four-part writing Four-Part Writing Attempt

Hey Guys,

I tried to follow the four-part writing rules, avoid parallel fifths and octaves, and double the proper notes with this brief music piece. I hope I didn't make mistakes.

four_part_writing_example.mid

four_part_writing_example.mid

Hi @olivercomposer!

Is this an exercise from a specific book/chapter?  I am just reading through Kent Kennan's Counterpoint book myself and some things stick out to me.  First off, the top two voices in the right hand stay in parallel 6ths throughout the first 3 and a half measures.  Even though the interval of a 6th isn't a dissonant interval, repeating any interval like this too much still interferes with the independence of voices.  In measure 4 beat 3 your alto voice skips to the leading tone from an F which is a tritone, and the leading tone is not resolved up to C, the way it would be expected.  Your motion from a V to a IV in this instance is also weak, being a retrogression and for this reason is avoided because it is difficult to write without parallel 5ths or octaves.  Also, at the end you have a leading tone that skips down to the 5th of the tonic chord.  Even though your soprano voice moves to the root at that point, in this kind of part writing it is important to make sure that each voice, on it's own, independently of the others follows proper voice-leading rules, and the leading tone is a strong tendency tone that wants to resolve up to the tonic root note in this style of music.  This is just from a short glance at this exercise, so I might have missed something myself.  Thanks for sharing!

11 hours ago, PeterthePapercomPoser said:

Hi @olivercomposer!

Is this an exercise from a specific book/chapter?  I am just reading through Kent Kennan's Counterpoint book myself and some things stick out to me.  First off, the top two voices in the right hand stay in parallel 6ths throughout the first 3 and a half measures.  Even though the interval of a 6th isn't a dissonant interval, repeating any interval like this too much still interferes with the independence of voices.  In measure 4 beat 3 your alto voice skips to the leading tone from an F which is a tritone, and the leading tone is not resolved up to C, the way it would be expected.  Your motion from a V to a IV in this instance is also weak, being a retrogression and for this reason is avoided because it is difficult to write without parallel 5ths or octaves.  Also, at the end you have a leading tone that skips down to the 5th of the tonic chord.  Even though your soprano voice moves to the root at that point, in this kind of part writing it is important to make sure that each voice, on it's own, independently of the others follows proper voice-leading rules, and the leading tone is a strong tendency tone that wants to resolve up to the tonic root note in this style of music.  This is just from a short glance at this exercise, so I might have missed something myself.  Thanks for sharing!

 

Hi,

Thanks for your comment! It's not counterpoint, it's just four-part writing. Counterpoint has more serious rules. Parallel 6th is not considered as a voicing error in four-part writing. My goal was to avoid parallel 5th and parallel 8th in this case. I think counterpoint is not exactly the same as four-part writing. As far as I know, four-part writing includes the following rules:

• avoid parallel 5th and octave
• yes, do not use tritone, or try to avoid, it's true
• in root position double the root
• in the first inversion double either the root or the fifth
• in the second inversion double the fifth (which is the bass)
• avoid large leaps between the notes
• if a step is bigger than 4th, the next step should be in the opposite direction

But maybe I'm wrong... So four-part counterpoint has far stronger rules than four-part harmonization.

I think that the question of bar 4 (jump to tritone and return F - B - F) is the most striking.
I don't know for what purpose you did this.
Rather than commenting on technical issues, which is already in the previous message, I'll tell you my opinion of all this.
I think that studying counterpoint is fundamental for any style in which you want to make music. For me, of course, it has always been very useful. Sometimes I do things in baroque style, but it is more for pleasure, fun and to train all these skills (in which I always make mistakes).
Studying counterpoint nowadays can be a nightmare, because the old methods are very heavy and, almost, without much sense. One always wonders what first-species counterpoint is for, to say the least.
But maybe writing in four parts like that is just too much. It's very rigid writing.
I started doing two-voice counterpoint, then three, etc.
 

On 7/17/2024 at 7:38 PM, olivercomposer said:

As far as I know, four-part writing includes the following rules:

• avoid parallel 5th and octave
• yes, do not use tritone, or try to avoid, it's true
• in root position double the root
• in the first inversion double either the root or the fifth
• in the second inversion double the fifth (which is the bass)
• avoid large leaps between the notes
• if a step is bigger than 4th, the next step should be in the opposite direction

But maybe I'm wrong... So four-part counterpoint has far stronger rules than four-part harmonization.

You are right those are somes of the "rules" of four-part writing. But normally those rules are just the result of a specific voice movement that consist on moving internal voices as little as possible while avoiding paralell 8th and 5ths. 

In four-part writing you would not normally have the same C note in the bass for 3 measures or jump around with the internal voices so much. 

In my opinion, you can jump directly to learning four-part writing without counterpoint. That said, it is probably better to do both at the same time: four-part writing and counterpoint.

The "practical manual for harmony" by Korsakov teaches, step by step, exactly what you are trying to do. I think it is really useful for learning four-part writing. But I am sure there are other good books for learning four-part writing. 

For counterpoint, I used the Kent Kennan book that @PeterthePapercomPoser recommended and it was really useful. I think, even just learning two voice counterpoint, will help you a lot understand harmony much better!

Hi @olivercomposer,

In b.4, apart from the tritone move of the alto, the alto and tenor are more than octave apart, which is considered a violation of 4 part writing rules since it creates imbalance of register. 

On 7/17/2024 at 7:00 AM, PeterthePapercomPoser said:

Also, at the end you have a leading tone that skips down to the 5th of the tonic chord.  Even though your soprano voice moves to the root at that point, in this kind of part writing it is important to make sure that each voice, on it's own, independently of the others follows proper voice-leading rules, and the leading tone is a strong tendency tone that wants to resolve up to the tonic root note in this style of music.

I think this is absolutely fine to have the leading tone goes to fifth when the soprano covers, since Bach always does this in his chorale for the fullness of the last chord! 
 

Henry

On 7/22/2024 at 4:02 PM, Henry Ng Tsz Kiu said:

Hi @olivercomposer,

In b.4, apart from the tritone move of the alto, the alto and tenor are more than octave apart, which is considered a violation of 4 part writing rules since it creates imbalance of register. 

I think this is absolutely fine to have the leading tone goes to fifth when the soprano covers, since Bach always does this in his chorale for the fullness of the last chord! 
 

Henry

 

I think I don't have the patience to examine every single interval for the sake of avoiding parallel octaves, fifths, and tritones. That's the biggest problem... 😄