Scribd
Upload
209 views3 pages

4 PG

This document provides guidelines for writing four-part compositions in a tightly controlled style to improve compositional skills. The guidelines specify: 1. The ranges for each voice part (soprano, alto, tenor, bass) and rules for spacing between voices. 2. Voices should not cross or overlap with each other and inner voices should move by step when possible. 3. Tendency tones like leading tones and sevenths should resolve by step. Parallel fifths and octaves should be avoided. 4. Chord tones can be doubled or omitted to allow for smooth voice leading, such as doubling the root or bass notes in certain chords.

Uploaded by

Junior Celestinus
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
Download as pdf or txt
209 views3 pages

4 PG

This document provides guidelines for writing four-part compositions in a tightly controlled style to improve compositional skills. The guidelines specify: 1. The ranges for each voice part (soprano, alto, tenor, bass) and rules for spacing between voices. 2. Voices should not cross or overlap with each other and inner voices should move by step when possible. 3. Tendency tones like leading tones and sevenths should resolve by step. Parallel fifths and octaves should be avoided. 4. Chord tones can be doubled or omitted to allow for smooth voice leading, such as doubling the root or bass notes in certain chords.

Uploaded by

Junior Celestinus
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
Download as pdf or txt
Download as pdf or txt
You are on page 1/ 3

GUIDE TO FOUR-PART WRITING

The following is a guide to writing exercises in a tightly controlled style, in which choices are
highly limited. Working in the style will help you
improve your skills as composers, that is, as musical problem-solvers,
hear and think in four voices, and
master principles of harmonic progression and voice leading in tonal music.
These guidelines are highly style-specific. They are intended to produce a rich and coherent texture that unfolds
smoothly.

Range
1. Move the voices within the ranges in Example 1.

Bass

Tenor

Alto

Soprano

Example 1. Range of voices.

Spacing
2. The intervals between soprano and alto, and alto and tenor, should not exceed an
octave. The interval between bass and tenor may exceed an octave, as shown in Example 2.

not good

not good

good!

Example 2. Spacing.

Crossed/overlapping voices
3. Voices should not cross: a voice should not sing below another whose range is lower, or
above another whose range is higher. Example 3 illustrates. Note that two voices may meet
on a unison. (Crossed voices are sometimes called crossed parts.)

not good

not good

good!

Example 3. Crossed voices.


4. Voices should not overlap: a voice should not sing above the pitch a higher voice just
sang, or below the pitch a lower voice just sang. In Example 4, the alto overlaps the
soprano on the second quarter.

not good

Example 4. Overlapping voices.

Voice leading
5. The inner voices
will proceed by small intervals when they move at all. Large leaps (of a fifth, for
example), may happen when the harmony is not changing, or between the end of
one phrase and the beginning of the next;
will avoid diminished and augmented intervals.
6. Tendency tones:
in the outer voices, the leading tone should move up by step, according to its tendency,
when the harmony changes;
in all voices, the seventh of a seventh chord should move down by step, according to its
tendency, when the harmony changes.
7. All four voices should not move in the same direction except into a cadence.
8. Avoid parallel consecutive perfect fifths and octaves (that is, perfect fifths and octaves
approached by parallel motion) between two voices. Example 5 illustrates.

Guide to Four-part Writing, -2-




not good

not good

good!

good!

Example 5. Consecutive 5ths and 8ves.


In the outer voices, approach perfect fifths/octaves in similar motion (these are
called direct or hidden fifths/octaves) only when the soprano moves by step, as
Example 6 shows.


8ve


not good

8ve

good!

Example 6. Direct 8ves between bass and soprano.

Doubling
9. Double the root in a major or minor

5
3

chord for the fullest sound.

In a tonic triad at an authentic cadence, the root may be tripled and the fifth
omitted for the sake of smooth voice leading.
10. In a 64 chord, double the bass = the fifth.
11. In a diminished 63 chord, double the bass = the third.
12. In a V 7 chord, the fifth may be omitted and the root doubled, for the sake of smooth
voice leading.

The setting
13. In order to set a soprano line:
Sing the line, hear it. Identify beginnings and ends of phrases. Note parallelisms.
Is material restated? Transposed?
Do the phrases end conclusively or inconclusively? Identify the harmonies that
will begin and end each phrase.
In each phrase, work backward from the end and forward from the beginning.

Guide to Four-part Writing, -3-

You might also like