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Why Preludes & Fugues?

Everyone loves a fugue! But the prelude is important too. It should set up the fugue in dramatic fashion.

Although my fugues have expositions, episodes and stretto sections, they diverge from the strict forms of the Baroque period. A pure 3 or 4 voice fugue is modeled on 4-part choral writing where each voice is maintained withing it's limited range.

In the classical era - Mozart, Beethoven and Brahms all wrote 'fugue-like' pieces known as 'fugati'. These pieces often started out formally but soon broke out of their strict voice leading with runs, arpeggios and block chords.

Fugue writing continued into the 20th century, but losing the tonal centers and discernable key changes weakened the strength and logic of the form. Tonal fugue writing calls for independent, melodious, horizontal lines, while also expressing logical chord progressions vertically. It's tricky!

Why write piano music in this style these days? Actually, they were all composed in the late 1970's during my student days at Boston University. I was having a great time, and my teacher, David del Tredici was writing fully tonal music himself.

Bottom line: if you have one life to live, you should write the kind of music you like!