Fugue No. 1 in b-flat minor, for solo piano (2002)
Duration: 2’
MP3 Player
Score excerpt
Performers in audio recording:
Joshua Stovall, piano
Recording studio, Baltimore, MD
Spring 2002
Program Notes:
This Fugue, along with the Invention in c minor, were my final projects for Dr. Thomas Benjamin’s Theory II class. It was a challenge to inculcate the lessons of J.S. Bach’s compositional strategies, and then to use them to compose an original piece that evoked Bach without copying him literally. At the time I composed this, I was casually trying to learn Bach’s grand five-voice Fugue in b-flat minor from his “Well-Tempered Klavier,” and while my own fugue has nothing on the complexity or depth of Bach’s, I believe that a listener familiar with the Bach would be able to hear its influence on my composition. I am grateful to Dr. Benjamin for his excellent and demanding teaching, and to Joshua for his sensitive performance.
— August 2010