Lesson with swankswede13

From listening to your symphony, I can see which aspects of music you have a fair grasp of, and those which require some more work.

I will probably go through many aspects of music in this (these) Lesson(s).

So it's going to be something of a broad lesson, touching on as many bases as I can.

To start with, I'm going to take give you a little theme.

What I want you to do is:

1) Add a bassline to this melody;

2) Add one inner part to this to effect an harmonization.

I would like you to work on the first one, and create an effective bass-line to the melody, and then use what you just wrote, and add in an inner part to fill out the harmony. For the most part, I would like you to write one minim for every minim of the melody, but it is fine if you deviate from this.

When writing both, there are some key things to consider.

The oft-repeated piece of advice from Brahms (among others) is that when you have only a melody line, and a bass line, what you have should in itself be satisfactory as music, before adding any other parts.

If the relationship between the melody and the bass is weak, then adding an inner part will not get rid of the poor effect. Bear this in mind when creating your bass part.

In general, some good tips for soprano-bass counterpoint1 are as follows:

- Contrary motion between soprano and bass (as well as in general) is well advised. Independence of voices is highly desirous between the outermost parts, because your ear is drawn to them, more than to the inner parts. Similar motion between soprano and bass is acceptable in small amounts, but it tends to destroy the independence of the two voices, and makes for a very poor effect.

- Parallel and direct2 5ths and octaves are to be avoided at all costs between the soprano and bass. This, again, is because the ear is drawn to the outermost voices, due to their position (the highest and lowest extremes).

- Remember that any second inversion chords used without the 3rd of the chord will create the dissonance of a perfect 4th (which is a dissonance between the bass and any upper part).

For the purposes of this exercise, you can use the 4th from the bass note if you wish, as long as in the 3-part realisation you complete the chord.

1 In musical terminology, Soprano refers to the highest voice, which in this case (and usually) is the melody. This refers not just to vocal music, but the names of the voices are the same. From highest to lowest: Soprano, (Contr)Alto, Tenor, Bass.

2 Direct 5ths between tonic and dominant tend to be permissible, but for now, it would be best not to use them at all.

Many of the same things apply for adding the 3rd voice. Contrary motion is still advised - don't harmonize in parallel 3rds for more than about 3 in a row.

Still be very careful of writing parallel and direct 5ths and 8ves.

I realize I have gone quite technical, so please do ask if you don't understand anything, or if you want help with any aspect of what I've said.

Also, please take your time with this - I don't want you to rush in something without thinking carefully through it all.

I expect this to be fairly challenging for you, and I want you to get the full benefit of the challenge.

Again, please say to me if you have any questions.

OK, I spent about a half an hour on this. Let me know if that's too short of a time and it needs more work and thought. I think the bass and soprano lines work well- I listened to them a few times and played them together on my keyboard. I didn't notice any problems with it, but, being the student, I'm not very sure about some the relationships (intervals).

I didn't know that the perfect fourth is a dissonance between the bass and an upper voice.

I originally had the 3rd voice go down to an E in measure 3, but I noticed quickly that it created parallel octaves with the soprano voice.

Homework 1.MUS

Half an hour is OK for this exercise.

There are some things I would like to say:

When writing your bass-line to the melody, you must have a clear idea of your harmony, and it would not be a bad idea for exercises such as this to actually write out the chord or harmony for each note of the melody, or for each bar.

You must check out that your harmonic progression (motion from one harmony to the next, and the next) is effective, and not muddled, weak or confused.

This is something you must develop an ear for.

I will describe the places in your soprano and bass only "harmonization" where I feel that you should have done something differently.

Second note of bar one - the bass descends to a G to make a 6/4 chord.

There are only a few good reasons for 6/4 chords, and leaping to them in this way is not one - it sounds awfully weak. A 6/4 chord generally sounds acceptable when it has been used as the result of some logical progression in the bass-line. E.g. if the bass-line rises C D E, then it would sound fine to use a 6/4 chord on the D in the bass. This is what's called a passing 6/4 - I'm sure you realise why. Another use of 6/4 chords is at cadences, where you might have I 6/4 --> V --> I 5/3.

The way one can use a 2nd inv. chord which is closest to what you have done is:

You have a fixed harmony, and you're passing through, as an arpeggio, the different chord tones in the bass. E.g. under a C major harmony, the bass might play C G E G as a downward arpeggio.

This is something like what you have done, and the principal is similar to that of the passing-6/4, in that the bass-line is moving logically.

So, long diversion aside, the 6/4 is ineffective in this measure.

It would have been better to repeat the C.

3rd measure: same problem, but less pronounced.

In the second measure, the crotchets C B, leading to a minim C, was a bit weak. The repetition of C there (despite the decorating B) creates a feeling of weakness, and lack of progression.

The three part harmonization:

This was more musically satisfying than the 2 part version, but the weaknesses are still there.

Other things I'd like to note:

Avoid doubling the 3rd of the chord in 3-part writing. The best notes to double are the root, and then the 5th.

Especially avoid doubling the 3rd of V, which is the leading tone. This is because the leading tone almost always ascends to the tonic, and if both voices do this, then you will have parallel octaves. You do this in the last beat of measure 2. In this case, you don't let the inner voice ascend to the tonic, avoiding parallel octaves, but also resulting in a poor sounding transition/progression.

First beat of measure 3 - you have no 3rd in the chord. In 3 part writing, care must be taken to always have the 3rd of the chord, at the expense of the fifth etc. The leaps which the inner voice makes in the last 2 measures is also somewhat clumsy. The last two measures in the inner voice could better have been written: E G G C.

This was not a bad attempt at all, and despite the ungainly 2nd inversion chords in there, the 3 part realization was not too bad.

I will get back to you with another exercise, but in the meantime, I would like you to redo this one, taking what I've said into account.

You might also want to question why there is a leap of a perfect fifth between the D and A, and wonder what harmonies that might imply.

Once you've posted up your redone 3-part version, I may well ask you to try 4-voices... so beware :P

Daniel

thanks for the tips on progressions! I think I fixed it, so there isn't a confusing bass line. To make sure I knew what I was going for harmonically, I wrote the roman numerals above the staff. It turned out to be a very basic chord progression... without trying, I found myself creating inversions, and it sounds like a nice effect. Let me know what you think.

(I'm excitedly awaiting four-part harmony ;))

Homework 1 (revised).MUS

This is much better - I'm pleased ;)

The only thing I have to comment on in this one is the last measure.

I would change the F in the alto for a B.

There are two reasons for this.

1) You introduced the dissonance of a 7th without a preparation;

2) The final cadence must have the 3rd of V, in the V-I. (you should have it elsewhere as well, but *absolutely* in the final cadence. You need to have B -> C)

Back to the topic of dissonances.

When I speak of preparing a dissonance, what I mean is this:

A dissonance must be prepared by sounding it in an harmonic context with which it is consonant.(preparation) Then the harmony changes, while this note remains the same. The harmony changes such that the note is now dissonant against the new harmony.(suspension) This dissonant note then usually resolves by downward step until it is again consonant with the surrounding harmony.(resolution)

You must be very careful in counterpoint (which is what this is) not to introduce dissonances without preparing them. This is partly why we do not freely use 6/4 chords.

Again, good work.. but no time for more.. I'm late for my shower already!

Start thinking about writing for four parts. The same rules apply, but you must take into consideration the spacing of the voices, so that the texture does not become muddy and unclear.

Ok, I'm done with exams, so we can continue lessons.

Just to bring us back to speed, you may want to try some more harmonisations, and then do this little exercise for me.

Using the melody (cantus firmus) I gave you as a bassline, write a melody on top of it (soprano), and then an inner part.

If you would present those two seperately, it would be handy.

Remember that your soprano-bass counterpoint must be effective, even without an inner part. That's why I want you to do it in two seperate stages.

Here's the new harmonization and the switch assignment. Sorry it took a while to get back to ya.

New Harmonization.MUS

switch assignment.MUS

Ok, there are some mistakes in the "new harmonization" one. I would like you to stay in the same key throughout, but aside from that there are some.

I would like you, using what you know, and what I've told you, to pick out as many mistakes as you can in this harmonization. You're writing what is basically counterpoint - several individual voices against each other, and trying to keep a sense of melodic flow within each, whilst also providing the harmony.

Please have a look through, and comment on it yourself. See where you went wrong, and how you could do it better.

It's actually fairly well done, and you've missed a lot of things that could have gone wrong, the things I'm looking for are a bit subtler.

Ok - switch assignment.

The counterpoint we're dealing with at the moment is called first species counterpoint. In this first species, there is always one note of counterpoint to one note of cantus firmus. So your crotchets are not allowed in this species. We will look at the more complicated species once we've got this first one under our belt.

Onto to the harmonization, or counterpoint, itself.

You have some 4ths between bass and soprano, which is not really allowed. 4ths are fine in upper parts, and ok in free writing between bass and soprano etc., but I'm not going to allow them for the purpose of these lessons.

You repeat notes too often - this should be done only rarely. Also, your bass and tenor lines are not very independent, but we can worry about that later.

You generally have quite good contrary motion between the bass and soprano, which is the desirable way to write, and this isn't a bad example over all.

I will reply with our next stage once you post what I've asked of you.

Sorry it's been a while. Here's what I got out of what you've taught me. Let me know if I've missed anything:

1. no parallel 5ths

2. perfect 4th is a dissonance between bass and any upper voice

3. no muddled harmonic progression

4. a 6/4 chord should only be used when it is the result of some logical progression in the bass

5. avoid doubling the 3rd of a chord

6. don't introduce the dissonance of a 7th without preparation

7. the final cadence MUST have a 3rd of V, in the V-I

8. do introduce dissonants without preparing them (preparation, suspension, resolution)

Here's my critique of my own work:

- doubled 3rd of I in m. 1

- lots of parallel motion in m. 3

- doubled 3rd of IV in m. 2

- doubled 3rd of I in m. 3

- un-introduced dissonance in m. 4 (I could have done I-IV in m. 3 to introduce the F)

- lots of 6/4 chords (is this a problem in this case?)

for point 8 I assume you mean Do not.

Which file are you critiquing?

Anyway, what you've said is sound - i'll see if I can get a couple of canti firmi for you to work on, so I can see where you're at now.

oh, yes. "Do not..."

I was critiquing the "New Harmonization."

Ok, I've made out a First Species worksheet for all my students, so here you go.

I've been nasty and given you hard keys, to get the brain working, and to give practise in writing in those keys.

I want each C.F. treated as soprano and bass. When you're using the C.F. in the bass, take it down an octave, and write it in the bass clef. This will get your head working on those hard keys in treble and bass clef. I WILL be using alto clef a bit later. If only to get you used to it.

I will consider moving on to the second species once I feel you have a solid grasp of this stuff.

I don't want it all at once - do it at your leisure. (if you're doing something wrong, I'd rather fix it at the start)

A few notes about counterpoint in the minor mode.

The harmonic form of the scale is mostly used. The only time you do not use the sharpened 7th is in the bass when you are descending by step from the tonic to the 6th degree of the scale. E.g. in C minor: C, Bb, Ab.

Otherwise B natural is used.

If you have any questions, just ask, as usual.

Counterpoint worksheet.pdf