introduces the theme in the soprano over another dominant pedal point with the free voices in the alto and tenor continuing the 3 part texture in the hands
Here the Pedal registration reverts back to the lone 16-foot covered flute for the holding of the pedal point in the top end of the pedalboard; this note drones very quietly in the alto range while the other lines move around it.
The music then passes quickly to the subdominant key (f minor) where the theme switches to the tenor line over yet another secondary dominant pedal point in the high end of the pedals, with 2 free voices supplied in the soprano and alto.
This is followed by a 5 bar coda in which the music stays in the subdominant key (f minor); the music then undergoes a crescendo as the first few notes of the theme are segmented [See blog, Segmentation] and reiterated in the soprano line over 2 free voices moving in the alto and tenor.
The music expands finally to 5 and then 6 voices before coming to a stop on a "Picardy third" (major 3rd interval in the final chord of a work written in tonic minor tonality).
The profuse use of pedal points on secondary dominants along with a brisk concert tempo, crescendos, and segmentation in the coda raises the excitement level and makes this music, in places, sound like it's boiling with energy.
The double Fugue which follows is described in detail in another blog posting {Getting Started With Writing, Part VI].
There would be nothing particularly wrong with performing just the first part of this work as a stand alone Prelude (or Postlude) preceding or following a worship service; with its thematic connection with its paired Fugue, however in a recital situation this Prelude and Fugue are best performed as one work.
You'll very likely enjoy working your way through this one.
A final note: a rose is a rose from the time it's a seed to the time it blooms (photo); during its life cycle it passes through many manifold stages and guises, but at each place along the way it's still a rose and perfectly all right, as it is.
No matter how long we've been at it, no matter how simplified it may seem, we should be proud of the way we manage to write, improvise, or perform our music; regardless of our current skill level, health, or physical limitations, regardless of how well we can explain all the technical aspects, regardless of our physical strength or stamina, we should be proud of the way we play.
Moreover, and more importantly, we should be thankful for the privilege; 2/3 of the rest of the world is too undernourished to play a musical instrument at all.
Even if we think we're nothing but a rose seed, that seed in us is still a rose.
(con't in Part XIV)