SOUND PATTERNS

12.1 CHANGES

Species counterpoint fundamentally describes Western music prior to the year 1600, and now it is time to begin studying music of the Common Practice Period (1600-1900). There are significant changes in the music of this new era.

• Tonality: key is affirmed by utilizing leading tone throughout the entire phrase, not just at the cadences
  

• Vocabulary: modes are replaced by major and minor scales
  

• Texture: 2-voice and 3-voice counterpoint expand to a standard 4-voice counterpoint (soprano, alto, tenor, and bass); these four voices will be combined into a two-staff system called the GRAND STAFF (see below)
  

• Sonority: relationships in counterpoint are expressed with Roman numerals rather than intervals
  

• Time organization: the half note beat evolves (generally) into a quarter note beat
  

16th century music looks like this:

Common Practice Period music looks like this:

Note the stem directions. Since there are two voices on each line of the grand staff, the soprano and tenor stems always point up, and the alto and bass stems always point down.

12.2 LINES

Procedures that define good lines remain fundamentally the same, but are applied primarily to the soprano and bass lines. These outer voices remain independent and individual lines, with a good contour. Features that shape lines that are still important:

• mostly conjunct motion
• large leaps (5ths, 6ths, and octaves) are counterbalanced
• augmented and diminished intervals are avoided (outlined tritones are much less of a problem in four-voice writing)
• repeated notes may happen, but in the bass these are always from strong to weak beats

The alto and tenor lines, however, become quite flat, with a low melodic profile of many repeated notes, and serve the purpose to bind the outer voices together.

As stated in three-voice counterpoint, the distance between upper voices (soprano-alto and alto-tenor) should be an octave or less. The distance between the bass and tenor can be larger, usually no more than a 12th.

Learn more about line problems in minor keys

12.3 PART WRITING

Procedures that define good counterpoint (commonly called PART WRITING in the context of 4-voice homophonic textures) remain fundamentally the same, and they can be simplified into the following four rules:

1. Complete sonorities:
   Use a complete triad (or tetrad); each member of a sonority is called a CHORD TONE.

2. Proper doubling:
   Since there are four voices, triads require one chord tone to be doubled.
   • First choice: double the root
   • Second choice: double the bass
   • Third choice: double the soprano
   • If those choices do not work, re-do the previous part writing
   • Always select the doubling that creates the best melodic lines

3. Perfect consonances:
   
   • Generally, perfect consonances must be approached in contrary or oblique motion, never in parallel motion
   • Direct perfect consonances (similar motion) between the soprano and bass are allowable if the soprano steps into them
   • Direct perfect consonances other than those between the soprano and bass are allowable anytime

4. Unstable chord tones:
   Unstable chord tones (also called active tones) must resolve to a chord tone in the next new sonority, in the same voice. At this point in time, the only unstable chord tone is the leading tone; many more will be presented soon. On occasion, the resolution can be delayed by staying on the same pitch, but ultimately must still resolve properly.

Observe how the example below follows these four steps:

Learn more about part writing

Learn more about the vertical rules of part writing

Learn more about the horizontal rules of part writing

12.4 FIGURATIONS

The concept of voice leading can also be seen in the process of FIGURATION, generally as an accompaniment style. One of the most common figurations is the ALBERTI BASS. In the example below, the Alberti bass in the left hand presents the chord tones of the bass, tenor, and alto parts; the bass is the lowest of each group of four, the tenor is the middle, and the alto is the highest. While it might appear that the figuration presents a single leaping line, in reality, the voices are hidden in the texture.

Examples of other types of figuration:

12.5 NON-CHORD TONES

In the chapters about species counterpoint, the most basic embellishment types (also known as NON-CHORD TONES or NON-HARMONIC TONES) were introduced:

• Passing tones (P) [Context: stepwise motion in one direction between chord tones, may be either rhythmically weak or strong]
• Neighbor tones (N) [Context: stepwise motion from a chord tone and return, rhythmically weak]
• Double neighbor tones (DN) [Context: stepwise motion from a chord tone, leap of a 3rd in opposite direction, and return to same chord tone]
• Suspensions [Context: prepared as chord tone, suspends same pitch, resolves down by step to new chord tone]:
  • 4-3 in an upper voice
  • 7-6 in an upper voice
  • 2-3 in the bass voice
  • New to 4-voice writing: 6-5 in an upper voice
  • New to 4-voice writing: 9-8 in an upper voice

The move into the Common Practice Period, especially in the development of instrumental music, reveals three more categories of non-chord tones:

1. Incomplete neighbors (IN)

   The context of a complete neighbor tone is a figure that steps from a chord tone and returns to the same chord tone. The incomplete neighbor tone refers to the absence of either the first or last chord tone.

   

   There are four types of incomplete neighbors:

   • APPOGGIATURA (App)
     [Context: a leap from a chord tone into a rhythmically strong placement that resolves by step to a new chord tone]
   • ESCAPE TONE (ET)
     [Context: a step from a chord tone into a rhythmically weak placement that resolves by leap to a new chord tone]
   • ANTICIPATION (Ant)
     [Context: a motion from a chord tone to a rhythmically weak placement that anticipates a new chord tone in the next sonority]
   • CAMBIATA (Cam) [Generally extremely rare in Common Practice Period music]
     [Context: a leap from a chord tone into a rhythmically weak placement that resolves by step to a new chord tone] (an unaccented APPOGGIATURA)
     or
     [Context: a step from a chord tone into a rhythmically strong placement that resolves by leap to a new chord tone] (an accented ESCAPE TONE)

   

2. Pedals or pedalpoints (Ped)

   PEDALS (also called PEDALPOINTS) originated in organ music; a performer would hold down a foot pedal through several harmonic changes. The context of a pedal must begin as a chord tone, and must end as a chord tone as well, but throughout a passage may be dissonant. It may be sustained or reiterated any number of times.

   

3. Retardation (Ret)

   RETARDATIONS are upside-down suspensions. Like suspensions, they must be prepared as a chord tone, suspended, and resolved to a chord tone, but the note being suspended is an unstable pitch that must resolve up, such as a leading tone. Suspensions always resolve down by step, retardations always resolve up by step.

   

   Learn more about non-chord tones (aka non-harmonic tones)

ASSIGNMENTS:

ANALYSIS

Analyze the intervals between each pair of voices, and circle and label all non-chord tones, for the following:

SYNTHESIS

Add bass, tenor, and alto lines to this soprano:

To prepare this writing assignment properly, use the notation guidelines appendix, located at Basic Principles of Music Notation, Semester I.