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251 - PDFsam - Kupdf - Net - Techniques and Materials of Music

The document provides guidance on analyzing and writing part-writing exercises, including checking individual voices and counterpoint, consistent spacing, and appropriate doubling. It also outlines elements to consider in the analysis, such as key, cadences, chords, and phrase structure. Finally, it discusses figured bass symbols, indicating intervals above the bass note to guide keyboardists in improvising chords to complete the texture in Baroque music.

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paco desantis
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62 views5 pages

251 - PDFsam - Kupdf - Net - Techniques and Materials of Music

The document provides guidance on analyzing and writing part-writing exercises, including checking individual voices and counterpoint, consistent spacing, and appropriate doubling. It also outlines elements to consider in the analysis, such as key, cadences, chords, and phrase structure. Finally, it discusses figured bass symbols, indicating intervals above the bass note to guide keyboardists in improvising chords to complete the texture in Baroque music.

Uploaded by

paco desantis
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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7 Checklist for Part-Writing

Students are urged to check all written work systematically as they write it, both for musicality and for tech-
nique. All work must be played or sung after completion. Some of the following items apply only at the later
stages of study.

I. Play or sing each voice as you write it to check the line for the following:

A. Voices are smooth and directional.

B. There are no unnecessary large leaps.

C. There are no unresolved diminished or augmented intervals.

D. The outer voices have a clear contour (shape).

E. There is a reasonable range and tessitura.

F. Idioms are appropriate to the medium.

II. To check counterpoint, play each pair of voices, and check for the following:

A. No parallel fifths or octaves should occur.

B. No hidden octaves or fifths, or unequal fifths between the outer voices, should occur.

C. No voice crossing or overlapping.

D. There should be a good contrapuntal relationship between the outer voices.

III. Spacing.

A. Consistent spacing should exist within each phrase.

B. No large gaps between upper voices should occur.

C. The texture should be homogeneous.

IV. Doubling should be preponderantly normal, except when factors of line take precedence.

V. Calligraphy.

A. Editing should be complete, when appropriate.

B. Notation should be clear.

VI. Complete analysis includes key, cadences, chords, nonharmonic tones, and phrase and period structure if
appropriate.

238
8 Chord Functions in Tonal Music

I. In common practice music, chords tend to progress in consistent, and thus predictable, patterns. Function
refers to the tendency of a chord to progress to certain other chords. This system of chord relationships is
called functional tonality. In tonal music, the strongest scale-degrees are 1 and 5, and the harmonies built on
them exert primary control over musical form. These harmonies are normally found at the crucial structural
points: beginnings (I), cadential points (I, V), and endings (I). They define the harmonic goals of the phrase
and major arrival points in the form of a tonal work. Subdominant (pre-dominant or dominant preparation)
harmony is also of critical importance: this class of chord is often found at climactic points in a work, setting
up dominant arrivals. All other harmonies, though important for line and color, are subsidiary for defining
form. The tonic, subdominant, and dominant triads are often referred to as the “primary triads.” All other
harmonies may be thought of as decorating or substituting for these essential harmonies. The supertonic triad
will generally function as a dominant preparation, a progression analogous to IV–V. The supertonic triad may
be understood as a quasi dominant to the dominant, the descending fifth relationship corresponding to that
from dominant to tonic. The submediant and mediant triads are used less frequently than the primary triads
(I, IV, and V), and have less significance for the building of musical structure. They may be thought of as
embellishing or substituting for the more fundamental harmonies. They are often found in sequences.

As mentioned in the text (see, for example, Part II, Unit 12), many vertical-seeming structures, when heard in
context, are clearly the result of linear motion, often of simultaneous nonharmonic tones in two or more
voices. Such “chords” (usually heard as passing or neighboring sonorities) are thus “linear” in origin, and
should be understood as such; in this text they are analyzed in brackets.

239
II. In the following common diatonic chord progressions, roman numerals are shown as they occur in the major
mode. The root relationships are also valid in the minor mode.

A. Dominant functions: V–I or vii•–I.

B. Dominant preparation: IV–V, ii–V, or vi–V.

C. Roots move downward by fifth (quasi-dominant) relationships: (IV–vii•)–iii–vi–ii–V–l.

D. Roots move downward by thirds: I–vi–IV–ii.

E. Roots move upward by thirds: I–iii.

F. Roots move downward by seconds: vi–V.

G. Roots move upward by seconds: I–ii, iii–IV, IV–V, V–vi, or vii•–l.

Chord Chart (in sequence)

All chords are considered functional and tend to progress in the direction indicated by the arrows.

III. Chord classification system.*

Class Diatonic Repertoire Chromatic Repertoire


6 IV†, IV7† secondary dominants of VII
5 vii•†, vii•7† secondary dominants of iii
4 iii, iii7 secondary dominants of vi
3 vi, vi7 secondary dominants of ii, IV
2 ii, ii7, IV, IV7 secondary dominants of V, aug. sixths, Neapolitan chords
1 V, V7, vii•, vii•7 V7( 5), V7(+5)

*The classification system suggested here follows that set out by Allen Irvine McHose in The Contrapuntal Harmonic
Technique of the Eighteenth Century (New York: Appleton, 1947).
† In diatonic sequences only.

240 REFERENCE MATERIALS


A. Types of progression.
1. Normal progression moves downward, class to class (iii–vi, vi–ii, and so forth).
2. Retrogression moves upward by skip or step (ii–vi or ii–iii).
3. Elision moves downward by skip (iii–IV or vi–V).

B. Comments on the classification system.


1. The fifth and sixth classes are rare.
2. Chords in the first and second classes and tonic predominate in most tonal styles.
3. Augmented sixth chords are sometimes found in classes other than second.
4. Ninth chords may substitute for sevenths in any class.
5. The tonic chord may normally progress to any other class.
6. The first class is commonly referred to as dominant function, and the second class as dominant
preparation.
7. Movement within a class does not count as progression. Chord successions within a class often move
from diatonic to chromatic or from triad to seventh chord, as in the progressions IV–V/V or ii–ii7.
8. Some of the more common elisions and retrogressions are vii•–iii, vi–V, V–vi, iii–IV, and IV—I.
9. The final goal of harmonic progression is always the tonic triad.

IV. General comments on chord progression.

A. In harmonization, a preponderance of normal progression is usually desirable.

B. In general, more than two successive nonnormal progressions should be avoided.

C. A retrogression (such as V–IV) is often followed by a normal progression back to the first chord (V–IV–V).

D. Chord change over a bar line is usually desirable.


E. Successive nonnormal progressions (V6–IV6–iii6 and so forth) are usually the result of linear activity,
especially sequence.

F. Generally, the slowest harmonic rhythm appropriate to a given melody will be most effective.

G. Harmonic rhythm also depends heavily on tempo, character of the melody, and complexity of texture.

CHORD FUNCTIONS IN TONAL MUSIC 241


9 Figured-Bass Symbols

Much Baroque music is characterized by a “polarized” texture, with one or more upper voices over a bass line.
This line was played by a keyboard instrument (harpsichord or organ), with one or more bass instruments
(viola da gamba, cello, bass, bassoon, and so on) doubling the bass line. This practice is known as basso con-
tinuo, or just continuo, and is an essential feature of Baroque music. The middle of the texture (that is, the
chords) was filled in by the keyboardist, improvising based on a system of symbols placed under the notes of
the bass line. These figured-bass symbols indicated intervals and accidentals above the bass and are roughly
analogous to pop or jazz chord symbols.

I. General comments on figured-bass symbols.

A. Arabic numbers below bass notes ( figured-bass symbols) indicate intervals formed between the bass and
the upper voices.

B. The figured-bass symbols do not indicate doubling, spacing, or compound intervals.

C. The numbers 8, 5, and 3 do not usually appear except to cancel a previous symbol under the same bass
note.

D. The numbers 9, 7, 6, 4, and 2 must appear when needed.

II. Specific details.

A. A bass note with no numbers indicates a root position triad, of which the given note is the root.

B. A bass note with the numbers 6 or 63 indicates a first-inversion triad, of which the given note is the third.

C. A bass note with the numbers 64 indicates a second-inversion triad, of which the given note is the fifth. The
figures 35 sometimes appear next to cancel the 46, as in the progression I46–V.

242

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