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

This info is taken from Jeppeson's Counterpoint book. This is a summary the rules he gives for writing 16th century counterpoint for 2 voices in 1 specie.

First species is just a fancy way of saying one note against another.

The exercises in first species only deal with whole notes. Why? So you can focus on the intervallic and melodic relations first.

RULES FOR FIRST SPECIES


Melody:

1) All perfect major and minor intervals UP to the FIFTH are allowed to ascend or descend. Also, octave skips ascending and descending are allowed.

2) Major and Minor 6th are allowed only to ascend

3) If the interval does not fall in rule 1) or 2) it is forbidden

Counterpoint (eg note against note rules)

1) Consonances are allowed only. They are - P5, P8, maj and min 3rd and 6ths. Note - 4ths are considered dissonances.

2) You must begin and end with a P8, P5, or unisons

3) Unisons are allowed only for the first and last note.

4) Parallel fifths and octaves are forbidden. Best way to avoid these is to AVOID APPROACHING a fifth or octave in SIMILIAR motion - that is both voices moving to the P5 or P8. Ex; the minor third interval e-g to the P5 a-e, or P5 a-e to P5 g-d are illegal - the first is called "hidden fifths" as parallel fifths are implied, the second is just parallel fifths.

5) No more than 4 consecutive 3rd or 6ths. Four is pushing it and anything more destroys any sense of independent line

6) Parts skipping in the same direction - do not go beyond a P4. Ocassional skip of both parts by a P8 is OK. The reason is the same as Rule 5)

Additional Rules

1) No accidentals for first species. Stick with the tones of the mode for this species.

2) Repeated and tied notes are not allowed

Exercise

1) Write a soprano line in whole notes against the bass line - one against the bass note. Use as your bass line the following notes: start on C, ascend to E, F, G, then descend to E, ascend to A, descend G, E, ascend to F, descend to E, D, to end on C. This bass line moves at most up a 4th ( A to E).

The scale is the Ionian mode, tonic C, which is today known as the C Major scale.


PS. I am not providing the WHY to all of this due to lack of space. Anyway, as you try this exercise you will learn some of the reasons for these rules.


Enjoy and good luck!

An interesting exercise.

Modern ears are used to less strict rules so you have to let your eye do most of the checking but I think I have followed all the rules. The ending on the fifth seems odd but it has an "early music" feel if a little plodding because of the lack of rhythmic variety.

I wasn't sure if accidentals were allowed in the melody or not - I didn't use any. I put the interval under the bass line.

Euler - Excellent job. Yes, the ending on the fifth does sound very early music - esp in 2 parts. As you get to 3 parts or more, the third fills in the fifth to create a complete triad.

Let me applaud three especially fine things -

1) Measures 4 & 5 -- Everyone please look at this wonderful model of voice exchange! Voice Exchange simply means that one voice echoes the others pitch in the following beat. in Euler's case, in msr 4 the bass note is echoed by the treble and the treble note echoed by the bass in msr 5. Voice exchange is important as it is the contrapuntal basis of chordal inversions. This is a great technique to employ time to time.

2) Msrs 9 - 12 is very adept - note how he uses parallel motion of 6ths and then counters it with contrary motion.

3) Notice how he approaches 5ths with contrary motion.

Two small corrections -

1) You incorrectly labeled one of your intervals (note - Euler reduced the compound intervals to their smallest size for ease). Go through your exercise and please check the accuracy of your interval identification.

2) You have one error in your melody. Recall the rule - all Perfect, Major and Minor intervals to the 5th are allowed as well as the octave to ascend or descend. That means P5, P4, maj3 min 3, maj2, min2, P8. Also ascending maj or min 6ths are allowed. So, please identify where the melodic motion is incorrect and why.

Overall, great job Euler. Is this your first time doing this?

There.

Voce -

Very good job and quite a beautiful, expressive melody up until the rest. Also, excellent job avoiding parallel 5ths.

I will allow the repeated G in the melody -- but it is advised to have one or none at all.

I reviewed your exercises one MORE time. I now understand -- you did two exercises in two different modes - I failed to read the heading properly. Per our discussion, don't worry about changing mode nor the parallel octaves I mentioned as I miread initially your exercise. The error I did catch in your second exercise is an illegal interval between the voices -- check after msr 17, hint - you mislabeled it as a P5.

PS. In the future, I recommend you use the bass line I give. Appreciate your creativitiy and adventuresomeness though. Also, in real life this is important. Imagine you are providing harmony in a jazz trio and decide not to follow the bassline or chords given -- your fellow musicians will be very upset (and if they are green it will sound like a train wreck!)

I've amended the files.

The 3rd last bar had an octave named as a fifth - a curious error. I was doing a lot of experimenting - I should have kept more versions.

The melody had an augmented fourth from bar 6 to bar 7 fixed by a flat on the B in bar 7 to make it perfect.

Yes, I have done some counterpoint before but not with the extra 16th century rules. Avoiding augmented intervals in the melody is a rule I see in my small text on elementary counterpoint now that I have consulted it.

A more interesting exercise than one might think at first glance.

Euler -

The B flat is an excellent solution. If you listen to alot of Rennaissance music you hear composers use this to solve the illegal tritone in 2 voices.

To make the exercise harder (and Jeppeson does this in his text), what would you do if I disallowed accidentals? In other words you are restricted to the Ionian on C scale only.

Originally Posted by composerorganist

Euler -

To make the exercise harder (and Jeppeson does this in his text), what would you do if I disallowed accidentals? In other words you are restricted to the Ionian on C scale only.

The easy solution is to descend from Bb to G as then there will be contrary motion through this octave.

But I think moving the Bb up to a D giving a P5 and then moving the next note down to G giving a 3rd (and contrary motion entering and leaving the P5) gives a better sound - it seems to group the 12 bars into three 4-bar phrases.

Euler - Ah,I like how you are observing the rules but finding ways to make it musical. Also, I like how you reduce the SENSE of parallel motion. This creates a more sinuous contour and contributes to the improvement of the melodic phrase. Bravo.

Want to address the above and another observation you made Euler. You said that as modern ears are used to greater liberties in counterpoint you have to use your eyes to check your work. Well, please use your ears too! This exercise can serve as a quick sight-singing/ear training exercise. Sing the bass line, sing your treble and then eventually sing one line as you play the other. Ensure you sing relaxed with a quiet enough tone so you can hear that you are matching the pitch.

As for youe other observation, one could do this exercise by writing alternating rising or falling octaves or fifths much of the time but the results would be dull - that is the line would seem to be going in one direction (or with fifths just meandering aound) with intermittent distractions. So keep in mind that excessive alternation of octaves and fifths can make your counterpoint static and uninteresting too. Unfortunately there is no fast hard rule reagrding this -- need to use your ears.

NEXT CHALLENGE (again from Jeppeson)

Now, Euler or anybody else, try the opposite. Write a bass for the following soprano line:

Start on E descend to A, ascend B, C, D, E, F descend to D, ascend to G, descend to F and then to E. The largest skip in this soprano line is the descent of a 5th. The mode used is E Phrygian - do ra me fa sol la te do, (ra = flat 2, me = flat 3, te = flat 7). Or the white keys from E to E on the piano.

EXTRA CHALLENGE -This time NO accidentals allowed -- use only the tones of E Phyrgian scale.

PS. For those familiar with solfege I am using movable do. Please correct me if I misspelled any of the solfege tones.

All right, I'll bite.

I stuck to Jeppesen's recommendation of keeping the voices within a tenth of each other. This jumpy bass part isn't the most melodic imaginable, but I rather like its internal symmetry and a bartoky character that becomes more evident if you play it fast and percussively...

I can't remember how to make Lilypond generate MIDI, so I can only hope the judge can read music.