A Composition Project
A Composition Project: An Original 12-tone Fugue Modeled after J.S. Bach’s BWV 847
Ilana Cady (Faculty Mentor: Carlos Flores, Music)
The specific goal of this project is to explore the compositional techniques of the 12-tone system developed by Arnold Schoenberg in 1921 and apply these techniques to fugal writing. In this process I am taking Bach’s fugue, BWV 847, and using it as the blueprint for my original 12-tone fugue. I will follow the same overarching structural pattern of BWV 847—retaining the number of voices, subject entries, and usage of the middle development section, while submitting them to the paradigms of 12-tone serialism. My composition will push the fugue form in an unexpected and more progressive direction. The 12-tone system negates the use of tonal centers and common practice harmony. To successfully compose a fugue no longer built on tonal relationships, I will employ unconventional techniques such as complex rhythmic patterns, pitch selection based on 20th-century practices, and serial relationships that will create the feeling of the traditional components of the fugue. This creative compositional project will result in an amalgamation of traditional and modern musical techniques in fugal writing.