Lesson 9 Part 1



 CounterPoint!

  • Counterpoint involves writing a new melody against an existing one.
  • The cantus firmus is the existing melody.
  • In first species counterpoint you write one note for every note in the cantus firmus, but use only consonant intervals (P1,P5,P8,M6,m6,M3 and m3.
  • Counterpoint must end with a perfect eight above the last cantus firmus firmus note and it must begin with a P5 or P8.
  • Some Techniques in first species counterpoint are you must only use consances, use M6-M8 at the cadence, prefer stepwise and contrary motion and the melody should have a good shape. 
  • In contrapuntal motion there are 4 types, contrary motion(C), parallel motion(P), similar motion(S) and oblique motion(O).
  • Contrary motion: the two parts move in opposite directions;
  • Parallel motion: Both parts move in the same direction by the same interval; 
  • Similar motion: Both parts move in the same direction but not the same interval;
  • Oblique motion: One part reports or sustains a single pitch, the other moves by leap, step, or skip. 
Image showing first species counterpoint. 


Image showing the different contrapuntal motions.
Video showing how to write a cantus firmus. 

A video showing how to compose counterpoint. 







Me Playing a Cantus Firmus




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Lesson 1

Image
  Embellishing Tones Embellishing Tones pitches form outside the underlying harmony decorating chords tones using passing tones, neighbour tones, or suspensions.  Passing and Neighbour tones can be written in any voice and are usually accented in loud four parts. When writing a suspension in three or more voices, plan the doubling in the chord of resolution first, so that the resolved note is not doubled in that chord. except the 9-8 suspensions When embellishing a suspension, decorate the dissonant suspended tone rather than the tone of resolution. Picture Showing Non Chordal Tones Picture Explaining NCT's Analysis of Embellishing Tones Embellishing Tones Explained Me Playing this short excerpt with and without embellished tones, I'm playing the alto part.
Read more

Lesson 4

Image
 Modal Mixture The "mixing" or "borrowing" of parallel modes from each other is known as modal mixture. Mixture mostly happens in major keys. When the bIII and bVII chords are "borrowed" from the parallel minor scale. Common mixtures are those that include a b6. The way to identify modal mixture, is seeing one or more chords from the parallel minor being used in the piece. Image showing Modal Mixture in a piece of Music-Reference-MODAL Mixture-OPEN MUSIC THEORY Image Showing Modal mixtures and how if they are diatonic to the key Reference-Fundamentals. Function and Form-MILNE Library This Video shows using modulation upwards and downwards to combine multiple modes over one chord is the topic of this episode. This Video shows that a modular mix consists of multiple scales with a common tonal center. Included are other non-modal options in the jam track video accompanying this article since we traditionally only use modes of the Major Scale. Me Playing Bach...
Read more

Lesson 5

Image
 Neapolitan Sixth The Neapolitan sixth is a chromatic predominant chord. This includes the b2, 4, and b6.  The Neapolitan triad and augmented sixth chords are considered pre-dominant chords. The Neapolitan six is called a sixth because it is written and played in first inversion. This image is showing a typical way in which the Neapolitan sixth can be used. -Reference Music Theory Academy This image is showing the Neapolitan sixth with voice leading. -Reference Music Theory for the 21st Century Classroom. In this video it is shown that the Neapolitan chord is a very popular harmony used in various genres and this is explained in depth. In this video the meaning, construction and application of Augmented Sixth and Neapolitan Sixth chords are explained. This is an arrangement I did of Thank You Lord where I added the Nepolitan 6.
Read more