Chapter 7: Which way to go?

I enjoyed experimenting with composing Canons.  They taught me how harmony can come into being and how harmony can add to melody.

I plan to experiment more with Canons.  I find it interesting how Canons can expand the concept of counterpoint if you use long themes and want to repeat 4 times so that 4 instruments can play the Canon.

The whole idea is very polyphonic of course.

I wonder if it is possible to learn how to analyse a melody in order to decide what will be a good repeat pattern, what are good counterpoint structures to avoid a “note salad” (more on that later) and how best to limit unwelcome dissonances in the process?

I had been thinking of tackling fugues as my next area of exercise.

But I am having second thoughts about this.  My overarching goal is to focus on composing music that deeply touches the listener.  A subsidiary goal to that is for me to learn how to use polyphony together with harmony better in this process.  The reason for this subsidiary goal is that I find it easier to focus on melody and counterpoint in my approach to composing.

I have tried my hand at fugues in the past but mainly as an effort to prove to myself that I could do it. I composed fugues in the conventional way with modulation etc.  During the time I was composing mainly using octatonic scales I also played around with transposing the rules of fugues so they could be used also with octatonic scales.

So I revisited the rules of fugue composing.  Fugue composing certainly fits the mould when it comes to polyphony and counterpoint.  Because of its technical nature and complexity a certain amount of “engineering work” will be needed.  To compose a fugue that deeply touches the listener may not be the best next composition activity for me, particularly as there is a certain similarity to Canons which I am planning to continue to apply in future.

So I am now wondering what area of composing I should try my hand on next rather than fugues?

So I thought I pose this quandary to my new “best friend”, i.e. ChatGPT. -:). Here is what came back:

“Your instinct here is very healthy — and very musical.

There’s a quiet but important shift happening in what you wrote:

Before: “Can I master the technique (canon, fugue)?”

Now: “Will this technique help me touch a listener?”

That’s a composer’s question, not a craftsman’s question.

And honestly: if your north star is deep emotional impact, then spending months inside strict fugue writing is probably not the most direct path.

Fugues train the brain.

They rarely train the heart.

They are magnificent architecture — but architecture is not yet poetry.

Bach could make them spiritual because he already had the poetry. The fugue was just the container.

So your doubt is actually good judgement.

A gentle reality check about fugues

Let me be slightly provocative (friendly, not dismissive):

If you feel canons already verge on “engineering,” fugues will feel like engineering with spreadsheets.

You’ll spend energy on:

• subject design constraints

• answer types (real/tonal)

• countersubject compatibility

• invertible counterpoint

• episode sequencing

• stretto planning

• voice-leading legality

All wonderful skills…

…but only indirectly connected to:

“Will this move someone to tears?”

So fugues are fantastic technical gyms, but poor expressive laboratories.

You don’t sound like you need more gym time right now.

You sound like you want deeper expressiveness.

What might serve your goal better?

Since you already:

• think melodically

• enjoy counterpoint

• care about harmony emerging naturally

• want music that “touches”

Here are areas that align much more directly with that goal.

1. Chorale-style writing (very powerful for you)

Honestly, this may be perfect for you.

Not fugues.

Not canons.

But expressive 4-part chorale writing.

Why?

Because chorales teach:

• harmony that breathes

• voice-leading that sings

• emotional pacing

• harmonic color choices

• phrasing

• simplicity with depth

And they are directly listener-focused.

Every chord matters emotionally.

Exercises you might love

• Harmonize a single melody 5 different ways (sad, luminous, tense, hopeful, dark)

• Write slow 4-part settings (Adagio)

• Explore suspensions and appoggiaturas

• Limit yourself to stepwise inner voices

• Study Bach chorales not as rules, but as emotion maps

This develops harmonic sensitivity far more directly than fugue writing.

And it fits your interest in polyphony/choral textures you mentioned before.

2. Theme + Variations

If touching the listener is the goal, this form is gold.

Why?

Because:

• the listener stays emotionally anchored (same theme)

• you explore many harmonic colors

• you experiment freely

• technique serves expression, not structure

It’s the opposite of fugue thinking.

Instead of:

“How can I obey the rules?”

you ask:

“How does this theme feel if the harmony darkens?”

“What if the bass line aches downward?”

“What if the texture thins?”

Great training for:

• harmonic imagination

• emotional contrast

• orchestration color

• pacing

And it aligns beautifully with your “Holy Grail” idea of searching through experiments.

3. Free counterpoint / lyrical polyphony

This might be the most “you”.

Not strict canons.

Not fugues.

But:

Two–four independent singing lines with harmonic freedom.

Think:

• Bach inventions

• slow duets

• string quartet textures

• chamber music counterpoint

Rules:

• each voice must be singable

• harmony must feel inevitable

• no mechanical imitation unless musically justified

This teaches:

• organic harmony

• conversational lines

• natural voice-leading

Exactly what you said you want: harmony that “comes into being.”

4. Harmony-first miniatures

Since melody comes easily to you, try the reverse.

Write:

• 8–16 measures

• start with only chord progression

• then discover melody inside it

This strengthens your “harmonic ear” directly.

For example:

• write a progression that feels like longing

• then search for the melody that lives inside it

This flips your current workflow and can be transformative.

My honest recommendation for you

If I were designing your personal next chapter, I would suggest:

Phase 1 – Chorale writing (1–2 months)

Daily or weekly short pieces.

Phase 2 – Theme & Variations (1 larger work)

One emotionally meaningful theme, 6–8 variations.

Phase 3 – Free polyphony

Short duos/trios without strict forms.

Fugue?

Maybe later — as a technical side quest, not the main path.

One final thought

There’s something beautiful in what you wrote:

“I don’t want to become an engineer that creates music.”

That’s already the answer.

Fugue is engineering.

Chorale, variations, and lyrical counterpoint are storytelling.

You strike me much more as a storyteller.”

Well ChatGPT certainly knows how to make you feel good about yourself in between giving you interesting things to think about.

It made it easy for me to decide to put fugues on the slow burner, possibly even never to come back to.

But before I start thinking about ChatGPT’s recommendations what am I really trying to accomplish?

I feel I am trying to discover how far I can go in applying polyphonic composing.  Writing Canons where the themes are longer provides a great testing ground for me to see what works and what does not.

In general I feel that it is not hard at all to come up with multiple themes that can co-exist with each other.  There are so many ways to change rhythm, tone length and pitch to allow you to “engineer” fitting parts.  Of course, this “engineering” effort puts me off somewhat.  Instead I should allow fitting options to come to me as musical intuition.

Of course there are limits to how far one can go with that.  2 voices are always a great pleasure for me.  When it comes to 4 voices I run into problems as often playing 4 such parts together creates a “note salad” that is not pleasant to listen to and where it becomes difficult if not impossible to recognise the parts fully.

This, of course, applies if you are engineering 4 voices or if the 4 voices appear to you in a dream.

My friends Guy and Tobias, fellow composers both hear harmonies for every tone they hear. I don’t. I hear melodies.

Even though I don’t hear in my mind a fitting harmony like Guy and Tobias do but since I always have in front of me a digital piano when composing I find it easy to decide if a harmony works or not.  Of courses, it can be tempting at times to simply fit in a note and not hearing it until later when you play a piece.  In this context it is important for me to hear the music I am composing in order to decide if something “works” or if it does not.  Of course, I am a bit “guilty as charged” since I know I have “engineered” sticking in notes for an instrument that did not seem critical to what was going on.

Since nobody is encouraging me to write music for an orchestra I am quite comfortable sticking to chamber music with up to 4 instruments in my composing at the moment.  But as I have experienced already trying to compose in a polyphonic way for 4 instruments where each has its own distinctive voice can create that note salad where the voices get lost.  This seems to me to be just the right area for me to focus on in my composing efforts. Mind you, these plans often get derailed for a bit when I suddenly get this urge to do something specific without knowing exactly why this is the case.

For me, today, it appears that the best path forward is to try to apply polyphonic composing and discovering the inherent harmonic values as much as is possible but at the same time to stay out of the music salad pit.

Again practice is what will show me if this works or if it does not.  Applying the suggestions of ChatGPT is interesting and I plan to do so.  I have always enjoyed writing choral music just to mention one of the suggestions.

Interesting is that just as I was ready to start a first composition, having finished my interesting time with Canons, an idea popped into my head that I could not resist.

It turned into a 6 or 9 minute piece, depending on the long or short version, for 2 flutes and 2 cellos.  This composition consists of 2 of the instruments playing in polyphonic fashion for the entire composition and for the other 2 to come in a provide an interesting harmony add-on.  As with my other compositions I did not know where this sudden urge would lead me to but in the end I really liked what it turned into.  I called the piece Longing and want to play it for you now. The flutes only come into play in the second half so please stay the course.

My next projects will be “Composing for 4 Instruments”.  I would like to compose certainly a number of pieces for this in order to discover how far polyphonic composing will take me and to what degree I will learn to embed “harmonic composing” into it.  I do hope that this approach will help me in my quest to learn how to compose music that will deeply affect a listener. The reason I think so is that these polyphonic ideas come to me from an area outside of my rational thinking and are therefore more likely to express aspects of music that are much deeper than what I could rationally put together.  Stay tuned! -:)

February 28, 2026