Basic Rules of Part Writing

hi there everyone this is dr. Meyer here with a video for you on the world of part writing particularly the core construction of chords in for voices why are we part writing in this class well in music theory for part writing is used as a model of harmony and voice leading in more elaborate music just like we saw on counterpoint models in fact for part writing will be used throughout the entire course of musicianship in theory now on to chord construction chord construction is primarily a matter of voicing four notes together we're concerned with the voices themselves doubling of the chord tones and the spacing of the chord across the staff here's an example of four part writing by Michael Pretorius listen and sing along with your voice part [Music] Oh [Music] this music exhibits the qualities of balance and clarity how can we make sure that our own part writing exhibits these qualities let's start by discussing the voices themselves each voice has their own specific range that is the notes that a voice can physically sing these can be seen below for each voice type in part writing it's best to use the middle of each voices range for better balance between the voices an important aspect of chord writing is deciding which chord tone to double in the three voice triad generally when the chords in root position it's best to double the root for clarity of that root in terms of tendency tones it's best not to double them for improved balance below there are a few chords in C major on the left the diminished chord on scale degree seven and first inversion contains the leading tone and should not be doubled in the center the five seven has both the leading tone and the seventh of the chord both of which our tendency tones and should not be doubled on the right the five chord in first inversion contains the leading tones also which should not be doubled in general leading tones and sevenths of chords are tendency tones which should not be doubled in terms of chord construction every chord needs a root and a third for better clarity the root and the third help to define the quality of the triad itself without the third the triad could be major or minor so the addition of the third helps to clarify the quality below we have C major and G minor both containing the root and the third which helped to define their quality normally each chord will include all of its members which would be considered a complete chord but occasionally the fifth of the chord can be omitted in certain circumstances which it would then be considered incomplete below both the C major and G minor chords are complete because all of their members are present and the G major chord on the right has no v so it is incomplete in fact the root is tripled in this case which is a common doubling in the root position at the end of a piece the last element of chord construction concerns spacing it's best to write no more than an octave between the upper voices for better balanced pay careful attention to the tenor and also because they are not in the same staff so it's easy to overlook the spacing between these two voices the bass voice can be any distance away from the tenor and option works independently from the other voices in terms of spacing is best to avoid voiced crossing that is like in our example below where the alto is below the tenor this type of part writing error would not be permitted in your work one exception to this rule is that voice overlap by a step is generally not a problem especially if it's not continued for more than one chord when writing chords we distinguish between two forms of spacings that concern the top three voices in closed position no chord element could be placed between any of the upper three voices that is in this example all the chord tones in the e minor triad are so close that no other tone could fit between them so GBE is close spacing position on the other hand open position means that a chord element could be placed between any of the upper voices so for example the e minor triad is spaced so that an e could be placed between the soprano and the alto voices indicating that this is in open position let's practice identifying which chord tone has been doubled in which spacing position these chords are in listen first to the part running example [Music] pause the video and take your time the one chord has the root doubled and is in closed position the two six has the root doubled and is in open position the five chord in root position has the root doubled and is in open position the last chord is also in root position with the root tripled but also contains no fifth this spinal cord is also in open position notice that each of these voices move by step or small leap to reach the next tone except the bass which leaps more than the other voices in order to support the chord the doubling within each chord often facilitates this smooth voice leading about part writing we learned that voices doubling and spacing all play a role in chord constructions it's important to remember that all chord members should be present and to avoid common errors like voice crossing and doubling of tendency tones all of these rules for part writing are meant to improve the balance and the clarity within your part writing that's all for now thank you for watching

Channel: Dr. Kati Meyer Music Theory

Views: 93,550

Keywords: Rules of Part Writing, Part Writing

Id: IZUlCqX9nPY

Length: 7min 35sec (455 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 03 2017