16th Century Counterpoint - 2 Voices, 1st Species Primer

Originally Posted by composerorganist

Much better. A few things though - Start and end on the tonic. SO your first melody note would not be G.

It's just that according to Fux, one may begin with a perfect consonance (unison, octave or fifth), so I thought it was valid. In fact, you said it yourself on your first post: 2) You must begin and end with a P8, P5, or unisons.

I'll do what you said about writing a new bass.

EDIT: Here it is.

t -

1) My apologies about adding an unnecessary rule. I think my ear just wasn't attuned to the emphasis on the dominant. So, you are correct.

2) The bass line you wrote is great and the best line so far. Good variety, sense of direction and the counterpoint is fine!

Thanks for being such a good sport!

Okay, here's my take on all the assignments. The first and second part (line one) is a Cantus Firmus taken from Jeppesen, first in the lower voice, then the upper. The third is the phrygian challenge. I chose D as the bass tone, as it's a fifth under the A. This breaks with the rule that the lower voice should always contain the root note of the mode, but in this case, following that rule would result in a fourth interval, so it's really a moot point.

So sorry I did not respond sooner.

First off good work - good melodic contours and direction. Only two things to consider/correct -

1) Look carefully around msr 7 and 8 you approach an octave in similar motion and violate on fot eh rules.

2) Msr 5 and 6 are correct but I think the 8 5 8 is not the best choice. Just something to keep in mind that in 2 voice ctrpt you have to avoid too many alterations of octaves and P5s - tends to diminish the feel of independent lines,

Overall, excellent work.

Well, let me know if I did this right.
I am not completely sure..

Edit: corrected!

I think the only truly wrong thing is bar 8, where you exceed the allowed range, although bars 9-11 have a few nasty parallel motion things.

Hey Composerorganist,

Just wanted to pat you on the back for this wonderful work you do here! And you are so gentle with the students, a very good personality trait!

All the best,
Janno

Dead Chicken - Good work -- see it wasn't that hard! I love the contours of your melody and how well you kept to the rules, despite your initial trepidation.

OK, M is D mentioned two points which I want to clarify and mention another:

1) Now M - D's comment about range is a great point to discuss. For instrumental music the high C is fine, for vocal, possible, but you are very near the limit and only for a very, very good choir. Even so, if this were a choral piece the high C would have to be prepared slowly - stepwise motion before leaping to that note. Just things to keep in mind. However, for this exercise, your high C in msr 8 is allowable, especially as I never disallowed or set the range. Thanks M _ D.

2) Now, you have only ONE case of parallel octaves. Check around msrs 9 - 10. Recall it is best to avoid SIMILAR motion to octaves and 5ths. See where that happens and correct it.

3) Last, you must start your melody on the tonic or dominant note of the scale (in our case C or G). Again, I may not have been clear about this but this is common 16th century practice (as well as 17th, 18th, and most of 19th century). SO the E in your first measure is not allowed.

So, msr 1 and somewhere aroung msr 9-10 you need to fix two small errors. After that transpose the bass I gave to the treble register and write a new bass according to the rules.

Janno - Ah, thank you very much. But the pleasure is all mine, I learn alot from everyone who has aparticipated in this thread.

Okay,
I did the next assignment (New baseline), I brought it up one octave to keep it more comfortably in the 'middle' range. I felt a little more at ease knowing what to do this time around. Hopefully I did it right.

EDIT: Uploaded a corrected fist assignment in my original post.