https://youtu.be/pn11pVEUbWs?si=dreDHSQ7_CQJLrv3

I hope this doesn't break the rules of this subreddit, and as a disclaimer I'm not posting it for an ego boost.

While the subject is mine, the fugue which presents it was written recently by clarinetist and composer Thomas Bassett. He is also interested in writing in the older style (and I recently submitted a concerto of his to r/baroquecomposition.

In this keyboard fugue his statements and elaborations are concise and frankly the counterpoint is so good! It's stunning in its simplicity and it would've taken me hours and days to write something as fluid as this.

The suspensions we hear in the opening are very poignant, and his modulation to e minor is very well done. The stretto from bar 28/29 happens so quickly you might not catch it! At only forty bars long, this writing has many qualities we all can admire. Well done, Thomas! I hope to post more of his counterpoint developments here soon.

This wondrous 5 voice fugue is one of my favorites from the Well Tempered Clavier. It features a subject and two counter subjects, as well as many intermediary patterns in between. It is animated masterfully by Stephen Malinowski

The way I like to listen to these ultra-dense musical pieces is:

• Understand that the nature of this music focuses heavily on the independence and co-dependence of individual voices. You need to lean in and hear each voice individually, and see how it relates to other voices to fully appreciate the piece.

• Principally, appreciate the main subject (and countersubjects) and appreciate their recurrences. The principal four (or five) note subject is apparent from the start (animated in a box by Smalin), and the two counter subjects appear later in the piece, with a masterful climax at 2:31. As far as I know, Bach has never done anything as impressive as this in so few measures.

• Now that you have appreciated where the subjects occur, you can then focus on ancilliary patterns. Note for instance, that in the beginning, the second voice beneath the principal subject at :14 is again echoed by the center voice when the third voice enters at :20. Notice the three note decending / ascending patterns animated as little points from :22 in the lower voice to 1:01. Notice at 1:54, the decending pattern in the topmost yellow voice is again repeated at 2:41!!

So many patterns, in a time when there weren't even devices to record or replay them! He didn't have to make his music so complex, yet he did so anyways, and we are made all the better for it today, nearly 300 years later. This is why I (in my current experience and opinion) Bach is the best composer in the classical / counterpoint category to have ever lived. Nothing is superfluous, everything is functional, and it is hardly ever pretentious. To think he did this hundreds of years before indoor plumbing was even a thing is absolutely miraculous and astounding!

Hi there! Just wanted to share some counterpoint I noticed when I revisited an old piece I was listening to. You're welcome to listen to the rest of it, but the portion I wanted to look at was only a minute or two long.

Here you can find a score, color coded with the different little themes I've identified within the piece.

Here you can find a recording of the piece featuring the late Karl Richter.

I hope you enjoy this tiny, rough analysis.