Why I write fugues (Part II)

This is part II of Why I write fugues. Part I is a discussion on compositional techniques and methods, which you may find interesting if you are into composing fugues.

Its potential for cross-genre innovation

Fugue has its roots in improvisation. The notion of contrapuntal writing developed from polyphonic exercises in the Renaissance Era (ca. 1400 – 1600) that helped plan out a basis for improvisation. Eventually, the fugue became recognized as a distinct texture on its own and rose to its prominence in the Baroque Era (ca. 1600 – 1760) notably with the music of Bach. Fugues were often based on pre-existing material or musical cryptograms using a variety of encodings.

Vid. 1. Video recording of the fugue from Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel (Op. 24) by Brahms. Pf. Andre-Michel Schub.

Contrapuntal writing based on pre-existing material allowed composers to give their music an additional dimension. Typically, the pre-existing material would be a melody or a fragment of a melody from another source, such as a hymn, a folk song, or a piece of music. The fugue from Brahms’s Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel is an example of such a work from the Romantic Era (ca. 1815 – 1910).

Musical cryptograms are a way of correlating written language to musical pitch classes. Notable examples are:

• the BACH motif (from J.S. Bach): B flat, A, C, B natural; and
• the DSCH motif (from D. Shostakovitch): D, E flat, C, B natural.

(In German music conventions, B-flat is represented as B and B natural is represented as H.)

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Fast forward to modern day, a world dominated by computers, mass media, and popular culture. While “classical music” (art music) still has a prominent presence in art and culture, it is less accessible to the public, and therefore not as well understood, compared to popular music.

The fugue is now a thing of the past, but I feel that shouldn’t be the way it is. In Part I of Why I write fugues, I had talked about how I appreciate the art of fugue writing as a fascinating puzzle. It is an engaging challenge that leads to the revelation of things that were once not obvious to the composer. And in turn, the composer learns more about himself through this process. That is why I believe that the fugue form is important and should be brought back to some degree of prominence. That is what I hope to achieve through my work on YouTube.

I didn’t start posting score videos until some time in 2008. (“Score video” is a term I made up to describe a slideshow of sheet music synchronized with music playing in the background.) My first upload of this kind was my piano solo arrangement of Lilium, the opening theme song from the anime Elfen Lied. I composed the arrangement in response to all the positive feedback I was receiving from my Lilium improvisation video. Soon after, my first score video received lots of comments and views, which gave me an idea.

Vid. 2. Score video for Nokia Fugue (Op. 31), an original composition.

Seeing that people liked the idea of score videos, I thought I’d make some more to see where it would lead me. But anime music, while popular with selected audiences, still does not compare to the popularity of pop culture. Then I thought of cell phones and started sketching out the beginnings of what would later become the the Nokia Fugue (Op. 31).

From that point on, I realized that the fugue form (and canons) was a link between art music and pop culture. By writing fugues that incorporated elements from pop culture, I could speak to a broader audience and raise awareness of this art form to audiences that otherwise would not have been aware. Later on, My YouTube subscriber count rose quickly after the user smalin, who is known for his visually appealing music animation videos, animated the Nokia Fugue.

Vid. 3. Score video for Fugue for Sycra (Op. 35), an original composition.

In November 2009, I composed Fugue for Sycra (Op. 35). Extending the idea of musical cryptogram into the 21st century, I came upon the idea of writing a fugue loosely based on the letters of a friend’s YouTube username. As mentioned previously, there are many methods of encoding letters to pitch classes. Being the case that I do not speak fluent German, I decided to go with the “French” method of the musical cryptogram, which basically encodes the first seven letters of the alphabet as expected, and then the rest of the letters are encoded to their corresponding pitch class given in the top row of the following table:

A	B	C	D	E	F	G
H	I	J	K	L	M	N
O	P	Q	R	S	T	U
V	W	X	Y	Z

Tbl. 1. French musical cryptogram encoding scheme.

I say this is an extension of the traditional cryptogram-based fugue because it is based on a username as opposed to an actual name. It is essentially an adaptation of traditional methods to the modern world of technology.

By writing fugues using pre-existing melodies and motifs from pop culture, I can combine my appreciation for the fugue with something to which the general public can relate. With time, I hope that more and more people can appreciate the beauty of the fugue along with its complex compositional techniques.