How to turn Beethoven's fifth into a fugue?

Question

I am composing a Theme and Variations based on the first theme of Beethoven's fifth. And one of the variations that I plan on doing is a fugal variation. I decided to write the fugal variation first, even though it won't be the first variation, just to get the burden of the fugue off of me before I write the other variations.

But I have a bit of a problem. That one being, how to turn the theme into a fugue without losing the Beethoven's fifth identity or being extremely dissonant. I have found it extremely hard to do. It is so obvious which part of the theme would become the fugue subject. But the countersubject is not so obvious. I tried using 2 countersubjects based off of the theme, and I found it too dissonant to even be worth doing. But even with 1 countersubject, I still run into problems.

As you can see, parallel fourths are my main issue. But it doesn't become an issue until I introduce the proposed countersubject. To make it even more clear, here is the notation that results:

X:
T:The Beethoven Variations
C:Cheyanna Marie Ward
M:2/4
L:1/4
Q:"Allegro con brio" 1/4=160
K:C minor
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V:Vio1 name="Violin I" clef=treble
V:Vio2 name="Violin II" clef=treble
V:Via name="Viola" clef=alto
V:Cel name="Cello" clef=bass
%
%
"Fugue"
[V:Vio1] z1/2 G1/2G1/2G1/2 | !fermata!E2 | z1/2 F1/2F1/2F1/2 | D2-|!fermata!D2 | z1/2 G1/2G1/2G1/2 | z1/2 A1/2A1/2A1/2 | z1/2 e1/2e1/2e1/2 | c2-|c1 z1 | z2 | z2 | z2| z2| z2| z2 | z2 | z2| z2| z2| z2 | z2 | z2| z2| z2|
[V:Vio2] z2| z2| z2| z2| z2| z1/2 C1/2C1/2C1/2 | !fermata!A,2 | z1/2 B,1/2B,1/2B,1/2 | G,2-|!fermata!G,2 | z1/2 C1/2C1/2C1/2 | z1/2 D1/2D1/2D1/2 | z1/2 B1/2B1/2B1/2 | F2-|F z | z2 | z2 | z2| z2| z2| z2 | z2 | z2| z2| z2|
[V:Via] z2 | z2 | z2| z2| z2| z2 | z2 | z2| z2| z2| z1/2 G,1/2G,1/2G,1/2 | !fermata!E,2 | z1/2 F,1/2F,1/2F,1/2| D,2-|!fermata!D,2 | z1/2 G,1/2G,1/2G,1/2 |z1/2 A,1/2A,1/2A,1/2 | z1/2 E1/2E1/2E1/2| C2-|C z | z2 | z2 | z2| z2| z2|
[V:Cel] z2 | z2 | z2| z2| z2| z2 | z2 | z2| z2| z2| z2 | z2 | z2| z2| z2| z1/2 C,1/2C,1/2C,1/2 | !fermata!A,,2 | z1/2 B,,1/2B,,1/2B,,1/2 | G,,2-|!fermata!G,,2 | z1/2 C,1/2C,1/2C,1/2 | z1/2 D,1/2D,1/2D,1/2 | z1/2 B,1/2B,1/2B,1/2 | F,2-|F, z |

As you can see pretty clearly from the notation, I have problems with the countersubject and parallel fourths. At least I'm not dealing with parallel sevenths, that would be way worse. And like I said at the beginning, I am wanting to have a fugue as one of my variations on Beethoven's fifth.

So how can I turn the first theme of Beethoven's fifth into a fugue, without loosing the Beethoven's fifth identity or getting contrapuntal issues such as dissonance or parallel fourths?

Answer 1

You could try following the model of a fugue with a similar melodic pattern.

After looking around I found this one from Pachelbel's Fugues on the Magnificant...

...the ending to make clear the key...

The important thing is that the subject matches the same melodic series of ^5 ^3 ^4...

The answer is ^1 ^7 ^1...

I couldn't quickly find an example with a subject of ^5 ^3 ^4 ^2. Nevertheless, ^2 probably should be answered by ^6. (That's what happens in Pachelbel.)

It's interesting the ^7 doesn't take a sharp and so harmony of the answer is roughly Am Dm Emaj Am.

Rhythmically you could try having the counter-subject play on the first beat. That way you would get nice rhythmic independence between the voices.