- Hi, I'm Gareth Green, and in this video, we're
going to be thinking about four standard
approaches to counterpoint, which I'm hoping will be helpful for those who are wanting to analyse music and to analyse counterpoint, and for those who are trying to write it. Many people who are writing
find it's much easier to think in terms of melody and chords, so they end up with a sort
of vertical construction to the music. But when they're trying to
think in a more linear way, they find that more complicated,
totally understandably, because one thing that happens when we write contrapuntally,
in this more linear way is it's very tempting to write a line and then write another line, then may be write another line and be really pleased with
what you've constructed, but then when you kind of
play it, it sounds rubbish, because things don't fit
together harmonically. So even though the idea
of writing counterpoint is that we are constructing
things in a linear way, we also need to be mindful of
what's happening harmonically, what's happening on the vertical. So I'll be saying a bit more about that during the course of the video. The other thing about
writing counterpoint is that lots of people
believe that counterpoint is really restricted to imitation. Now, imitation is a kind of
fundamental of counterpoint. So that's an important thing, but it's not the only
aspect of counterpoint. So what do I mean by imitation? Well, you might decide
you're going to write a piece that's contrapuntal, and so you come up with an
idea that goes like this. It's not the most exciting
idea, is it? But nevermind. But how would you do that in imitation? Well, you'd have those five notes, maybe start in one voice, and then you'd have those five notes copying in a voice behind it like this. And then you'd think, okay,
if I can make that happen, well, what's the first voice going to do when that second voice comes in? Is it just going to sit on that long note or is it going to move
on, maybe like this? So you see how you can
then begin to think, ah, I can get a little idea
that imitates in a second voice and then the first voice can
find its own way forwards and we move on from there until we find another point
of imitation as we call it. It doesn't have to
imitate at the same pitch, so the first voice could
start on C in this case, the second voice could say, start on G. Do you see what I've done there? Done the imitation but
starting at a different pitch. So imitation is a fundamental
contrapuntal technique. But as I say, it's not the only one, and you can't really live on
a diet of imitation alone. So what we've got here is four approaches to how we might go about
constructing things a little more contrapuntally for those who are wanting to acquire a bit more confidence in doing this, but I'm going to make us
sort of harmonic start. In other words, give you a
kind of skeletal framework that makes sense harmonically, and then say, how do we develop that into something that's a
little more contrapuntal. So the first thing I'm going to talk about is writing counterpoint
in parallel motion. So this is where both
voices move together, maintaining the same interval. So let's have a look at
this kind of skeletal idea. So this is how this goes. Okay, now that doesn't sound
amazingly exciting on its own, but nevermind, let's see where it goes, because all I've done
here, parallel motion, both voices going up and
then coming down the scale, maintaining these
compounds thirds or tenths. But the great thing about that is it gives you a harmonic framework that sounds fine, you can
hear that sounds all right. Okay, now what happens if I
decide to take that framework, but this time to decorate the right hand, so I'm keeping the left
hand exactly as it was, but then in the right hand, I'm using this little sort of motif to decorate it a little bit. This is what this sounds like. Now it's still sort of
sounding fairly kind of, sort of harmonic in many respects, but the right hand is suddenly kind of freewheeling a bit, isn't it? So you can see that this
is beginning to move in a slightly more contrapuntal direction. And I think it's good
to be honest about this, because this is often presented as a kind of either or scenario, you're either writing
homophonically in chords, melody with chords going on, or you're writing counterpoint
in this linear way. Actually I think the truth of it is that a great deal of music
is doing a bit of both, much of the time. So it's worth sort of thinking, well, does what I've already done here, count as homophonic writing
or as contrapuntal writing, you can kind of see ingredients of both. Okay, now let's see what I've done next. So let's look at these two bars because I'm taking the
same original thing. And this time, instead of
leaving the left hand as it was, this time, I'm leaving
the right hand as it was. And I'm getting the kind
of similar figuration going in the left hand, though I've purposely
just reorganised it a bit just to show another way of doing it. So you see how that works,
it could be in the left hand. Now, if you wanted to put
these two phrases back to back, that might show you the sort
of thing that might happen in a real piece of counterpoint. In other words, we've got
these continuous notes in the left hand there, followed by the continuous
notes in the right hand. While all this busier stuff
in the right hand there is taken in the left hand there. So in other words, you
kind of take the texture and you flip it up the other way. So if I put those two together, even though it's repeating
exactly the same pattern, you see how we flip the texture and get a little conversation going on. Okay, so it's still a bit basic, but it's just trying to
demonstrate how that might work. Well, when we come to the last bar, the last pair of bars in the example that I'm presenting about
the parallel motion stuff, I'm trying to get both hands involved in a bit more figuration simultaneously. So you can have what we've
done in the last two, where one hand is busy and
the other hand is more static, and then may be it switches over, but here's an example of something where both hands are getting involved, but we're still following
the original design. And that feels much more
contrapuntal, doesn't it? Because both hands are going, but you can see that we've still got this fundamental outline. I think one of the great things about working with this compositionally, and okay, this is in a
sort of Baroque style, and you might want to work
in a totally different style, that's fine, the principles are the same. But do you see how you take something that's fundamentally extremely boring, and actually energise
it through the rhythm and through the counterpoint,
to turn it into something that's actually much more interesting. Okay. So parallel motion is the first of these four approaches
that I'm talking about in this video. Let's move on to the next one, because this time, I'm
talking about similar motion. So what's the difference
between parallel motion and similar motion? Well, with similar motion, you've got both voices
moving in the same direction, but with some variation
of the harmonic intervals. So in the parallel motion, it was third, third, third, third, third, third, third, wasn't it? All the way, but this time, well what am I doing here? I've got a fifth, third, third, third, sixth, sixth, sixth, so
both hands are moving in the same direction, but the intervals are
varying a little bit. And again, purposely giving you what could be deemed to
be a really boring idea. I'm doing that on purpose, because it has no rhythmic
character whatsoever. And it's just got both
the parts plodding along on each beat of the bar, but you can see very clearly how these intervals are varied, but how both hands are
moving in similar motion and you can hear and see
that it makes harmonic sense. We can analyse that, can't we? It's chord I, IV, V, VI, I, V7 probably, I. So you can sort of see
how that's working out. Okay, now, if we take
the same kind of approach that we were doing when
we were talking about the parallel motion, can you see what I'm doing in this phrase? Again, being a bit
busier in the right hand whilst maintaining the left hand. Ah, okay, well that sounds a lot better than the original, doesn't it? It just suddenly doesn't sound
tedious anymore, hopefully. When I go to the next phrase, again, I'm doing the same thing about, let's get the business in the left hand. And again, of course,
there's nothing to say you couldn't have this phrase
followed by this phrase or the other way around. And if you were stitching
those two phrases together, you'd probably have a bit
more movement at that point to make it sound more continuous. Anyway, you get the idea. And once again, when we come
to the last blast on this, I'm trying to get both hands
involved in the activity. So do you see what I'm
doing in the left hand at the beginning, it's a very simple idea taking the original first three notes and just dislocating them
in octaves like that, but you can still see
the original pattern, there's the right hand original
pattern going along there, here is the left hand original
pattern going along here. So nothing's changing
in terms of the notes or the implied harmony, but this time we've got this. And you can hear again, how
both hands are involved in that. So there's a kind of how to
work this in similar motion. Okay, let's move on to the third approach. And the third approach we
know as oblique motion. So this is where you've
got one voice moving in either direction, but you've got the other
voice repeating a note or sustaining the same note. So you can see immediately what's going on in the original here. I've just got this one note going on for the whole of the first
bar or the first measure, and okay, maybe a couple of those here, but it's not really kind of
moving anywhere very much, is it? So you have one part on the move while the other part is
sustaining or repeating. So in these first two bars,
these first two measures, you see what's happening. And again, the harmony is very clear. It's a tonic chord chord I, V7, I. Couldn't be more straightforward
in a way, could it? But you see what's happening
here with oblique motion. Now, this is something that a
lot of people are fearful of. How can I write counterpoint
and have two or more lines kind of really in a linear construction, but one of them is just
sitting still somewhere. Well, there are ways
in which you can do it. Notice what I've done here. Like instead of just holding
onto this note forever, I've actually got a note
happening on each beat of the bar, of the measure, but I've just dislocated an octave before coming back up again. And then in the next
measure, the next bar, I've just decided to
keep it as it was before. But again, I'm decorating the right hand, so we're still on the original right hand, but we're now decorating
initially with a scale run, but then the motivic stuff that follows. So you see how that goes. And of course, just as before, you could do the same thing
with a more static right hand and the left hand being busy, or of course you can score
this up for instruments, whatever you want to do, but that's how oblique motion works when one voice is going
in either direction, but the other voice is repeating or sustaining the same note,
so that's oblique motion. Then onto the fourth way of
doing things, contrary motion. Okay, so contrary motion,
as I'm sure you know, is when you have both voices
moving in opposite directions. Many people will have, if
you're a keyboard player, will have practised their
contrary motion scales. Going out then coming in again. So you see what's going on
in contrary motion here. As the right hand part is descending, the left hand part is ascending, the right hand part then ascends while the left hand part descends. So here's my original kind
of boring skeletal thing. But the boring skeletal thing is giving us a very kind of clear sense of what the framework is
melodically and harmonically. So in E major, again, we're going I, IV, V, IV, V, I. It's kind of what we're doing, isn't it? Okay, let's see what happens if we try the same kind of approach. So this time I'm keeping
the left hand as it is, and the right hand is going to
get busy with some figuration and all we're doing with
this figuration every time, is thinking, how can I
use inessential notes, non-chord tones, to elaborate it. Passing notes, passing tones, or auxiliary notes or neighbour tones. So there we are, right hand busy, left hand staying where it was. Okay, next example, the right hand is staying
as it was originally and the left hand is getting busy, but in a slightly different way
to the one I've just played. Okay, and then of course, once again, in the last pair of bars, I'm taking the original pattern and I'm getting both hands involved. And this time you can hear a
sort of slight conversation, the left hand has these
and then the right hand and the left hand, left
hand again, right hand, it's not entirely predictable, but there's a little bit of
flipping around going on. So what have we got this time? So you see how that then starts to feel much more contrapuntal. So my advice to anybody
who's wanting to work with contrapuntal techniques, instead of being a little
bit random with it, instead of just writing lines hoping that harmonically
they all fit together, and instead of just thinking,
how can I imitate everything that I can see, is to think about these
four different approaches, and it's worth doing a few
exercises up front as well before you actually write a piece. Taking a very basic
idea in parallel motion, and then seeing if you can work it into a number of examples
between the hands, one hand busy, one hand not,
both hands busy, whatever. Then try it in similar motion, try it in oblique motion,
try it in contrary motion, and you'll build up some
contrapuntal technique. So if you're analysing
a piece of counterpoint, it's really useful to spot
where imitation occurs, it's really useful to be able to identify what kind of counterpoint
is being employed at any given moment
from these four examples and see how it's contrasted, and what the balance of one
kind of contrapuntal technique against another one might be
during the course of a piece. And if you're writing it, well, hopefully this gets you going on some contrapuntal technique. Well, if you've enjoyed this video, then go to our website,
www.mmcourses.co.uk and click on the courses link. And that will take you to
all of our online courses. There are many courses there about all sorts of musical topics that is all designed to
empower the all-round musician. So, theory, aural work, aural dictation, analysis, orchestration,
all sorts of things, and there's even a course out
there on writing counterpoint. So if you want to go a bit further with the study that
we've engaged in today, well, that's a course that will help you. And it has more focus on this imitation, which is the contrast to
what this video has covered. So you might find that a
particularly useful course to follow up with just to
get this counterpoint going. While you're on our homepage,
have a click on Maestros, and that will introduce
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is just an opportunity to go deeper with the sort of thing that we've been doing in this video. Often I'm responding to
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or a particular composer or particular technique. And we run a live stream chat, so anybody can ask a question, comment on anything we're doing, makes it much more interactive. And people feel the support of other folk in the same position around the world, and seem to value that greatly. In the level two, there's kind
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one-to-one feedback. And again, we share that with a group and we learn so much from each other. So have a look on Maestros, and see if that's something
of interest to you.
