It's a fundamental part of music that any one who writes any classically inclined music should know. It's vital to your understanding of inversions in chord progressions. It's fun to say. It's species counterpoint, and I'm gonna teach it to you.
There are Five species of counterpoint. Each one specifies more complicated rules for writing, typically involving increasing complexity of contrapuntal melody. However complicated, there are some primary rules to follow and so we'll start with those.
Start with a "Cantus firmus". This is your primary melody. It can be anything, just try not to make it too complicated. Point-for-point, you'll be composing a secondary set of notes (a second melodic line) built in relation to your Cantus Firmus
There are rules to Counterpoint. They can be broken if you like, but it's important to know them. They are:
You MUST begin and end on an octave (or unison) or perfect fifth.
Except at the beginning and end, never sound a voice in unison
Do not cross voices
Do not extend your range beyond a third above the octave (this is flexible)
Do not move in parallel fifths (no powerchords, sorry)
Avoid continuous motion in parallel 3rds/6ths.
Try to keep motion stepwise; if you skip, reverse the direction of the melody (skip up, step down)
Do not skip two notes in the same direction
Do not hold one note as a pedal for more than a few bars.
Consonance ONLY; the two melodies should never sound notes a second or a seventh apart.
The idea here, remember, is to sound two independant lines, so contrary (opposite direction) motion is something to shoot for. Ideally, you should be able to hear both lines as separate upon listening.
Now, Species Counterpoint was traditionally applied to two voices, but voice leading as it has evolved calls upon the rules of Counterpoint and combines several contrapuntal lines.
I'm going to now explain Four Part voice-leading, which is the essence of most classical composition, as most instrumental families are divided into SATB arrangements.
The best way to begin is to understand that, unlike in two-voice leading, very clear chordal identities arise in four-voice leading. As a result, it's very important to think of your melodies first as chords, then as melodic lines.
So begin with a chord progression. We're going to work in CMajor (the common man's key)
I ii IV V V/V V I -
which translates to
CM Dm FM GM DM GM CM -
which consists of
CEG, DFA, FAC, GBD, DF#A, GBD, CEG
To begin your work, you'll need a bassline. There are several ways to approach this, but understand that a good bassline can make or break a part.
There are no hard and fast rules, but some general sense leads to the following ideas:
Descending basslines are good
Stepwise motion is good
Changing directions repeatedly should be avoided
Leaps should be avoided unless they make an arpeggiation (1 5 1 5 or 1 3 5 3, etc.)
If it means inverting your chords, go right ahead, but know that a chord in second inversion does not have a lot of strenght. As a result, the secondary dominant (DMaj) and the following GMajor should be in root position (if possible) or first inversion. Also, it helps to start and end on a root for the sake of coherence and direction.
This leaves us with C in the beginning, and while an ascending step to D seems reasonable, we can achieve decent by inverting Dminor so that A is on the bottom. With the F at the bottom the chord would also probably work because it's a fifth jump down, but the motion to the following FAC from FAD would be rather boring.
So we keep C-A. Then we can continue our descent of a third by dropping to F, which we'll do. It might not work in the end but for now we can either do that or stop our descent, and this early in the progression that's probably not going to work.
So C-A-F, then G to keep from skipping too much. After G, we need to move to DMaj, but using too great of a leap will make the chromaticism of the Secondary dominant very prevalent and awkward. As a result, it'd probably be good to invert the chord to put F# at the bottom, which is strongly tied to the Gs on both sides of it and makes resolution much more effective. This brings our progression to C-A-F-G-F#-G, and finishing off with a C.
So that's not a bad bassline. But now where do we go? We have to move on to the Tenor and Alto voices, which it often helps to think of as a single element. There are reasons for this; the Tenor may not be more than a tenth above the bass (Counterpoint rule), and the same holds true for the Alto regarding the tenor. Crossed voices are a no-no, and the other contrapuntal rules (especially those about parallel motion) are to be regarded.
As an aside, Tenor and Alto lines are usually very steady because they provide little more than harmonic assistance; as a result, conventional wisdom is that an overly complicated Alto and Tenor section is probably poorly written.
At this stage, we should focus on the definition of our chords. Tenor and Alto lines can be used to double tones, or to create full chords. The bass of a chord is typically doubled in voice leading, but there are exceptions (in second inversion, the root of the chord should be doubled).
given C-A-F-G-F#-G-C, we'll need to compose two simultaneous lines. We should begin with G and E (in the Alto and Tenor, respectively), to keep the opening chord strong. So G/E is a given. From there we have little room; we cannot double the "A" in the bottom of DFA, and the rules call for two "D" notes... to avoid forcing a jump in our soprano melody, we'll use F and D here. If we take G to D and E to F, we have parallel motion with a skip and a step. That doesn't work. So, though it's parallel, we're going to move both the G and the E down, giving us G/E-F/D. It would actually work better here to have G/E move to A/D, so we'll change our decision and force an F into the Soprano voice rather than a D. This givesus G/E-A/D, and from here we have a good deal of freedom. To keep the lines simple, we can keep the A in the alto voice, and move the D to a C in the Tenor. Being careful not to expand our range too much, we may have to turn around soon. But for now, it's G/E-A/D-A/C.
It's poor technique to move both the Alto and Tenor in parallel, especially with the bass, so it's vital we don't simply move A and C to B and D. Instead, we need to movee the Alto and Tenor lines DOWN... C can move to B, and A can move to G. This forces us to put a D in our soprano, but we can work aroud that. So G/E-A/D-A/C-G/B. From here, we're stuck a bit. The soprano will have to hold the D, and we'll need to turn G and B into F# and A, without moving down. Actually, if we felt so inclined we could move G to A and B to A... this is a bit illegal but it will sound better than parallel fifths so we'll bend the rules a bit. So G/E-A/D-A/C-G/B-A/A, from which we can move back to G/B and then from G/B to G/C. And we're done!
So we have
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G A A G A G G (very simple alto line, very nice)
E D C B A B C (down-up in a straight line, good, and doesn't break range)
C A F G F# G C (No parallels)Best to begin on C, and from there we have to move to F. This is okay as long as we descend afterwords; leaps in the Soprano are rather forgivable. As it turns out, we have a choice for note three, so we hold it at F, but add a lower Neighboring tone of E to keep our melody interesting and valid. C-F'E'F leads to D, downward (we have to play this D), and so it seems like the F was a poor choice. We might do better to smooth the leap with a passing tone, so another E would help to fit the structure we have. C-F'E'F'E'D. The D can be sustained or repeated, but sustenance would work better melodically; C-F'E'F'E'D--. From here, another D is a hindrance; but we don't have too much choice so we fill it out with a flourish of CE as a double tone. C-F'E'F'E'D--'CE'D-then back to C.
The final product:
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C F E F E D - CE D C
G A A G A G G
E D C B A B C
C A F G F# G CHope this helps,
Tox
