Jonathan Shaw

Composed: ~4th April 2012

     Now this was a fun one, and my first fugue! For a few reasons, this composition was built around the number four; it was my fourth (traditional) composition (at least before I updated this list to include “C.1 – Free”), it was scored for four soloists, it was just about four minutes long and I wrote it in April (the 4th month – even perhaps on the 4th?). As peculiar and coincidental as these circumstances may be, this is where the title originated from, even if it makes no musical sense.

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     This was to be the first of a few compositions that used this particular woodwind ensemble: flute, treble recorder, oboe and bassoon. I'm not entirely sure why this particular ensemble appealed to me. Perhaps it was the recorders' use in Bach's Brandenburg Concerto that had left an impact. As for the oboe and bassoon, I always had a strange instinct to pair those two together - I really have no explanation as to why.

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     I wrote this during the Easter break, and as of writing, this is probably my earliest composition I still find some pleasure in, even though it is exquisitely generic. This was before I had discovered J.S.Bach’s Toccata in G Minor BWV 915 for harpsichord, the fugal subject of which is very similar, which gave me much joy when I later made the connection that I had unknowingly devised a subject that bore at least some resemblance to my compositional idol of the time.

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     I will note that I did make a later correction to fix unison between two parts for a brief segment, however I do not recall when I made this correction, except that by this time it was no longer April.