Tom Warren wrote: >How could a Bach fugue be "incorrect". I don't know how to write a fugue, >but I certainly have played a few and they seem very correct to me. Well, that's the difference between judging a fugue according to what are known as "school fugue" rules and judging a fugue based on how well it seems to hang together. There are, believe it or not, "mistakes" in a small number of Bach fugues - parallel octaves, parallel fifths, "answering" voices not entering at the "proper" interval, and so on. When you're starting out to write fugues, mastering these rules actually helps you because they limit the decisions you have to make. Deciding takes time and effort. These things are generally due in a few days or even at the end of a class hour. On the other hand, when you write music for real, very often you want to increase your options. You do so at your own risk, of course, since these "rules" are simply a compendium of effective procedures, just as Rimsky's treatise on orchestration is a compendium of effective sounds. If you want new sounds, you takes your chances, and any composers worth their salt do. The only composer I know who wrote "school fugues" for real was Satie. They are delightful fugues and the constraints are part of their artistic point. In this case, the composer risks trying to elevate a student exercise to a valid artistic form, while maintaining the outward characteristics of the exercise. Steve Schwartz