Improvising Fugues (Part I)

If you're interested in knowing more about improvising Fugues, you can download my MA thesis for free at: www.academia.e...
As a music psychologist I take a relaxed but detailed approach to improvising a Fugue. In this video I explain how to improvise the first part of a Fugue - the exposition, in which all the different voices enter in turn. Improvising Fugues is a challenge, but a very musical and rewarding challenge, which is accessible to all. By directing one's attention to different aspects of musical construction in turn the contrapuntal and constructional challenges can be overcome!

[@jesseth9419]

Nice!

[@orgelbaron]

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[@MrMarcvus]

Thank you so much for a fantastic video! I am an organist and am in the process of composing my first fuge - what a fun challenge. Do you recommend any methods?

[@improvisation_psychology]

Thanks very much for your comments. About methods, this is difficult.. there are loads of methods to choose from and I myself tried methods by Dupré, Whitmer and Schouton. But, honestly I found all of these graded methods very frustrating! They suggest very simple exercises which are rather boring and it's always difficult to know how to make the jump from the written exercise to the improvisation.
If you want to explore the other videos on this channel you'll see that my own approach is quite different to most written methods. I try to engage the musicianship and creativity of the musician from the outset. Fugues themselves are quite simple and fun to work at if you break the task up in the right way. If you want to understand how to control the harmonic aspects of diatonic systems you can use the videos which deal just with consonance/dissonance.

[@HannahByun_Organist]

@@improvisation_psychology I watched all your 3 videos of improvising fugues. It was very helpful. As you said there are some materials out there, but I've never had progress with those and they are rather boring. I'll start with what you showed with the 3 videos. Very inspiring! Thank you!

[@improvisation_psychology]

@@HannahByun_Organist I'm very happy you found the videos helpful. I try to focus on thought processes rather than musical theory, although there is some theory involved. If you have questions or get frustrated feel free to ask. I'll try to help!

[@LearnCompositionOnline]

@@improvisation_psychologyexcellent, thx very much for the recommendation!