Music Theory - Composition Counterpoint.pdf - music pdf - loran_raul

Principles of Counterpoint

by Alan Belkin

This book is the second in a series of four short works on the teaching of musical

composition. In the first volume, A Practical Guide to Musical Composition , we

discussed principles of musical form independently of style and conventional "forms".

Here we will take a similar approach to counterpoint, treating it as an aspect of

composition training and not as an independent academic discipline. The other volumes

are Orchestration and Harmony (forthcoming).

This series is dedicated to the memory of my teacher and friend Marvin Duchow,

one of the rare true scholars, a musician of immense depth and sensitivity, and a

man of unsurpassed kindness and generosity.

This material is © Alan Belkin, 2000. Legal proof of copyright exists. It may be used

free of charge provided that the author's name is included.

Table of Contents

Preface

Introduction

The pedagogy of counterpoint

Stylistic Assumptions

1. Line

Voice leading

Contour

Compound line

Accent

Melodic Structure and Ornamentation

Motives and coherence

Neutral lines

2. Harmony

Richness

Harmonic Definition

Modulation

3. Relationships between lines

Classifications of contrapuntal texture

Invertible counterpoint: a special case

Counterpoint and orchestration

4. Instrumental Counterpoint

Range

Crossing

Specific Instrumental idioms and motives

5. Contrapuntal forms

Fugue

Canon

Passacaglia and chaconne

6. Real world applications of counterpoint

Counterpoint in non-polyphonic forms

7. Counterpoint and emotional richness

8. Acknowledgements

Preface

Introduction

The teaching of counterpoint has a long and illustrious history, but its pedagogy is all too

often abstracted from musical reality. Perhaps more than any other musical discipline,

counterpoint has bred ingrown academic traditions whose relevance to musical practice

often seems painfully limited. For example, I recently taught fugue to a good graduate of

a major European conservatory, and discovered that his experience of counterpoint was

limited to three years of exercises in 4/4 time with canti in whole notes. While this sort of

work may be appropriate for a beginner, it hardly constitutes a complete preparation for

most of the real life applications of counterpoint --- or even, for that matter, for

composing a musically convincing fugue.

The main problem with scholastic approaches is that they generally substitute rigid rules

for flexible general principles, and thus fail to provide guidance in enough varied musical

situations to be really useful in practice. At best, of course, an inspiring teacher can fill in

the gaps and make the subject seem relevant. But at worst, the student is constrained by a

hodge-podge of inconsistent rules, and wastes a great deal of time struggling to avoid

situations that are musically unimportant. A common fault is to confuse practical rules —

say, about the range of a human voice — with pedagogical stages. The former are general

principles, which cannot be avoided if the music is to be performable at all; the latter by

contrast are by nature temporary, rules of thumb to avoid common elementary problems,

or to force the student to concentrate on a particular problem and to avoid others that

might be confusing. If such pedagogical constraints are presented as global rules, they

lead quickly to nonsense.

Here our aim will be to explain contrapuntal issues so as to provide the most general

applications possible. We will approach counterpoint as a form of training in musical

composition instead of as a discipline in itself. We will try to define general principles of

counterpoint not rigidly, but in ways that are transferable to real musical situations, and

which are not limited to the style of one period.

This is not a textbook: We will not repeat in detail information easily available

elsewhere. We will also not propose a detailed method, complete with exercises, although

the specifics of such a method are easily derived from our approach, and indeed have

been tested by me in the classroom for years.

In short, this book is more about the "why" of counterpoint than the "what".

The pedagogy of counterpoint

The pedagogy of counterpoint is often a confused mix of style and method. Most

approaches limit themselves more or less closely to one style, making some attempt at

graduated exercises, often derived from the species method of Fux.

Fux’ method does have pedagogical value, but its advantages are best understood

independently of stylistic issues. The main advantages to the species approach, especially

for beginners, are:

* By eliminating explicit variety of rhythm in the first four species, and by

imposing stable harmonic rhythm, it frees the student to concentrate on line and

dissonance. (I say "explicit variety of rhythm" because even in a line in steady quarter

notes, changes of direction imply some rhythmic groupings)

* The use of a supplied cantus in whole notes provides a skeleton for the overall

form, freeing the student from having to plan a complete harmonic structure from scratch.

* The limitation to the most elementary harmonies simplifies the understanding of

dissonance.

* The emphasis on vocal writing provides an excellent starting point for

contrapuntal study, for three main reasons:

* Every student has a voice.

* Most traditional instruments are designed to sing, that is to say to imitate

the voice.

* Instruments are much more varied in construction and idiom then voices.

* The avoidance of motives, at least in the earlier stages, frees the student from the

formal consequences they engender.

* The progression from two part, to three part and four part (etc.) writing is logical,

although creating harmonic fullness in two parts poses some unique problems.

Each of the first four species focuses effectively on just one or two elements:

* The first species, eschewing dissonance completely, forces concentration

on relationships of contour.

* The second species introduces the problem of balancing the three simplest

forms of linear development between two harmonies: Static elaboration (neighbor

notes), gradual development (passing tones), and more dramatic leaping

movement (arpeggiation).

* The third species introduces other idioms for linear development between

harmonies: The succession of two passing tones (including the relatively accented

passing tone); combinations of passing tones, neighbor notes, and arpeggiation,

and (depending on the teacher’s preference) perhaps the cambiata and double

neighbor figures as well. In fact, third species counterpoint corresponds almost

exactly to the ancient tradition of "differencias", wherein the student

systematically explores all possible ways of filling in the space between two

chord tones with a given number of notes. (The technique of differencias was part

of the training both of composers and performers; the latter frequently needed to

be able to improvise ornamentation.) Schoenberg’s "Preliminary Exercises in

Counterpoint" uses a variant of this method.

* The fourth species focuses on suspensions. With suspensions, for the first

time, the student encounters melody and harmony out of phase on the strong beat

of the bar and the start of more elaborate patterns of elaboration.

* The fifth species, the culmination of all the previous ones, provides preliminary

work in rhythmic flexibility. Apart from a few more elaborate idioms like the various

ornamental resolutions for suspensions, the student mainly works on controlling rhythmic

momentum (but without motives).

* Finally, the mixed species exercises, used in some pedagogical traditions, provide

an introduction to stratified textures, and encourage exploration of simultaneous

dissonances while maintaining a clear harmonic context.

Thus, "strict" counterpoint can be useful. However as the student advances, many of its

pedagogical restrictions become stultifying constraints. For example, the student who

never works without a cantus firmus never learns to plan a complete harmonic succession

on his own. The monotony of harmonic rhythm - not to mention of meter (many texts

never even go beyond 4/4 time!) is an enormous omission, leaving the student with no

guidance whatsoever about how the mobile bass, which is so typical in contrapuntal

textures, affects harmonic momentum and form. The limitation to simple harmony

becomes a ludicrous handicap when applied to, say, invertible counterpoint, where the

use of seventh chords multiples the useful possibilities enormously. And so on…

Other approaches to learning counterpoint are usually directly style based, for the most

part either attempting to imitate either Palestrina or Bach. While they vary in efficacy,

they share a serious limitation: In teaching a specific style, general principles are easily

obscured. Also, as Roger Sessions points out, in the Foreword to his excellent Harmonic

Practice , for a composer, a style is never a closed set of limitations, but a constantly

Music Theory - Composition Counterpoint.pdf

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